How much is
enough?
We love people
Occasionally
we
even give them some money ... or clothes that we no longer want and
would not be caught dead in; gifts (the least expensive possible,
or better yet, those that had been given us that we consider useless
or worthless and save for the occasion when a gift will be required
of us ... or which we were ready to throw out anyway).
We give them
much advice — in this regard we are unstinting and most generous.
We are less
generous with our time; we express appropriate sadness and compassion
but we invest nothing of ourselves in it; we are quick to empathize
but quicker still to forget ... and we assiduously avoid the deeply
needy.
We write out
checks, tear them off and post them to some poor child in an impoverished
country — and never remember their name ... only the deep, almost
sensual sense of satisfaction that we are so good, so
generous, so loving of ... “what’s her name ...?”
We give far,
far less of ourselves, for that is the most valuable commodity
of all ...
Even ...
even if we give extravagantly of our money, generously in
our time, amply of ourselves — the Saints and Church Fathers remind
us of the greatest gift of all (and it is not ourselves
... sorry): The gift of God.
We hear an echo of this in St. Paul:
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“And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the
poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned,
and have not love, it profits me nothing.”
(I Cor. 13.3)
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We keep
our money from the poor at the peril of our souls (and we
all have excuses ...), we give our refuse to Christ
when we toss our useless clothing to the poor; we give “wise”
counsel to the needy, but no bread. In a rare paroxysm of magnanimity
we even give ourselves!
But do
we give God? Do we give Him Who is most necessary
to us, Who loves us above the loves of all others? We are made
in His image. We can. We can be the face,
the hand, the voice, of Jesus Christ to our brother, our sister,
needy or not – all cry out for Him in the dark watches of the
nights that leach into our lives from every shadow ... sickness,
loneliness, grief, death ...
Your money,
your clothing, your checks, will never bring them solace ...
they will only find it in the face of God ... and you alone
can bring it.
Imagine
... you can!
The two words — Jesus Christ
— are the most beautiful
in the world! And you are ashamed to utter them
... to give God to the world...? Jesus spoke of those
who are ashamed of Him in this world ... or perhaps you have
forgotten?
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“For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words, of him
will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His
glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”
(St.
Luke 9.26)
"Whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him
before My Father in Heaven.”
(St. Matthew 10.33)
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Quite a sobering thought — no? In fact, it should literally
“scare
the Hell out of you!”
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
Printable PDF
Version
Totally Faithful to the Sacred
Deposit of Faith entrusted to the Holy See in
Rome
“Scio
opera tua ... quia modicum habes virtutem, et servasti
verbum Meum, nec non negasti Nomen Meum”
“I
know your works ... that you have but little power,
and yet you have kept My word, and have not denied My
Name.”
(Apocalypse 3.8)
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