Jesus knew that there is a constant danger that money could easily become more important in our lives than our relationship with him. Remember his words: "No one can serve two Masters."

Needless to say if one is trying to raise a family one is going to be preoccupied with having enough money to do so. That is normal especially if one has a job that isn't secure and doesn't pay well. Yet, even in such a potentially worrisome situation there are lots of faith-filled people who are able to place their trust in God. I admire and I am inspired by such people and I wonder if I could be so trusting if I were in their situation.

But if one makes a good salary and has a reasonably secure job there is also a good chance that money and material gain and possessions will become much more important in one's lives than it should. Unfortunately, "the more we have the more we want" tendency infects many of our lives.

Tithing, Generosity and Sacrificial Giving, God's Way to Compact Greedy Tendencies

Maybe there are some exceptions but my guess is that the vast majority of us, including myself, have greedy tendencies. It is part of being human. I believe God's medicine for helping us to deal with greedy tendencies is to develop a spirit of generosity by sharing our financial and material resources with our church family and the poor or at least with the poor if one for some reason or other does not believe in giving to the church.

I have no desire to put people on a guilt trip about their generosity to the church. I especially have no desire to put guilt on people with a modest income. But the rest of us should have the courage to take a look at our pattern of giving and honestly ask: How generous are we with our material resources? To what extent are we "intentional" givers to church and charitable causes or very loose change "givers"?

In reality what percentage of our income do we give to church or the less fortunate?

The following table of percentages for weekly donations may be helpful if we are interested in gauging our level of giving.

Income	5%	4%	3%	2%	1%
$20,000	$19.23	$15.38	$11.53	$ 7.68	$ 3.84
30,000	28.84	23.07	17.30	11.53	5.77
35,000	35.65	26.92	20.19	13.46	6.73
40,000	38.46	30.77	23.08	15.38	7.69
45,000	43.26	34.62	25.96	17.31	8.65
50,000	48.07	38.46	28.85	19.23	9.62
75,000	72.11	57.69	43.27	28.85	14.42
100,000	96.15	76.92	57.69	38.46	19.23

A Simple Lifestyle Allows Us To Be More Generous.

I am not going to try to define a "simple lifestyle". I am certainly not suggesting a monastic lifestyle or one that rarely allows us to go out to eat or take a vacation, etc. Living a reasonably simple lifestyle does make it possible for us to be more generous with our material blessings. A story may illustrate more concretely what I mean.

Some years ago I was involved with the construction of a new school at my last parish in Cocoa Beach. Towards the beginning of the campaign I told the people that if the campaign was going to be successful we would need some people to give major gifts in the range of $100,000. A few people rose to the occasion. The first couple were winter parishioners and I did not know them. In response to their generosity, I told them that I would like to take them out to lunch or dinner. But their preference was to invite me to their home. They wanted to do this to show me their modest apartment and to let me know that while they enjoyed the good things in life they basically lived a simple lifestyle. They said that their children did not know that they had given this large gift to our church. They shared with me that they had given their five children a good education which enabled them to have good jobs and so they didn't feel any big financial obligation to them. This in turn allowed them to give generously to causes that they believed in, Catholic education being one of those causes. I left that lunch inspired by the Christian values of that couple.

Another Inspiring Story

A few years ago after giving a homily on tithing and financial giving, I invited parishioners to share with me any thoughts or personal stories on this issue. Shortly after my homily I received the following witness story from a woman. She wrote:

Dear Fr. Tobin,

After listening to your homily, I am compelled to share with you our story.

Twenty-two years ago, my husband and I felt we should tithe ten percent of our income and trust that God would supply our needs as He says in Malachi 3:10. "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in mine house, and test me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing, then there shall be room enough to receive it."

It was hard to be obedient at first, we had four children and a daughter who is multi-handicapped. Every time we thought we couldn't continue to tithe a raise in salary or an unexpected resource would come to us.

Sixteen years ago my husband had his first heart attack and became totally disabled. He left work under long-term disability. Since then he had another heart attack, four open heart surgeries, a cardiac defibrillator implanted and finally last year another heart attack and he was home to be with our children.

We have continued to tithe 10% all these years and I would like to mention some of our blessings:

We own our home and are debt free. We have never had to ask for any assistance with medical bills and have paid all of them. We have helped our children with college. We have been able to help others less fortunate even above the 10%. We have a substantial amount saved for retirement and other financial blessings too numerous to mention.

Reflection Questions

1. Do you believe that the way we make, manage and use our money is an essential part of our spiritual lives or do you tend to believe it has little or nothing to do with our spiritual lives?

2. Do you tend to worry a lot about money and desire to have more of it so that you can have lots of beautiful things?

3. At this time are you an "intentional giver" or a "loose change" giver to church and to charitable causes?

4. Have you ever checked to see what percentage of your annual income you give to the church and charitable causes? What impact would a decision to tithe have on your life?

5. Finally, do you believe that we as a church family should strive to give 10% of our income to help poor parishes in the Third Word.