Charity and greed are interesting topics for me to think about because this is an area where I never thought I struggled until I took a deeper look inward. My husband and I have always given to a number of charities, we have online tithing set up at our parish to make sure our weekly giving is kept up even when we are away, and I’d rather drop off a bag of donations at Catholic Social Services than go through the work of a garage sale 99 out of 100 times. However, when I took the time to sit with this, study scripture, and ask God what He wanted, I realized I was more selfish than I thought. We were paying the bills, eating out a few extra times, then giving from our surplus. Leviticus 23 tells us that God wants our “first fruits”. Jesus echoes this sentiment in the New Testament when He praises the poor woman who gave all she had in Mark 12 and when He reminds the disciples (and us) that “where your treasure is, there also will your heart be” in Matthew 6:21.
We are called to true charity which is love of God and love of neighbor. When we love something the way Jesus does, we give our whole life for it. Financially speaking, God doesn’t want our entire paycheck to go in the collection basket and our families to go homeless and hungry. We are called to sacrificial giving though. Just as we should put prayer in our planner first, we should strive to put tithing and charitable giving in our budget first. With every purchase we could ask, does this glorify Him or fulfill my sinful desires? You may have heard the phrase “with great power comes great responsibility,” I think we can also say that about wealth. When we are blessed with opportunity and wealth, it is with great responsibility that we look at how we can contribute to the Kingdom.
Greed is an intense, selfish desire for more of something. Again, I thought of myself as a pretty generous person but I realized recently that I had so much room for growth. I am a bit frugal which I think is a good thing but it also makes me a bit of a pack rat. When my kid grew out of clothing I wanted to hold on to all of it because that stuff is EXPENSIVE. I moved from Kentucky to Georgia to Germany to Iowa to California with buckets and buckets of kids’ clothes and other baby things. Slowly I realized things like the car seat had expired and even if we did have another baby, the chances of the seasons and sizes working out were slim. I did this with my clothing and household things too. “Just because I’m not working in an office now doesn’t mean I won’t go back someday” or “if it’s not broken I might use it for something” were my mantras. Instead of blessing another family with items before they got moth holes, I held on to them, cluttering our home and eroding my peace. Now, after an item has served its purpose in our home I do my best to pass it along, while it still has value to give.
How is God calling you to step a bit out of your comfort zone in charity in this season of life?
I have found so much inspiration from the incredible couple behind a ministry called WalletWin. Check out their videos and this video in particular about Catholic minimalism.