The Catholic practice of charity
Let’s assume you have decided to start laying up treasures in heaven by practicing the charity that the Catholic Church has always encouraged, in keeping with your financial means. Maybe you take 10 percent of your pre-tax income and divide it two ways, with 5 percent going to your parish and the other half to charities of your choosing.
For funds in the latter category, where do you begin? The answer isn’t an easy one, as there are hundreds of charities out there clamoring for your money — and not all of them are deserving of it.
While outright fraud is rare, many charities fail to measure up to generally accepted standards applied by organizations that monitor them. Among other attributes, sound charities should be financially accountable, transparent and not have a high overhead that cuts into funds for the causes they espouse.
My mail in any given week includes appeals from Catholic colleges, various missionary groups, veterans’ organizations, marriage support groups, youth programs and aid agencies to the church in troubled lands, to mention only a very few. Since most of us don’t have the financial resources to contribute to all who ask, a culling-out process is needed.
Start with prayer. Ask God to lead you to the charities that are a good fit for you. As you shuffle through all the letters, emails and other online appeals for money, perhaps one will grab your attention, leading you to look into it more thoroughly. That might be one of the charities you are being led to support. If so, you will sense an interest and a desire to do so. Another person may be led in a totally different direction, for that’s how the Holy Spirit works.
Before you break out your checkbook or card, you might try prioritizing the most pressing needs of the church as you see them (there’s no shortage). Such a list will vary from person to person and will need to be periodically updated.
Our charitable giving is often a mere drop in the bucket when one considers the overwhelming needs in our world. But we should guard against discouragement, for God can, in his mysterious ways, multiply our gifts many fold. Recall that Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 began with only two fish and a few loaves.
Among the gifts of the Holy Spirit that St. Paul lists, he includes the gift of contributing, or giving (Rom 12:8). That is a special charism that, like all gifts of the Spirit, is given to certain individuals for the good of the church. But that doesn’t let the rest of us off the hook. Each of us is expected to do our part in building up the kingdom of God on earth.
The church recognizes three theological virtues, those that relate us most directly to God: faith, hope and charity. Although he lists it last, St. Paul says charity is the greatest of all the virtues (1 Cor 13:13). While “charity” is a common word, it has a specific meaning for Christians. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines it with admirable brevity:
“Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God” (No. 1822).
The charity we show to our neighbor is where our money comes into the picture. It’s not really ours, however.
This brings us to the important principle of stewardship. A steward is someone who is put in charge of another’s goods and is responsible to that person for the job he does. We see this in Jesus’ parables about money and other things of value. The nobleman who gives his servants gold coins to invest anticipates a return (Lk 19: 11-27). We see the same pattern in the next chapter of Luke, where a man leases his vineyard to tenant farmers, from whom he expects the produce.
None of these men own anything — they are merely caretakers of another’s wealth, for which they must give an accounting. We also are entrusted with certain abilities and financial resources, and Jesus will require an accounting from us as well.
St. Paul was making the same point when he asked the rhetorical question of the Corinthians, “What do you possess that you have not received?” (1 Cor 4:7). The honest answer to that question, of course, is nothing. Even if we are very good at making money, that also is God’s gift. Our giving back to God is one way we can express our thankfulness to him.
While our giving to God should be free of self-interest (the “loving God for his own sake” part), numerous Scripture verses attest to how he returns our gifts with interest. Perhaps the best known is found in the Book of Malachi, where God urges his people to “put me to the test” by tithing “and see if I do not open the floodgates of heaven for you, and pour down upon you blessing without measure” (Mal 3:10).
It appears from this verse and others like it that God wants to encourage charity by promising that those who practice it will not lack for resources. The Book of Tobit even goes so far as to say that those who are generous with God will see his salvation (Tb 4:10).
In summary, the case for practicing charity is airtight, its benefits eternal and inexhaustible. So what are you waiting for?
This column was written by F. Douglas Kneibert of OSV News.
