This is from today's Gospel reading, but it piggy-backs from a book I just read called "Happy Are You Poor: The Simple Life and Spiritual Freedom" by Father Thomas Dubay. It was incredibly eye-opening and convicting and made me understand Scripture passages like this on a whole new level. Thought I'd share :)
"...and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, whate credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, and get the same amount. But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High." - Luke 6:29-35
We've probably read or heard this about a thousand times, but I want to share some concrete examples about the golden rule: "Loving others as you love yourself" as well as the type of generosity the Gospel demands of us.
"Do to others as you would have them do to you."
In terms of giving, what does this mean? Well, it's quite easy and convenient to give out of our surplus, our excess. Those canned good drives where you grab whatever extra canned goods you may have in the cupboard and donate them. Or if you do go out shopping for it, maybe you grab the cheaper brands so you're not spending extra money on the name-brands.
It's still all well and good to contribute as such, but to practice true virtue, this Gospel idea of giving, we must go further. "Do to others as you would have them do to you" means giving the needy what you would rather prefer for yourself. Meaning, you keep the things you'd normally give away (older clothing, generic brand food items, your old pair of shoes, etc...) and you give away the items you'd normally like to keep for yourself: Your nice jacket, the name-brand foods, your nicer shoes, and so on.
Sound radical? The Gospel is radical. This is what Christ demands when He asks us to love one another as we love ourselves. We are so quick to jump on the good things, the nice things, for ourselves, but when it comes to generosity, we may downgrade to a lower-quality thing and give that away in order that we may cling onto what we like and prefer for our own selves. Living a true life in Christ demands we reverse that thought process.
For example, when Mother Teresa was given new sandals to wear because friends of hers noticed hers were all worn out and beat up, she'd always give the "nice" ones away to the poor or whoever needed it, keeping for herself her old sandals and just mending them up.
St. Robert Bellarmine, a priest and cardinal, shared liberally with the poor. When as a cardinal he had no more money to give, he would have his own belongings pawned in order to secure alms; this included his own mattress from his bed. He even directed that the curtains be taken down and given for clothing to the poor in the streets. St. Robert's explanation: "The walls and windows won't catch a cold."
Blessed Pier Gorgio Frassati was the son of a wealthy and influential businessman who founded Italy's newspaper, La Stampa (still in print and running today actually!). He would do things such as take his nice, warm wool jacket off of his back in the wintertime and give it to someone who was poor and in need of warmth. His parents even got mad at him sometimes for giving away these "good things," yet it never deterred him from living out the radical Gospel of Christ to assist the needy and poor - poor in material things, poor in love, the lonely.
What about you? Do you give away your money, your items, food, clothing, time, only out of excess? Or do you strive for the Gospel generosity and call to love that Jesus demands by sacrificing what you would normally prefer to keep for yourself?
From Fr Thomas Dubay's book: "If we love our brother as ourselves, and if he suffers a more radical need than we, surely we will relieve his dire necessity from our lesser one. The real problem is not in the logic of the matter; it is whether we actually love our neighbor as ourselves."
If you are to love your fellowman as yourself (which Christ commands us), it must follow that you desire that his needs be cared for at least as well as you care for your own. To desire otherwise is not to love him as you love yourself. This should be convicting for us.
How about the way one spends time or their "assets?" Father Thomas Dubay elaborates, "Other saints retained some of their property but used it extensively after the fashion Jesus demanded of himself: When we give a party, we should invite, not the well to do, not relatives and friends, but rather the downtrodden, the stranger, the destitute (Lk 14:12-14). Most people do quite the opposite of the Gospel injunction. But not the saints."
This doesn't mean we can't ever spend time with those whom we'd prefer, but do you honestly make an attempt to spend time with someone in need? Whether they be financially broken, neglected, perhaps they are lonely or suffering through a hard time? Perhaps it is someone whom most people label as "annoying" or perhaps even you yourself are not particularly fond of someone. It may even be your own family member who needs extra attention and care due to old age or some type of condition. It's easy to reach out only when we "feel" like it - or to just completely ignore it. But true charity (self-giving love) demands we make an act of our will to reach out to these people even when we don't "feel" like it. And we must ask God's grace to do it with tender love, patience, and gentleness, lest we come off cold and begrudging. We must apply all our strength to live the Gospel as our Lord desires. It will take many trials and errors too, but never give up. Christ exhorts us on our need to persevere!
Saint Thomas More, the Lord Chancellor of King Henry VIII of England in the early 1500's, held a prestigious position within the sophisticated structures of England's rule. He was deeply admired by King Henry (that is, until Thomas More refused to go along with King Henry's desire to declare Himself the head of the church in England - instead of the Pope - and wanted to also "change" the Catholic Church's teaching on remarriage). Yet despite the power and prestige Saint Thomas More had, he used it not to cater to himself, but rather those in need. He and his wife and children lived simply. And rather than Saint Thomas More shmooze with the wealthy and higher-ups - as he could have easily done - he invited to his dinner table the poor and those who were destitute, dirty, or in need of kindness and compassion.
What about our time? Are we generous and cheerful to help when someone asks us for our assistance? Or do we think about how it will affect "our" time? Do we covet that time we'd like to use to do whatever WE want and therefore avoid offering help when we see someone who may need it - a friend needs help moving, a family member needs driven to a doctor's appointment...? Wouldn't we want that help for ourselves if we were in their situation? One can be greedy with their time too.
I find the Gospel and these things all very challenging, yet I know I deeply want to live this way, in accord with my state in life and my vocation. Heck, I can't just go pawning everything I have because I have a family! But yet still, we can gather "inspirations" from examples like these and the saints. And we can all avoid superfluous things - those non-necessities that we seem to tack on to our grocery bill, our monthly expenses, and so on. Perhaps we can REALLY wear out a pair of sneakers before we "need" to get new ones. Maybe we give away our favorite sweater. Do we really need 15 different dress outfits and 5 bathing suits? The possibilities are truly endless - one doesn't have to have a strict calling to some type of religious life in order to live the Gospel of charity and poverty the Lord wants. There are ways right within our very own lives that we can start chipping away at.
Less is More
Less really IS more. The less we have, the less we build up attachments to things. The more things we tend to have, the harder it is for us to give things away. You can see it by the way one might "freak out" about losing something or breaking something. There is a chain of slavery present there...slavery to things; clinging attachments to material things. Attachments are present when we want to save the best things for ourselves and give away the second-rate version to others.
We can be set free only by breaking these attachments - by just going in there and giving away something we'd prefer to keep for ourselves. Start little if you need to. But do it. There is truly an interior freedom that comes with it. And pray - pray for that grace: "Lord, detach me from this or that...and give me a spirit of generosity and true Gospel love." Persevere in your willingness to give away, and to pray.
I will leave off with something Mother Teresa said that is worth pondering. Someone had questioned her about her and the Sisters of Charity extreme poverty. She responded with this:
"The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not mortification, a penance. It is joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, no that. But we are perfectly happy."