They gave themselves first to the Lord
... and to us through the will of God
Giving money to the Church involves our tithes, random donations, and financial support for ministries (Pro-life, children’s catechesis, the Knights of Columbus, having Masses said for the dead, etc.). All of these are holy moments that involve dollars and cents. The money throws us off. I’m not saying it isn’t essential. There’s something else that precedes and follows the money.
Tuesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
2 Corinthians 8:1-9
Matthew 5:43-48
It’s humbling to me how complicated life can be, even in the most holy of circumstances.
… they gave themselves first to the Lord, and to us through the will of God … (2 Cor 8:5).
In this past Tuesday’s first reading from 2 Corinthians, Paul talks about money and resources. He does so in an odd, winding way — a trajectory that includes praise for holy ones and wordy explanations of the importance of financially supporting the Church.
Paul opens Chapter Eight with, arguably, his most confusing text. And that’s saying a lot. Many of Paul’s verses are difficult to grasp. Paul, using local wordplay, much of which cannot be translated for us in simple language that we understand, leaves us wondering what in the dickens he’s talking about.
For according to their means, I can testify, and beyond their means, spontaneously, they begged us insistently for the favor of taking part in the service to the holy ones, and this, not as we expected … (2 Cor 8:2-3).
I call it confusing because, as one commentator calls Paul’s writing in 2 Corinthians, it is “tortuous.” Jan Lambrecht is a Catholic scholar, a Jesuit Belgian priest. He recently died (March 2023). Lambrecht is an outstanding example of holy dedication to the wisdom well, from which we can draw insights and reach for wisdom in his lifetime of study of the New Testament.
Here’s how Lambrecht explains Paul. See if you can make any sense of it:
One is probably right in supplying the verb “they gave” from v. 5. The first part of this second motivating clause, then, includes v. 4 with its participial construction; its second part contains the whole of vv. 5–6. The expression “I can testify” seems to qualify “according to their means” as well as “beyond their means.” (Lambrecht, J. (1999). Second Corinthians (D. J. Harrington, Ed.; Vol. 8, p. 136). The Liturgical Press.)
The guy is detailed. I’ll give him that.
The basic issue Paul presents is that the financial and resource support that Christian communities give to one another plays an essential role in Jesus’ command that they go and preach to the world. Money, as we all know, is a touchy subject, a divisive component of people living in a community.
Giving money to the Church involves our tithes, random donations, and financial support for ministries (Pro-life, children’s catechesis, the Knights of Columbus, having Masses said for the dead, etc.). All of these are holy moments that involve dollars and cents.
The money throws us off. I’m not saying it isn’t essential. There’s something else that precedes and follows the money.
… they gave themselves first to the Lord, and to us through the will of God … (2 Cor 8:5).
When we think of the Church and all its historical documents, we often tell ourselves it has pinpoint answers for every question in every situation. Well, that depends on how accessible the answers are. In every event, we’re hard-pressed to access the fullness of wisdom when we need it in the moment.
The time doesn’t exist to gather scriptural insights, review theological frames of reference, and then discuss a serious subject matter with our friends and families. There’s a deadline on such things. Lambrecht’s scholarly work is of little use to us in the fog of war.
Some answers are easy. “I can’t afford to support ministries the way I want!” OK, then, we might respond: “Pray for those ministries. Give your time to help them. Use your skills and gifts to support them.”
Heck, even that easy answer is full of complications because prayer is a vast subject, our time is essentially limited, and our skills and gifts fluctuate over time. I'm not saying we gave the wrong answer. The person we’ve advised now has a lot to consider and then execute.
Thank God we have our Catholic Catechism, which addresses all the big stuff. Yet, how deeply we must delve into the details to form our consciences and educate ourselves about matters of faith as they intersect with the daily circumstances of our lives.
Look at this nugget from 2407 of the Catechism:
In economic matters, respect for human dignity requires the practice of the virtue of temperance, so as to moderate attachment to this world's goods; the practice of the virtue of justice, to preserve our neighbor's rights and render him what is his due; and the practice of solidarity, in accordance with the golden rule and in keeping with the generosity of the Lord, who "though he was rich, yet for your sake . . . became poor so that by his poverty, you might become rich."
That’s a mouthful. And, where does that leave us? Thankfully, in between the complications of Paul’s teaching, he does have a succinct answer. A terrific and authentic piece of wisdom that precedes and fulfills the above nugget from the Catechism. It was noted twice in this reflection.
… they gave themselves first to the Lord, and to us through the will of God … (2 Cor 8:5).
It’s a pithy piece of accessible wisdom, found amid some “tortuous” scripture, but it does tell us everything we need to know about “giving.” We give ourselves to God, and God will provide us to others.
Yes, we need to study, ponder, and execute, but we have a guide, a comforter, and the indwelling Spirit of Jesus and God the Father in the moment.
Give ourselves to God, and he will lead us into the rest of what we should do in every single step we take.