Malachi raises a question that catches my attention. “Have we not all the one father?” He then goes on to ask, “Has not the one God created us? Why then do we break faith with one another, violating the covenant of our fathers?”
When you stop and think about it, the entire Bible is a response to Malachi’s thought-provoking questions. In the New Testament, Jesus invites us to participate in his own eternal relationship with God, the Father.
Jesus tells us to call no one on earth “father” because we have only one father in heaven. For this reason, I have been confronted by some fundamentalists with the question why Catholics call their priests by that title but that isn’t the point Jesus is making here. He wasn’t speaking against the practice of using titles of respect and affection. Rather, he wants us to honor our fathers by seeing in them a reflection of divine fatherhood.
What image comes to mind when you think of God the Father? For many people, I suspect their perception is heavily influenced, for better or worse, by their own father. While in the seminary, I read the book, The Road Less Traveled, by Scott Peck. I will never forget what he said about parenting. The most awesome undertaking anyone could do, yet few parents ever go to school to learn how to be a parent. Instead, for better or worse they most likely learned about parenting from their own parents. That insight prompted me to reflect long and hard on how my father was parented by his parents.
While my father may not have been as expressive of his love as I may have wanted him to be, I came to realize based on what I could learn about his childhood that he parented and loved me the best he could. I recall those times when ill with asthma how he would get up in the middle of the night to administer my medicine, caring for me however he could.
God wants to do the same for all of us, carrying us in the palm of his hands, especially when we may be feeling unloved. Simply put, God, like most fathers, desires to provide us with our legitimate needs. He gives us everything. Without God, we would have nothing. In return, how grateful are we for all that God has given us?
Perhaps about as much as this one family whose story you may have heard before. Coming out of Mass one Sunday, the husband said to his wife, “That wasn’t much of a sermon that Father gave.” The wife replied, “Yeah, I agree, and the choir sang off key.” Meanwhile, their young son was listening to their conversation. Finally, he spoke up. “It seemed all right to me, considering that it only cost us a dollar!” What that family gave doesn’t show much gratitude yet their example provides all of us with food for thought. Just how grateful are we for what we have and how do we express that gratitude? Although it has never really been the Catholic practice, the biblical tradition has long been to set aside the first portion of what we have for God. If your approach to supporting the parish was like mine was years ago, I imagine it is more of an after thought, like “What loose change do I have to spare?”
Sometimes, people will say, “I will give God more time when I get older; now I am too busy.” Or they will say, “When I get on a better financial footing, then I will start tithing, giving that ten percent to God.”
The notion of tithing can seem a tad bit scary. What will happen to me or what will happen to my family if I give up that much for God? I cannot answer that question, but I can give you an example which might surprise you of someone who made that choice early in life: John D. Rockefeller. All his life he made a point of tithing. He came from a modest family. His first pay check was $1.50. He took the money home to his mother who told him that she would be happy if he gave a tenth of it to the Lord. He did and from that day onward, Rockefeller tithed every dollar he earned. He said, “If I had not tithed the first dollar I made, I would not have tithed the first million.” The important thing about stewardship is to get started, to take that leap of faith. Many have discovered that once they have given back that first portion, be it ten percent or five percent, it seemed like the natural thing to do. I am not saying that tithing will make you a millionaire. No, what I am asking is that you join me in recognizing the great blessings that you and I have received from our heavenly Father. Think about it, the gifts of energy, talents, abilities, opportunities, and of time itself. We really do owe much to God, when you stop to think about it. In the weeks ahead, as we reflect on the role of stewardship in our lives, I urge you to consider how you can return some of your talents, time and treasure to God.
At a glance, the lesson in the gospel was on hypocrisy. Jesus challenged the Pharisees for not living up to what they professed. Could he say the same of us? If we are motivated solely by our love and gratitude to God, then all is well. But if our hearts are far from God and self-glorification is our motive, we are likely to be humbled as the Pharisees were. We reaffirm our covenant with God best by taking on an attitude of gratitude, never forgetting that God owns it all and we are called to share.