I’m about to tell you something very uncomfortable and very awkward. I promise you’ll understand (Father walks to the rear of the church and returns carrying a basket above his head). Here it is. Yeah, that’s right, groan. Something a priest never wants to talk about (money).
I was praying with the gospel, and I like to imagine myself in the scene. When it got to the part about Jesus sitting by the treasury, he sat down. He looked at the collection basket, and he observed everyone who gave. I was sitting next to him, and I said, “Jesus, that’s kind of awkward. I don’t think you should do that.” And he said, “No, just watch. I want you to watch.” In my mind, I saw all these different people giving. Then this poor widow came, she took a couple coins, and put them into the basket. He looked at me and he said, “Do you see what she did? She gave all that she had.” When I looked at Jesus, I said, “I want to be like her. I want to be like her. I want to give everything that I have to you.” He holds up this image of this woman and one of the greatest idolatries that we have of money. He is revealing a great principle, and the principle that he’s revealing is the people that seem to be the most generous in our world are those that are most poor. Fascinating really.
I’ve been to Africa a number of times and El Salvador a number of times, and when I’m with the poorest of the poor I’m always blown away by their generosity. They’ll invite me into their homes, and they’ll tell their kids to go get a soda for the priest because they’re so excited. They’ll give beyond what they have to give. I want to be like that.
There are five precepts of the church. This is going kind of old school, but I think we all should know them. First of all, I was trying to remember for the homily, but this might help you, too. I think of it by the acronym, “Scraps”, S-C-R-A-P-S. Scraps are like the little things that we throw away, the scrap left over after we’re done working. Scrap is a little bit. So, these are the five precepts of the church. The first one is, we’ll see if anybody knows. Anybody know the first precept of the church? Oh man, we’ve got to go back to Baltimore Catechism. The first precept of the church is, “S”, Sunday. Keep holy the Sabbath. The first precept is to go to Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation. Now I want you to keep in mind, “Scraps” is the bare minimum, “Scraps”. Go to go to Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation. Second, confess your sins at least once a year. The third one is kind of odd because we do this more often, “Receive communion at least once a year, so that’s the Easter duty. “A” is to give alms and to do our fasting. During Lent we do abstaining, fasting and alms giving. Then the fifth is, hint, hint, not muddy. That doesn’t start with P (chuckles). No. Provide for the needs of the church. The fifth precept of the church, provide for the needs of the church. I was thinking that it’s a precept, it’s like the bare minimum. All five of these we should do more, but the bare minimum of the fifth one is, provide for the needs of the church. In the catechism it has a little parentheses, and it says, “To each according to one’s own ability.” Very good.
This church was founded in 1988, is that right? I’m so bad with math. ’86? 1980? Oh, that’s right, a year after I was born. What year was this church built? We’ve got ‘86, ‘87, ‘88, somewhere around there. Nobody knows for sure. Where’s our historian, where’s Florence? There she is, what year? ’86? We’ll go around there. In 1980, you were at Green Valley, and ‘86 you came here, and this church was built. You had nothing. This church was built by your generosity, by your offering, by your sweat and labor. I know some of you literally built this church. Then, it was renovated in what year? ‘97 is when we got it looking like this. Remember we used to face that way? In 1997, this was renovated.
I think why Jesus was so impressed with this woman, too, was that she gave because she loved God. She wanted to honor God by providing for the needs of this temple. I want to be like her. My hope is, too, that all of us want to be like that. Traditionally in scripture, tithing is something that is talked about. Tithing is giving 10% of everything that we have. Now, I want you to keep in mind, this is no hard, fast rule. The catechism says according to your own needs. So, whatever you can do, but think about that. Do I give 10% of my time, talent, and treasure to God? I want you to think about that for yourself and remember that that’s like the bare minimum. Some of the Diocese encourage, not only will they encourage 10%, but 5% to your actual parish and then 5% to some other charity.
On this Sunday, I just want to talk about this awkward subject. I also want to talk about it with great joy. I want to be like Jesus, looking at you. I’m not going to look at you during this collection, I promise. But I want to look at you and say, “Wow, I can’t believe how generous that person is. I can’t believe that they were willing to give of everything to the Lord. Willing to give their own life. Willing to give their own resources. They loved him so much, that they wanted to provide for the needs of the church.”
I invite you just for a moment, after this homily, to think about that. To ask God for a generous heart and to be like that woman, to be willing to give even from our poverty, to be willing to give our all.
