HOW MUCH TO GIVE

hree clergymen split on a lottery ticket and they won the grand prize of a million dollars. The first one, a Baptist minister says: "This is a blessing, but how much do we keep for ourselves and how much should we give to God?"

The priest suggested "I know what we should do. We'll draw a circle and throw the money up in the air. Whatever lands outside of the circle we'll give to God and whatever lands inside the circle we'll keep."

The Baptist minister said: "It is a little windy; so I think whatever lands outside the circle we will keep and whatever lands inside the circle we give to God."

They then turn to the rabbi and ask his opinion, and the rabbi says: "I think we should disregard the circle. God is up there so we just throw the money up in the air and whatever God wants he can keep, and we'll keep the rest for ourselves."

Prudent and Wise

Everyone has to make dicisions in life, major and minor, important or not so important. It is always important that we make right and good decision.  Most of us think of ourselves as prudent and wise persons. But do others think of you as a prudent and wise person? Do your spouse and your children think that you are prudent and wise? Do your parents think that you are prudent and wise? Do your friends think that you are a prudent and wise person? Have you ever prayed for prudence and wisdom?

The author of the first reading states: “I prayed and prudence was given to me. I pleaded and wisdom came to me”(Wis 7:7). What is prudence? Prudence is a virtue of carefulness, learned from life experiences,  to avoid making foolish dicision and risks. What is wisdom? Wisdom is the ability to make good judgment or right decision.

The Good

The Gospel tells story of a young man who runs up to Jesus and falls on his knees.

This young man is impressive! He seems to be humble and respectful, but he turns out not to have prudence and wisdom. He falls on his knee in front of Jesus. Kneeling is a gesture of humility and respectful. He recognizes that Jesus is a wise teacher who will be able to answer his important question. "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He asks a right question. What else is more important than eternal life? He, however, has a wrong understanding about goodness. So Jesus is a little rough with this young man.  "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” So the young man lacks good judgment here. First Jesus corrects the young man about his understanding of Goodness.  No one is good except God!

Then He explains to the young man what he needs to do to have eternal life: You know the commandments, Jesus said: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’" To keep these commandments will assure him eternal life.

"Teacher," the young man declares, "all these I have kept since I was a boy." This young man is prudent. He has avoided making mistakes and risks in life. In his mind however, he thinks that by keeping all these commandments he is “good” too. But Jesus disagrees.

These are things that prudent people do to avoid making mistakes and risking losing their life, but they are not the absolute Good. These are the things we should do to keep society from falling into chaos. These are the things we should do to keep society in order according to God’s design. There are prudent things to do. To do these things will assure a place in the Kingdom of God.  But simply to do these things do not make a person GOOD. 

Mark tells us Jesus looks at this young man and loves him. He is a decent guy. He is an obedient human being. He is a God fearing person. He respects others. He has a desire for eternal life. He lacks only one thing, Jesus says. That one thing will make him good. That one thing will make him wise. That one thing will make him more like God. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

One Thing Lacking

In fact every one of us here also has a desire for eternal life. To keep the commandments will assure us eternal life. But every one of us also lacks one thing that Jesus is talking about: To give what we have to the poor and come follow him.

To give what we have to the poor we will have treasure in heaven. To give what we have to poor and come follow Jesus is a WISE THING TO DO. The more we give the greater our treasure in heave will be. The more we give the better value of our stocks in heaven will become.  The one thing to make you and me wise and good now and rich in heaven later is to give away what we have to help others. We are WISE AND GOOD when we decide to give away what we have and to follow Jesus. That is the condition to become GOOD! That is what God has done.

“God so loves the world that He gives His Only Begotten Son!” Jesus loves the world so much that He has given himself to the world by dying on the Cross for our salvation and in the Eucharist to give life to the world. That is God. That is GOODNESS which Jesus is talking about. We are wise and like God when we give away what we have.

If we want to be good, we need to find every opportunity to give part of ourselves to God and to others in services. The more we give the better we become. The more we give, the “gooder” we are. The more we give the greater treasure in heaven will be ours.

The Challenge

At this the young man’s face falls. He goes away sad, because he has great wealth. He does not want to give away what he has. He is not able to do so.  It’s a tough story for many people. It’s made even tougher by what follows. Jesus looks around and tells his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!" Listen to his words, "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."

The disciples are amazed at his words. "Who then can be saved?" By asking this question they imply that they are rich too.  Fortunately they have decided to take the challenge that rich young man cannot: To sell what they have and give away and to follow Jesus.  Once Peter asks, “Teacher, we have left everything to follow you, what do we have?” Jesus promises them to receive a hundred folds in this life and eternal life in the world to come.

God is not demanding us to give everything we own to the poor, but if we have never given up anything because of our faith in Jesus Christ, then we ought to take our spiritual temperature. Most of us do give sacrificially, and that is all Christ calls us to do. For some people that means a tithe, 10% of our income to God. Most highly committed believers are tithers.

Some of us, however, give only a meager amount of our time, our talents, and our money to serving Christ. It’s true that we can do much more. It is always a sacrifice to follow Jesus.  And it is true that we haven’t done enough, and we haven’t been giving enough. We haven’t been reaching out to the least and the lowest as we should. Think about it with our regular contributions to the mission of the Church. Many of us could do more, even in these challenging times. We don’t have to give up everything to follow Jesus. However, if you have never given up anything, if you are not giving sacrificially because of your love for Christ then you ought to examine your level of commitment. You and I are rich in many ways. We do not want to make the same mistake that the rich young man makes. “His face fell and went away sad!”

Rev. John Kha Tran
Houston, TX