From time to time parishioners have asked for my pastoral perspective on giving. I must say that the Baptist rises in me a little when I hear this and I want to say: It’s not for me to have a perspective, pastoral or otherwise, on the mandates of God. They do not require my understanding or approval, but my cheerful, heartfelt cooperation and trust in God and His Word: Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Cor 9:7) But I do understand the genuine good nature of such questions and offer the following thoughts for the consideration of believers and fellow Catholics at St. Thomas More.

Giving offerings and tithes expresses our confidence in God. God is the source of all blessings. When we give back to God we are really professing our faith that there is a God who first loved us. We acknowledge in giving that all that is good and true and beautiful in us and around us comes from God as His gracious gift.

From the very dawn of God’s revelation and the human response of worship, believers have given a portion of their treasure back to God: not begrudgingly, not out of a motive of fear or appeasement or currying favor, but out of love and a holy respect for the Word of God: You shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the LORD your God has blessed you. (Deut. 12:5-7)

What was true for the Old Covenant in Law is normative now, today in the New Covenant of Grace in Christ. The Book of Acts is an eye-witness account of how the church came to be through the Apostolic preaching of Jesus Christ Crucified and Risen and the Coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles in the Upper Room of the Eucharist in the presence of Mary, the Mother of The Lord and their Mother. It chronicles how the Good News and The Way were received with great joy by many who heard and how these fervent believers were baptized and then worshiped together around the Eucharist. It reminds us how fragile, scattered and vulnerable the young Church was; yet, they provided for themselves and their local communities—both Jew and Gentiles, the poor, the widows, the orphans, the children, the strangers, and still had enough to support Christian communities at a distance (1 Cor. 16) and missionaries like Ss. Paul, Timothy, Titus and Barnabas who preached the Gospel in foreign lands as Evangelists.

Giving is an act of worship and a personal expression of the life of Jesus Christ in you: charity, compassion, tears and a willingness to sacrifice for and suffer with those in need and who are suffering. It is difficult for me to understand how one can say they love God and worship in spirit and truth, but withhold their tithes and offerings to God’s Church which carries on the work of God in the world. There is a growing resentment in our society towards the Church-any church-and its need for money as if we can separate God and the purity of Faith from fallible human ministers and the stain of worldly goods. No church can exist this way any more so than any of us can separate the spirit from the flesh.

May I say most humbly that giving and believing have always been part of my religion? I give because I love God and the mission of His Son Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church. Giving charity is never measured by the worthiness of the recipients (if one might ever see them), but by the nobility of the cause. Like prayer and fasting, giving is between God and you. It is not for public consumption and the level of giving is determined in the silence of prayerful conversation with God: When you give, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matt 6:3-4)

If St. Paul had lived in our day I have no doubt that he would have been very excited out the potential of television, radio, internet, twitter, Facebook and smart-phones for the preaching the Gospel and collecting donations to fulfill Christ’s Great Commission to the Church and its missionaries: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matt 28:19-20). Technology need not cheapen this Mission nor commercialize giving. That only happens when a church preaches money instead of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And by that time the Faith has long since been secularized and homogenized. Money can cheapen the Gospel and the love of money is dangerous at all times: No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. (Lk 16:13)

I will leave you with one pastoral perspective on giving: The people and visitors of St. Thomas More Parish are generous with their giving. They have been here, worshiping The Lord and giving of their treasures and labor,

through the many changes in liturgy and priestly personnel. As a pastor I know that giving is a blessing and makes possible so many wonderful things for God, and that I and all of us in positions of authority must receive these gifts in trust and use them honorably, frugally and with an integrity worthy of the giver’s heart and the object of his or her loving gift-JESUS CHRIST. Pastor Julian P. Harris