By Fr. Roy Cimagala
DEFINITELY, this is a big challenge for all of us who try to follow by what Christ teaches us. In that gospel episode where he faulted the scribes for being showy of what they were doing and praised a poor widow who put in two small coins into the treasury of the synagogue, Christ is clearly telling us that we should do our good acts in a humble way and that we should try our best to give our all to God and others. (cfr. Mk 12,38-44)
“Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury,” he told his disciples. “For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”
This episode somehow reminds us of another of Christ’s sayings: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Mt 19,24)
It’s definitely a tall order, but that is just how it is when we want to be truly Christian. All we can do is to say, “Amen” and then just try our best to pursue that ideal. What is clear about this matter is that it is actually a call to enter into the will and ways of God which are supernatural. We are being asked to go beyond, but not against, our natural self. This is a call for us to approximate our identification with Christ.
If that pursuit for identification with Christ is strong in us, for sure we will also feel assured that everything would just be ok since Christ himself said: “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” (Mt 19,29)
We need to beg God’s grace to be able to meet this Christian standard. We just cannot rely on our human powers to abide by it. It actually is an invitation for us to take a leap to the supernatural world of God where God wants us to be, since we are his image and likeness, meant to share in his very life and nature.
We need to develop a keen sense of generosity and self-giving that is also a result of detachment. Let’s never forget that whatever we have comes from God who wants us to work for the common good. Thus, we hear St. Paul saying, “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Cor 4,7)
We have been reminded of this need to cultivate generosity in the gospel. “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions,” Christ said. (Lk 12,15)
We are told not to lay up treasures for oneself but rather to be rich toward God, that is, to be generous with God and with everybody else. Avarice, hoarding, simply pursuing our self-interest and personal welfare are actually inhuman, let alone, unchristian.
It’s also good for us to remember that there is such a thing as “universal destination of earthly goods.” That’s an official part of our Christian doctrine. “In the beginning God entrusted the earth and its resources to the common stewardship of mankind to take care of them, master them by labor, and enjoy their fruits. The goods of creation are destined for the whole human race.” (CCC 2402)
Even if there is also such a thing as right to private ownership, that right is always subordinated and is supposed to work for this more fundamental truth about the universal destination of goods.
Email: roycimagala@gmail.com
