The 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
November 10, 2013
Listen to this homily (mp3 file)
I have to be honest with you and tell you that my heart sank when I looked over
the readings for today’s Mass! I knew I had to talk to you about
Sacrificial Giving today and I was hoping I’d get a little help from the
readings. Maybe, if I was lucky, I’d get something like the story of the
widow’s mite, or the rich young man, or the camel and the eye of the needle.
But no, instead, I get readings from the Book of Maccabees and Luke’s Gospel
that aren’t only not helpful, they’re enough to make a preacher run the other
way! I mean, I failed to see how those brave Maccabee brothers who
held fast to their religious convictions to the end, refusing to defile
themselves by eating pork, were going to help me talk to you about your Sunday
giving. And the same is true for those cagey Sadducees in the gospel who
tried to trap Jesus on a contentious point of religious doctrine.
However, a light did come on for me when I realized
that both those readings have to do with resurrection -- belief or lack of
belief in the resurrection of the dead, belief or lack of belief in a life after
this one. Which, of course, raises questions about how we are to view and
value things in this life since there is a life yet to come. And that’s
not a bad lead-in to talking about sacrificial giving, if you think of it.
It’s easy to live our lives according to the gospel of
this life only, the gospel of the here-and-now. It’s a gospel centered more on
me than on others, a gospel centered more on things than on people--a gospel of
more is better: more money, more things, more acquisitions, more security for me
and for my future. More. Always more!
And that, my friends, is a problem because our
Christian faith, as you well know, is rooted in a gospel where selfishness
really has no place; a gospel that believes that this life, while good and
blessed and a wonderful gift from God, is not God’s ultimate gift to us.
And that’s a belief that should color our attitude toward things and toward
money. You’ve heard the little saying -- I’ve used before (and so has Pope
Francis, so I’m in good company) --it goes, “You never see a U-Haul trailer
behind a hearse!” A clever reminder to get our priorities straight now, to
be generous now with what we have because “you can’t take it with you…!”
Now, to be honest, no matter how important, talking to
you about your giving is not my favorite thing. Not by a long shot. Happily, you
make it pretty easy for me. You do. You are people of faith who love this
parish, and you want it to continue to be a beacon on the hill, a place where
God is glorified in beautiful liturgies, where people grow in their
understanding of their faith, and where the poor and their needs are always
front-and-center.
And so I come today asking you to renew your annual
sacrificial giving pledge and, if possible, even to increase it. I say
this to all of you, but I especially say it to those of you whose level of
giving is simply not in proportion to your means, and I also say it to those of
you who are on autopilot -- giving pretty much at the same level year after year
when you could do more; and I say it in a very special way to those of you who
may drop something in the basket when it comes by but who never plan your giving
and never make a commitment to give.
If you read our Annual Report, you know that these are
challenging times for our parish. More and more people are turning to us for
help. They come to our Cathedral Kitchen for food – hundreds of them, day after
day. They come for shelter and we welcome them; they come to learn a new
language in a new land and to adjust to a new culture and we reach out to them
through our wonderful Immigrant Assistance (formerly ESL) Program; and they come
for companionship, counsel, guidance, and encouragement. They never stop coming
– nor should they!
I need to remind you, too, that this past year, in
response to what you told us in a parish survey, we expanded our parish
ministries. We took on an important new ministry to families and we also took on
exciting new ministries for our teenage and our young adult parishioners. The
costs of these ministries are considerable, but the benefits are more than worth
it. And I am confident we can meet the costs and even cover a mounting
deficit. All that is required is for everyone to do his or her part and for the
more financially able among us to step up and give even more generously to make
up for those who simply cannot give, or cannot give much.
Let me share with you a letter I received from a
parishioner. The letter was brief and contained a generous check. “I used
to think this was my money,” he wrote, “but it isn’t. It’s really God’s.
And God’s money needs to be used for God’s work.” There was a PS: “No
acknowledgment is necessary. I try not to let the left hand know what the
right is doing.” And I thought to myself, there’s someone who gets
sacrificial giving!
My friends, sacrificial giving means giving in faith.
For some that means a few dollars, for others, it means hundreds, for still
others, it means thousands. The sacrifice is what counts. If it
costs you to give – really costs you – then your gift will be worthy of you and,
more importantly, it will be worthy of being offered to God. Because
that’s what your contribution is: your offering to God. That’s why we carry your
gift to the altar along with the bread and wine for the Eucharist. It’s a
sacred thing and a serious thing.
I began by reminding you that we are people who believe
in the resurrection, who believe that this life, for all its beauty, is prologue
and preparation for the eternal life that God has in store for us. For me, that
puts our giving in perspective and it raises a big question: after all is said
and done, what do I really value in life?
Father Michael G. Ryan
