Each
year, Lent offers us a providential opportunity to deepen the meaning and value of
our Christian lives, and it stimulates us to rediscover the mercy of God so that we,
in turn, become more merciful toward our brothers and sisters. In the Lenten period,
the Church makes it her duty to propose some specific tasks that accompany the faithful
concretely in this process of interior renewal: these are prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
For this year’s Lenten Message, I wish to spend some time reflecting on the practice
of almsgiving, which represents a specific way to assist those in need and, at the
same time, an exercise in self-denial to free us from attachment to worldly goods.
The force of attraction to material riches and just how categorical our decision must
be not to make of them an idol, Jesus confirms in a resolute way: “You cannot serve
God and mammon” (Lk 16,13). Almsgiving helps us to overcome this constant temptation,
teaching us to respond to our neighbor’s needs and to share with others whatever we
possess through divine goodness. This is the aim of the special collections in favor
of the poor, which are promoted during Lent in many parts of the world. In this way,
inward cleansing is accompanied by a gesture of ecclesial communion, mirroring what
already took place in the early Church. In his Letters, Saint Paul speaks of this
in regard to the collection for the Jerusalem community (cf. 2 Cor 8-9; Rm 15, 25-27).
According to the teaching of the Gospel, we are not owners but rather administrators
of the goods we possess: these, then, are not to be considered as our exclusive possession,
but means through which the Lord calls each one of us to act as a steward of His providence
for our neighbor. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us, material goods
bear a social value, according to the principle of their universal destination (cf.
n. 2404)
In the Gospel, Jesus explicitly admonishes the one who possesses
and uses earthly riches only for self. In the face of the multitudes, who, lacking
everything, suffer hunger, the words of Saint John acquire the tone of a ringing rebuke:
“How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother
or sister in need and yet refuses to help?” (1 Jn 3,17). In those countries whose
population is majority Christian, the call to share is even more urgent, since their
responsibility toward the many who suffer poverty and abandonment is even greater.
To come to their aid is a duty of justice even prior to being an act of charity.
The Gospel highlights a typical feature of Christian almsgiving: it must
be hidden: “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,” Jesus asserts,
“so that your alms may be done in secret” (Mt 6,3-4). Just a short while before, He
said not to boast of one’s own good works so as not to risk being deprived of the
heavenly reward (cf. Mt 6,1-2). The disciple is to be concerned with God’s greater
glory. Jesus warns: “In this way, let your light shine before others, so that they
may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Mt 5,16). Everything,
then, must be done for God’s glory and not our own. This understanding, dear brothers
and sisters, must accompany every gesture of help to our neighbor, avoiding that it
becomes a means to make ourselves the center of attention. If, in accomplishing a
good deed, we do not have as our goal God’s glory and the real well being of our brothers
and sisters, looking rather for a return of personal interest or simply of applause,
we place ourselves outside of the Gospel vision. In today’s world of images, attentive
vigilance is required, since this temptation is great. Almsgiving, according to the
Gospel, is not mere philanthropy: rather it is a concrete expression of charity, a
theological virtue that demands interior conversion to love of God and neighbor, in
imitation of Jesus Christ, who, dying on the cross, gave His entire self for us. How
could we not thank God for the many people who silently, far from the gaze of the
media world, fulfill, with this spirit, generous actions in support of one’s neighbor
in difficulty? There is little use in giving one’s personal goods to others if it
leads to a heart puffed up in vainglory: for this reason, the one, who knows that
God “sees in secret” and in secret will reward, does not seek human recognition for
works of mercy.
In inviting us to consider almsgiving
with a more profound gaze that transcends the purely material dimension, Scripture
teaches us that there is more joy in giving than in receiving (cf. Acts 20,35). When
we do things out of love, we express the truth of our being; indeed, we have been
created not for ourselves but for God and our brothers and sisters (cf. 2 Cor 5,15).
Every time when, for love of God, we share our goods with our neighbor in need, we
discover that the fullness of life comes from love and all is returned to us as a
blessing in the form of peace, inner satisfaction and joy. Our Father in heaven rewards
our almsgiving with His joy. What is more: Saint Peter includes among the spiritual
fruits of almsgiving the forgiveness of sins: “Charity,” he writes, “covers a multitude
of sins” (1 Pt 4,8). As the Lenten liturgy frequently repeats, God offers to us sinners
the possibility of being forgiven. The fact of sharing with the poor what we possess
disposes us to receive such a gift. In this moment, my thought turns to those who
realize the weight of the evil they have committed and, precisely for this reason,
feel far from God, fearful and almost incapable of turning to Him. By drawing close
to others through almsgiving, we draw close to God; it can become an instrument for
authentic conversion and reconciliation with Him and our brothers.
Almsgiving teaches us the generosity of love. Saint Joseph Benedict Cottolengo
forthrightly recommends: “Never keep an account of the coins you give, since this
is what I always say: if, in giving alms, the left hand is not to know what the right
hand is doing, then the right hand, too, should not know what it does itself” (Detti
e pensieri, Edilibri, n. 201). In this regard, all the more significant is the Gospel
story of the widow who, out of her poverty, cast into the Temple treasury “all she
had to live on” (Mk 12,44). Her tiny and insignificant coin becomes an eloquent symbol:
this widow gives to God not out of her abundance, not so much what she has, but what
she is. Her entire self.
We find this moving passage inserted in the description
of the days that immediately precede Jesus’ passion and death, who, as Saint Paul
writes, made Himself poor to enrich us out of His poverty (cf. 2 Cor 8,9); He gave
His entire self for us. Lent, also through the practice of almsgiving, inspires us
to follow His example. In His school, we can learn to make of our lives a total gift;
imitating Him, we are able to make ourselves available, not so much in giving a part
of what we possess, but our very selves. Cannot the entire Gospel be summarized perhaps
in the one commandment of love? The Lenten practice of almsgiving thus becomes a means
to deepen our Christian vocation. In gratuitously offering himself, the Christian
bears witness that it is love and not material richness that determines the laws of
his existence. Love, then, gives almsgiving its value; it inspires various forms of
giving, according to the possibilities and conditions of each person.
Dear brothers and sisters, Lent invites us to “train ourselves” spiritually,
also through the practice of almsgiving, in order to grow in charity and recognize
in the poor Christ Himself. In the Acts of the Apostles, we read that the Apostle
Peter said to the cripple who was begging alms at the Temple gate: “I have no silver
or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk”
(Acts 3,6). In giving alms, we offer something material, a sign of the greater gift
that we can impart to others through the announcement and witness of Christ, in whose
name is found true life. Let this time, then, be marked by a personal and community
effort of attachment to Christ in order that we may be witnesses of His love. May
Mary, Mother and faithful Servant of the Lord, help believers to enter the “spiritual
battle” of Lent, armed with prayer, fasting and the practice of almsgiving, so as
to arrive at the celebration of the Easter Feasts, renewed in spirit. With these wishes,
I willingly impart to all my Apostolic Blessing.