Episode Transcript  

One

The Good of Money and the Threat of Avarice

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, "No one can serve two masters... You cannot serve both God and money." Most of us immediately think, "That isn't me. I am not a slave to money.” I don’t know but I am willing to bet lots of people confess pride, envy, anger, lust, eating too much, drinking too much. I bet hardly anyone says, “Father, I have sinned by greed.” I don’t think anyone thinks they suffer from greed. Other people do, but not us. Yet Jesus would never have given this warning unless He knew how easily money can become our master.

Greed is the disordered love of money and the stuff you can get with money. So what is its antidote? In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells us: by almsgiving.

Very clearly, the best practice you can do to counteract greed is to give alms. It’s to donate money to something from supernatural motivations

Two

Preoccupation with Money and Stuff

Most people don’t think they’re greedy. Most people would say they don’t have a disordered love of money, or of stuff. But actually, if push came to shove, they’d probably admit that they are often preoccupied with money, or your physical stuff. And what you’re preoccupied with actually shows what you love, what you care about, because being preoccupied means you spend a lot of time thinking about something. And our culture is super-preoccupied with money.

We think of money as the measure of our success. Money is how most people think of their whole education, because they think of education as preparation for finding a good career, which is code for, a job that pays enough money. We’re preoccupied with our car payments, our mortgage payments, our medical payments, our home renovation payments. We want to be sure we’ll have enough money for our kids’ schools, or our kids’ weddings, or our own retirements. And we definitely worry we will outlive our money and to whom and how will give our money after we are dead. Many of us vote based primarily on “the economy,” which means how much we have to pay in taxes, or how expensive gas is, or what the rate of inflation is.

That means that many of us act as though the biggest issue facing our nation is: money. Not immorality, or godlessness, but money.

The point is we often act like money is the most important thing in our lives, individually and corporately. Maybe that’s why Christ explicitly reminded us that we can’t serve both God and money.

So what can we do to show that we do, actually, value God more than money?

Three

Do something to show that you Don’t actually need more money

Our most fundamental problems never stem from not having enough money. And the truth is, most of us actually don’t need more money. We need more God. So God has given us an opportunity to show that, as a matter of fact, we don’t need more money. Everybody thinks they do. Everybody talks like they do. They say, “We’re barely making it here. We’re just hand to mouth, right on the edge.” But really, that’s not true. Almost nobody who says that is actually malnourished, or homeless. The people in this culture who constantly complain about money have four walls and a roof over their heads, they have the internet, and they’re more likely to be overweight than starving.

So we don’t need more money. And we show that we aren’t slaves to money, that we don’t base our hopes on money, that the desire for money doesn’t dominate us, when we voluntarily give some of our money away. When we give alms we make it clear that money is not our salvation or our security or our basis for self-satisfaction.

Christ says, “You have to choose: which is more important to you? Me, or money?” And the only way you can actually make that choice in practice is by almsgiving. And the more generous you are with almsgiving, the more clearly you make the right choice.

Four

Giving to the Church and to the Poor

Almsgiving is where you choose between Christ and money, and where you choose rightly. You choose Christ over money when you give your money to Christ. And how do you give your money to Christ? Well, there were two groups Christ identified Himself with. He identified Himself with the Church (remember when He said to St. Paul, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”) And He identified Himself with the poor (remember when He said, “Whenever you did it to the least of my brothers, you did it for Me.”)

So give to the Church, and to those organizations who work for the mission of the Church. And give to the poor, and to those organizations who really serve the poor, whether those poor in body or poor in mind. Free yourself from the slavery of greed, and the anxiety of money, so that you can be at peace with God, and joyful in the good things He has given to all of us.

Five

The primary reason to give alms is to give yourself to Jesus in return for all He has given to us.

We miss the whole point when we think the primary reason we  give our money to the Church or the poor is to bring about some good for the Church or the poor. That is not the primary reason we give our money. We give our money because our money represents ourselves. And we want to give ourselves to Jesus. And as we just said, Jesus has identified Himself with the Church and the poor, so when we give them we give to Him. 

It is wonderful if the money we give also produces some great results. But that is not the primary reason we give. The gift of our money is a way we actually give ourselves to God and break the power of greed in our lives. If we fail to give of our money it’s one way we say to God, “No, I won’t give myself to you.” And greed reigns.

According to Scripture, which means according to God we should be giving 10%. A good formula is 4% to your parish, 1% to the Diocese and 5% to other organizations that take care of the poor. Are you giving 10%?

If you enjoyed this meditation, subscribe below.