Sure you're chuckling, but don't we all act as if there are some things we just can't live without? Doesn't our society teach us that smart, sensible people always keep a certain amount of money in the bank, invest in stocks, have cushy IRAs, and don't give money away unless they know the person and he or she is worthy and can pay them back with interest? Don't some of us find our deepest security in knowing those financial numbers?
Most of us have attics and/or cellars loaded with stuff that we don't or rarely use any more that could really be given away. I know I do. Yet again, society tells us that junk is the very thing we should be getting rid of in garage sales so we can make some money. And there's nothing wrong with making money from our junk, if we really need to do so. But, in some cases, can we even find it in ourselves to sell or give some of our things away - or are the things that we own connected to us by an emotional umbilical cord?
All of us, to some degree, find our identities in things. I myself have had times when I didn't want to go to a wedding and felt insecure because I wasn't wearing the "right" clothing, or I didn't want friends to see my house because my furniture was shabby. Yet, to paraphrase Jesus, isn't the wedding more important than clothing? Aren't the friends more important than shabby furniture? If we're spending a lot of money to buy ourselves a "perfect social identity", we have forgotten that people are more important than possessions. A simple lifestyle simplifies our emotional and intellectual priorities so that we can focus on what is really important in life.
Lent is a good time to look at our emotional connection with our money and our possessions. Lent is a season that reminds us that we are called by God to give alms, to freely give away some of our money and some of our possessions. Alms giving can teach us that WE ARE NOT WHAT WE OWN OR DON'T OWN. Giving freely, without charge, and voluntarily is "gratuitous giving," and, more than individual acts, it is the true generous lifestyle that God calls us to choose to embrace.
"Today, gratuitousness is often not part of daily life where everything is bought and sold, everything is calculated and measured. Alms giving helps us to experience giving freely, which leads to freedom from the obsession of possessing, from the fear of losing what we have, from the sadness of one who does not wish to share his wealth with others." (Pope Francis.)
Not only giving alms is important for our spiritual well-being; HOW we give alms is important. Jesus taught us "When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogue and in the streets to win the praise of others. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But, when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your alms giving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you."
Jesus is using exaggeration here to make a point. Not letting one hand know what the other is doing is Jesus' way of saying that our egos shouldn't be involved when we share our money and/or our possessions - we aren't doing it to win applause, but to act justly and mercifully. It pains me today when I hear leaders of cash-strapped charitable organizations trying to think up creative ways to publicize and "sell" gift-giving or trying to think up something to give away to entice people to give: we'll put your name on this project; we'll publicize your generosity in the media. Or - if you give to the Food Bank, we'll give you a ticket to enter in a contest. Why should we need these kinds of ego-stroking and freebies to get us to share the good things we've been given?
This saying also reminds me that if my left hand doesn't know what my right hand is doing, I'm free to be spontaneous in my giving. Mother Teresa suggests that we give until it hurts. If we have our giving organized to the last dime, we aren't free to respond to the present moment, to the person in front of us. The Good Samaritan had his activities organized for the day, yet he chose to give his time and money spontaneously when he saw the wounded Jew - his "enemy" - lying beaten and bleeding in the road in front of him. His ability to be spontaneous came from an inner attitude of caring for other human beings, whether they were friends or enemies.
And so our inner attitude in alms giving should be that of love for equals - love for others who, by virtue of their humanity, are deserving, who by virtue of their status as sons and daughters of God, are lovable in their vulnerability. Knowing and believing that others' "worthiness" resides in their humanity and their status as God's children impels us to see our moral responsibility to work to end injustice. Our political attitudes need to mirror the Gospel emphasis on prioritizing the needs of those who are more vulnerable than we are. Henry Ford, American industrialist and pioneer of the assembly-line production method, said famously "It is easy to give alms; it is better to work to make the giving of alms unnecessary."
Sometimes we can't feel this deep connection to others unless we meet them. I'll never forget the time Paul and I visited a young woman and her Grandmother and saw a hole in the living room floor. Friends have spoken of the need for cans of stew and chili in Food Pantries because they've seen the poor living in places where they have no stoves or microwaves, nothing to cook or heat up a meal. One of our Churches has been offering overnight housing to the homeless who are sleeping under viaducts in sub-zero temperatures. How much financial disaster, how much drastic illness, would it take in our lives to cause us to lose our homes, apartments, cars, jobs? Be unable to pay our bills?
Pope Francis says "In the poor and outcast, we see Christ's face; by loving and helping the poor, we love and serve Christ. Our efforts are also directed to ending violations of human dignity, discrimination and abuse in the world, for these are so often the cause of destitution. When power, luxury, and money become idols, they take priority over the need to be converted to justice, equality, simplicity, and sharing."
No one can tell any of us how or how much we should be sharing when we give alms. But, the more we trust God as being Love Itself, the more we know that God will never be outdone in generosity, the freer we will be to go beyond our comfort levels in sharing. As the late, greatly missed, iconic Leonard Nimoy said, "The miracle is this: the more we share, the more we have."