Investment/Almsgiving Sunday
Deuteronomy 26:4-10; Rom 10:8-13; Lk 4:1-13
Selfishness comes from those who believe they have nothing and have received nothing from anyone for which they need to either be grateful or pay back. Such persons are characterized by the desire to receive and are full of arguments why they need to receive and never to give freely to anyone. There is a hollowness in them that blinds them to what they have and are receiving. Satan is a typical example of people like that, he forgets that he was created by God, empowered by God and loved by God. Yes, God loves Satan and awaits his return because everything that God created, and continues to create, is good!
Today’s spiritual combat between Jesus and the Satan is a revelation of the peak of ingratitude and selfishness. Satan came to derail the mission of Jesus, to make him an ingrate and a rebel like himself. Satan failed to see that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be with God. The company of God which Satan rejected, he is now jealous of it because Jesus enjoys it. In fact, he knew that Jesus has got bodyguards provided for him by God – “He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,” Satan said to Jesus; this was after he failed to convince Jesus that power should not be at the service of people, but for self-aggrandizement – “turn these stones into bread,” he said to Jesus.
Jesus proves that everything we are and possess are gifts from God, so no room for selfishness; there is only room for ALMSGIVING. The life of a child of God is a lasting show of gratitude and a constant offer of gratitude to God for blessings received. To possess God is to possess all, to have faith and trust in God is to be dependent on him for all we need. Above all, to be a child of God is to learn to give back to God from what he has given us – almsgiving. No wonder the definition of “worship” is “the human response to God’s beneficence”. It is only when we have recognized the blessings/gifts we have received from God that we can worship him. From Jesus’ rebuttals to the temptations of Satan, there are three ways to worship God, which Lent promotes: 1) keeping God’s commandments or every word coming from the mouth of God, 2) bowing down exclusively before God to worship him and no other, and 3) not to be controlled by either our physical or spiritual desires that are against God.
ALMSGIVING SUNDAY teaches us that when our desires either for material or immaterial gifts are meant to glorify ourselves, they put us in Satan’s camp – the meaning of the three points of today’s temptation are a proof of this. When we seek power and influence that lead us away from God or material allurements for our self-importance, then our physical appetites get the better of us. These appetites turn out to be what we serve and worship. Little wonder Satan and his angels worship power and influence and use that as snares for those who keep God’s commandments. Attachment to anything other than God is worship of mammon, and not the worship of God; it is the apogee of selfishness and neglect of God.
The theme of ALMSGIVING SUNDAY is present in our first reading as well. According to our first reading, God puts the people of Israel on guard against all forms of selfishness. Firstly, they couldn’t appear before God empty handed, because they are recipients of God’s largesse; secondly, the mention of being descendants of a “wandering Aramean” takes seriously the search for God through journeys of faith and sacrifice: “‘My father was a wandering Aramean who went down to Egypt with a small household and lived there as an alien . . . Therefore, I have now brought you the first fruits of the products of the soil which you, O Lord, have given me. . . . The priest shall receive the basket from you and shall set it in front of the altar of the Lord, your God” (Deuteronomy 26:4-5, 10). The suffering and slavery of Egypt prepared the way for the journey to God’s Promised Land, to union with God and worship of God. Their bitterness was transformed into glory and blessing; the Israelites became the people of God, his own possession: they received a free gift of citizenship as the children-of-God!
Not too different from the sufferings of deprivation and pain of the Israelites in Egypt, Jesus’ fast and prayer in the wilderness, and the temptation thereof opened up the intervention of God and union with God. Jesus, through his temptations, manifests to us how the offering of one’s life to God is the highest gift to offer to God. Unlike the Israelites who offered the “first fruits” of the Promised Land in worship to God for his benevolence, Jesus’ options for “fasting” in place of turning stones into bread and obedience to “every word that comes from the mouth of God” (first temptation), for the “worship” of God instead of obtaining the powers the world can offer (second temptation), and the display of respect for God rather than a show of power (third temptation), make the offering up of human life to God the heart of worship. The example of Jesus becomes a model for Christians, the core of the Lenten journey – the sacrifice of one’s life as worship of God.
If Israelites identified themselves as the descendants of the “wandering Aramean”, those who endured slavery in Egypt and traveled into the Promised Land and now offer a sacrifice of praise to God as his children, you and I are God’s children through Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ was declared the beloved Son of God through a voice from heaven and the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove and led him into the wilderness of temptation and union with God, these are signs of identity formation and the recognition of sonship and daughtership of God.
Hence, you and I, who are we? Paul takes up this point, in order to show us why we too have been given a new identity as children of God; and, as God’s children, we need to behave as Jesus behaved: “No one who believes in him will be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, enriching all who call upon him. For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’” (Romans 10:11-13). This is point where ALMSGIVING SUNDAY IS ALSO INVESTMENT SUNDAY: “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’”.
“Lent” is the period for the worship and encounter with God —INVESTMENT TIME. It is a time to show our identity as God’s children through what we do and how we worship God. “Fasting, prayer and almsgiving” are the forms of Christian worship that is proposed for all Christians, during this period. The Eucharist, our worship of God per excellence, is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the re-enactment of his self-giving to us (God’s own almsgiving). In fact, Jesus’ “almsgiving” was the INVESTMENT of his entire earthly life up until his death on the Cross for the redemption of the world; it is the prayer of Jesus for the unity and salvation of all. So, INVESTMENT SUNDAY is the realization that Christians’ fasting, praying and almsgiving are salvific.
Faith and love make us children of God, who worship God through our Lenten observances. The fondness that comes from fasting, prayer and almsgiving is only possible for those who have recognized their sonship and daughtership of God. Only those who have realized that they are God’s children worship him in the Eucharist and imitate his fasting, prayer and almsgiving. Our aversion to prayer, almsgiving and fasting is a declaration of war and rebellion against God and our identity as God’s children. We must love and do what Jesus Christ loved and did, in order to confirm our identity as God’s children. Wishing to be like Jesus Christ is an empty emotionalism; but being able to point out concrete sacrifices we are presently making is the only credible proof of our identity: past sacrifices are just that — past!
After all we’ve received from God — the redemption from our sins through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus — does it make any sense not to be charitable? No way, we cannot come empty handed into the presence of God! Israelites never did, because they realized their identity as God’s children; whose child are you? Your Christian identity is seen and known through what you do, how you worship God through fasting, prayer and almsgiving. Your master and teacher, Jesus Christ, did as much, how about you? That brother or sister, that human being right before you, is God in need of you almsgiving and charity! That bad news you heard or watched, those human beings in that bad news, that is Christ himself, whom you need to pray for and help. The sins that cling so easily, those weaknesses of ours that make us cringe, fasting takes care of them – give it a shot!
ALMSGIVING IS AN INVESTMENT: try it out! Let charity and almsgiving go around, because they will come back to you doubled — on earth and in heaven.
Assignment for the Week :
Widen your scope of worship this week not only by attending Mass but also by worshiping God in your neighbor who needs your almsgiving, fasting and prayer.
(Updated from “fatherayo2u.com” 2019)