Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Fr. Anthony Brankin
Every October—on one of the Sundays, I ask our parishioners to increase their Sunday offering. In a phrase— to give a little more money in their Sunday envelope. This year, the Archdiocese has asked if we could do this for three Sundays in a row. So today I will lay out a spiritual foundation for why we give. And then next Sunday, Al Canaveral, the Chairman of our Parish Finance Council, will give some indications about giving, from a parishioners viewpoint. The third Sunday I will return to talk about some of our particular needs. Please be patient.
Anyway—one night a few years ago I was riding home in the car, and I was flipping around the radio dial looking for something interesting, and I heard a very pleasant voice on a Protestant Radio station who talked about his show on “God’s Financial Principles”. Whoa! I had never heard of “God’s Financial Principles” before. I did not even know there was such a thing. So I listened for awhile and I learned that someone had gone over the Bible with a fine tooth comb, and they found every passage where money and wealth and finances were discussed and decided that Sacred Scripture contains a whole system and theology about money that tells us that if we give extravagantly to the church— we can ensure wealth for ourselves.
God’s Financial Principles
When you get right down to it, “God’s Financial Principles” boils down to—if you give God money (meaning the Church) then God will give you money. And why will God make you wealthy? Because He is showing you how much He loves you—and you show Him how much you love Him by giving Him your money. It’s kind of a win-win—God makes money—you make money. But it is difficult to accept that it all revolves around Money. This is called the Gospel of Wealth—and it really is not Catholic. In fact, it is right out of John Calvin, John Knox and the Reformation. This Gospel of Wealth leads people to believe that having money—being wealthy—is a sign that God loves you and that is why He is taking care of you. It implies, as well, that if you don’t have money, if you are poor or sick or suffering, you have only yourself to blame for you condition. You obviously don’t love God enough—because you don’t give enough money to God.
But really is this what it is all about? Faith and religion? Is this why God gave us the Bible? To teach us how we can make our businesses successful and our bank accounts large? We go to heaven by climbing up a pile of money? Of course not. The Bible was written to tell us how we lost heaven through the sin of Adam and Eve—and how the Gates of Heaven were re-opened through the Cross of Christ. It is actually that simple. God really does not care if we are rich or poor. God does not care if our businesses and finances are successful or not. He really doesn’t. Of course, He doesn’t want us to be poor or suffering, and He does work miracles—to heal us and help us— and we must pray and pray always for everything we need—but most often he does allow us to suffer. You know it and I know it—God allows us to suffer—He allows us to be poor—But in doing so He gives us the opportunity to understand that there is more to this life than riches and success—or even health.
What God most often—and most profitably—does for us is spiritual and supernatural. He strengthens our souls in the midst of our difficulties so that we may see how God brings redemption out of our pain and poverty. And in turn He asks us—fortified by Faith and Grace—to help the poor, comfort the ill, feed the hungry and clothe the naked. God does all this so that after a life of sacrificial virtue we can go to heaven.
Biblical secrets
There is no Biblical secret to earthly success and wealth. Gods only Financial Principal is “Thou shalt not steal.” The Christian life is not about business success—it is about going to heaven—and to get to heaven we have to get down on our hands and knees and we do what we can to help ourselves and help those who are in need. And yes—that is what we as members of the Church—as Disciples of Christ—as Apostles of Jesus do—and that takes money. That’s why we have collections—and even second collections. That’s why we ask for money—and sometimes ask for more money. If our brothers and sisters are sick or wounded, we care for them. That’s what we do—and most importantly we give them Jesus—by word and example. We teach them and tell them that Jesus loves them—even if they are poor and despised and sick and lonely and hungry—and that God will save them if they just love Him and come to Him. That’s all.
We don’t give money to take care of ourselves—but to take care of each other—by taking care of that which God has given us—our faith—our churches our people—our poor ones. And we don’t worry about it. We use what money we have—and then we ask for more and we do what we have to do. This is called Stewardship. We take care of our buildings in which we worship God and in which we teach God’s children—And we take care of heating bills and electric bills and pay salaries to staff members who have families . We don’t use faith and good deeds—or even the Sunday collection—as a means to get money—but we use money—even the Sunday Collection—as a means to spread the Faith and perform holy deeds.
Some of our parishioners are poor and some are rich—but that doesn’t mean anything to God. If we are rich we carry the poor—and if we are poor—we carry those who are even poorer. I will never say that if you are generous with the Church that God will bless you. If you give God money He will give you money. That is dishonest, I will never say that. Nor will you ever hear me talk about “God’s Financial Principals”. There is only one Principal for God—that we love—first God and Jesus and the Virgin Mary, and then we love each other. And God in return promises us—not health and wealth and success, but salvation.