Almsgiving

For the beginning of chapter 6, I thought I'd jump around a bit. The beginning of Matthew 6 is the Ash Wednesday Gospel reading, so it's fitting that we approach the three topics of chapter 6: Almsgiving, Fasting, and Prayer, as we prepare to celebrate the season of Lent, in which the Church stresses greater spiritual devotion and good works, a time of getting right with God. Hopefully, then, really understanding these topics will help Lent to have a more dynamic impact on us. This post we'll talk about Almsgiving. We'll skip over to Fasting in the next one, and conclude with Prayer just as Lent begins.

Matthew 6:1-4, 19-20

'Be careful not to parade your uprightness in public to attract attention; otherwise you will lose all reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give alms, do not have it trumpeted before you; this is what the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win human admiration. In truth I tell you, they have had their reward. But when you give alms, your left hand must not know what your right is doing; your almsgiving must be in secret, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you...

'Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moth and woodworm destroy them and thieves can break in and steal. But store up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor woodworm destroys them and thieves cannot break in and steal. For wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be too.'

When Jesus taught us about being Salt and Light, He was telling us to boldly live out our faith and be an example to the world. Now, however, He seems to be reversing that idea, and telling us to do our good works in secret. It seems somewhat contradictory, so what is Jesus really saying?

Jesus is not contradicting Himself, and He does want us to be obvious in our faith-life. But here, Jesus is not talking about that. Rather, He is talking about hypocricy. Like His discussion of the Deeper Law at the end of Chapter 5, Jesus is teaching us about our motives. In fact, the beginning of Chapter 6 is really the continuation to the discussion of chapter 5. When Jesus began talking about living out the Law, His examples were all of a negative variety: Don't murder; Don't commit adultery, etc. However, in chapter 6, Jesus now turns His attention to the positive requirements of the Law, or the Do's. But His point remains the same. The religious people of His time all knew the importance of giving alms, fasting, and prayer. It was so important, in fact, that the "really religious" would actually show off their good works, in order that people would laud them and they'd come off looking pretty darn terrific. Condemning this activity, Jesus claims that human acclamation is all the reward that these people will ever get for their "good works," and that all the spiritual benefit that should come from giving to the poor is nullified.

When Jesus tells us that we should give to the poor "in secret", He is not suggesting that we go out in the dead of night, cloak-and-dagger, in order to give. Rather, He is saying to us that when we give, when we meet the needs of others, we should just do it because they need help, we can help, and God wants us to help. That's all there is to it. It's not about who sees or who doesn't see. It's about how much or how little we care that people see. It's about being obvious, not pretentious. And He promises that God will reward those who honour Him this way. How? Verses 19-21 have the key. It is in almsgiving that we understand that our treasure is not here, but we lay up treasure in Heaven. Jesus here is alluding to Tobit 4:4-11:

'My child, be faithful to the Lord all your days. Never entertain the will to sin or to transgress His laws. Do good works all the days of your life, never follow ways that are not upright; for if you act in truthfulness, you will be successful in all your actions, as everyone is who practises what is upright.
'Set aside part of your goods for almsgiving. Never turn your face from the poor and God will never turn His from you. Measure your alms by what you have; if you have much, give more; if you have little, do not be afraid to give less in alms. So doing, you will lay up for yourself a great treasure for the day of necessity. For almsgiving delivers from death and saves people from passing down to darkness. Almsgiving is a most effective offering for all those who do it in the presence of the Most High.'

A great example of one who lived out the unity of being obvious and humble about her faith is Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta--a woman who gave up everything in order to minister to those most in need in India. Someone who gives up everything like that is bound to attract attention, and she did. But she didn't seek it. In fact, more often than not, she avoided it. She didn't serve the poor in order to win the Nobel Peace Prize (though they gave it to her), but because these people needed someone to love them--and in their faces, she saw the Face of Christ. When people tried to give glory to her, she deflected it to Jesus Christ.

That's precisely what Jesus is talking about in Matthew chapter 6.

Our Youth Ministry has been invited to participate in a wonderful outreach, in order to practice almsgiving on a dynamically large scale, by participating in the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace's program, "ThinkFast." The Chaplain at St. Ignatius of Loyola has invited us to join them as they do it from 3 pm March 3 to 3 pm March 4. If you don't know what ThinkFast is, it's raising money for D&P, so that they can send it to help countries that are afflicted with starvation, lack of clean water, or other injustices, so that permanent social change can be implemented. At the same time, we'll be fasting for 24 hours in solidarity with those who are starving for much, much longer periods. More, ThinkFast involves fun, learning, and worship throughout the night, and will end with a multicultural potluck on Saturday.

If you want to participate, please let me know!

God bless!