Investing in God, when Almsgiving is the daily Premium!
Wisdom 18:6-9; Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19; Lk 12:32-48
Our gospel reading talks about business acumen as a transferable skill for acquiring the kingdom of heaven. A direct connection is made between the dexterity for making earthly wealth and the strategy for possessing the kingdom of heaven: “Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys” (Luke 12:33). The survival skills we use on earth, through which we provide for the financial and material needs of our dependents and our personal needs, need redeployment towards an investment in God and his kingdom. Moreover, no matter how small-scale, every human person is an economical animal because we all struggle to make ends meet, either by selling our skills to our employers for money or by selling the fruits of our labor for money in order to satisfy other material needs. How easy, then, to make the kingdom of heaven?
Perhaps what needs reminding today is the fact that every human being is a potential investor, with the same amount for investment – the human life! Human financial institutions take in investments which have monetary value. The more the size of one’s investment, the more the potential profit to accrue to the individual. That is not the case with God. Every human being received a gift of LIFE from God, on coming into the world. God is the first investor in the human person, the life he gives to us. The assignment God gives to us all is the ability and freedom to re-invest the same life we received from him towards winning the kingdom of heaven. Everything on earth, by way of human achievements, is at the service of the preservation and protection of the life that God gave us. This accounts for why there is only one investment company for God – Heaven. In order to raise premiums for heaven, we need to obey Jesus’ imperative: “Sell your belongings and give alms” (Luke 12:33).
“Almsgiving” is the premium we pay to God for heaven, and the poor are our investment bank and insurance policy. With God, we have a savings account. Everyday, we need to put something into our account – our daily premium for heaven. Jesus suggests the need to sell our earthly wealth and invest in heaven with its proceeds. This simply means that whatever our achievements on earth may be, we need to remember to be generous towards the poor and the needy amongst us. It is not as if we buy heaven from God, we CANNOT! The gospel says that heaven is a free-gift, just as we received life as a gift from God: “your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). However, your refusal and mine to invest in Heaven, through the poor, makes life difficult for the poor to live. From the analogy of our earthly Insurance policies, which works for those in difficulty by taking money from the premiums members contribute, it is human generosity that makes God’s presence felt for the poor and needy among us. You and I are the hands which God extends to the needy as help. You and I are the legs God uses to visit the sick and prisoners. Your voice and mine are those of God consoling the sufferings of others, and crying out for justice against injustices of all kinds.
On earth, there are all kinds of banks competing for investors, just as many vices struggle to hold us captive. Human beings make informed decisions, when it comes to the choices of where to put their money. Different financial institutions make promises as to how to handle and reward those who invest with them. In like manner, our weaknesses and earthly allurements tantalize us with immediate gratification and show of indispensability. The Great Depression and economic meltdown have shown how unstable our markets and currencies are, and how unreliable and disaster prone investments could be. The fears of the 30s and the recent economic meltdown are still palpable, and the question most people ask is: when will the next meltdown be? Yet, Jesus calls us, through the gospel of today, not to be afraid: “Do not be afraid any longer, little flock”. Only the courageous can invest in troubled times, because the natural tendency is to hoard. In the spiritual realm, many vices compete for the investment of our souls: drug, alcohol, gambling, sex, racketeering, slave trade: these are the investment companies campaigning for the human life and soul. Unfortunately, we bank in them comfortably and forget that life is a borrowed commodity from God, which we must account for its use!
The responsibility for the care of other human beings has been given to us, that is why today’s gospel parable talks about punishment for those who fail to help others. The “lamp” that needs to remain burning uses the oil of charity and aid to the poor to remain burning. The “Master” of the parable is Jesus himself, who seems absent, yet present through what you and I do to others, especially when we treat others well. Our problem is the journey of the “Master” because we believe that he doesn’t see what we do. Our problem is further compounded by the fact that we think him either dead or uninterested in what happens to us, so our unguarded freedom kicks in in the form of sin and evil.
The second reading of today solves the problem of God’s absence for us through the power of faith. “Faith” makes real and present, what appears invisible and abstract. Just as the concrete acts of love manifest love to recipients of charitable deeds. God comes alive to us through the positive ways we are impacted by the good others do to and for us. The example of Abraham, although we talk about it today as if it were not a tough decision for him, nudge us on in the direction of faith that gets concretized in its own time. The journey of Abraham continues with us towards heaven, our ultimate destination. Abraham needed the assurances of multiple covenants and apparitions of God as a guarantee for the fulfillment of God’s promises to him. You and I have the assurances of our daily premiums, the little works of charity we do, despite our numerous sins that challenge our qualification for heaven.
The human heart can only center itself in God, when it has assets with God, and a guarantee that a day will come for the reward of its labor. “For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be” (Luke 12:34) is an invitation to love rightly, according to God’s directives. Since God is love, it is only by loving that one realizes one’s potential as a child of God. The heart that fails to love can never help another, no matter the enormity of the predicaments of the other. It is the presence of love in a heart that drives away fear and guarantees investment and sacrifice for the sake of heaven. Wherever there is God, there is no fear because God’s presence dispels every fear. God’s presence is love and charity. Out of love, God liberates Israel from fear and slavery, according to our first reading. On account of God’s love, he chooses Abraham and leads him on a journey to a new homeland, which we now understand to be heaven. Our own journey continues today, may we see almsgiving as vehicle needed for this journey to heaven.
Assignment for the Week:
Assist somebody in need this week.