The offertory is the hinge point of the Mass. It is not just the midpoint of the Mass but the moment, theologically speaking, when we move from receiving to giving. We could, for instance, hear the word of God proclaimed and broken open in the first half and then leave, satisfied that we have received some kind of edification and need no more. Or we could ignore the first part of the Mass and then show up at the offertory to receive the sacramental grace of the Eucharist. But, of course, neither of those approaches is sufficient or appropriate. We need both halves; they function as a complete entity, for the Mass is the Mass because of both. We need to hear God’s word proclaimed and then we need to respond to that word proclaimed by offering fruits of the earth (bread and wine), money, and our selves back to God so that God may sanctify them for the life of the world. We have received the spiritual fruits of hearing God’s word proclaimed, and our only proper response is to give back to God what God has given us, to be blessed and then shared again with the world. From God all things proceed, and to God they will return.
Contrary to popular belief, the offertory of the Mass finds its deepest meaning far beyond the offering of collection plates filled with money. The offertory is, theologically, about returning to God what is God’s: bread, wine, our very “souls and bodies,” and of course, money. We might say that the offertory of the Mass embodies the spiritual practice of giving.
Over the past two months, you have been hearing and reading a lot about giving, more specifically, about giving of your financial resources to support ministry at Good Shepherd, as well as of your time and talent. The parish Advancement Committee has urged us all to give sacrificially. We usually think of sacrifice as something negative or painful. It can be. But the root of the word sacrifice is the Latin sacrificium, which suggests something more along the lines of setting things apart to be made holy or sacred. In that view, then, the giving of our financial resources, time, and talent is a visible and tangible offering of who we are to God. Moreover, it is giving back to God what God has first given us. We don’t make sacrifices to appease God’s wrath; we make them because those things that God has given us become distorted in our frail hands that operate in a world of sin. We must constantly give our gifts back to God so that they can be reordered and then shared again with the world to put it back together anew. Our giving to God plays a part in the world’s healing by God’s hand.
Sacrificial giving (I mean this as more than just giving what is convenient) is a spiritual practice. Spiritual practices are not always popular to talk about and do, but they are crucial to Christian discipleship. It’s not always a joy to pray or go to church, but to be a Christian in an authentic way, we have to do both. Sacrificial giving is no different. I would argue that in our modern world, sacrificial giving is one of the most important spiritual practices in which we can engage because it requires that we put God, and God alone, at the center of our lives. And this is incredibly difficult in a world obsessed with clinging to money. Sacrificial giving necessitates a profound spiritual reorientation.
To tithe (say, give 10% of one’s net income to God’s mission in the world) or to give sacrificially means that we choose to give to God first and then figure everything else out. Any financial planner will tell you this is absurd, but there you have it. (I also know that if you tell your financial planner that you intend to do this, they can also advise you how to make it all work accordingly.) This means that we sacrifice other things to make room for God, and this usually highlights those things that have become idols for us. I have found in my own attempts to give sacrificially, that I have come to rely more on God, which is the purpose of sacrificial giving as a spiritual practice. And although the risk required to give sacrificial giving at first seems scary, over time, it proves to be not so bad after all. God really does provide.
A spiritual practice like sacrificial giving is not foolproof. One can tithe and not be spiritually transformed, especially if the money given has strings attached to it. But true sacrificial giving always aims to be free giving, with no strings attached and with no illusion that the money is given with any ulterior motive. But perhaps above all, the spiritual practice of sacrificial giving frees us from sinful anxiety, and I suspect that anxiety is the predominant reason that people are scared to move from giving to sacrificial giving. They believe the world’s lies that there isn’t enough. If I give too much to God and the Church, I’ll not have enough for retirement or my children’s education or for my own well-being. Sacrificial giving asks us to take a bold leap of faith to trust that with God there is always enough.
I believe that the two most difficult things to relinquish are resentments and money. Holding on to both gives us a sense of power, but it’s a false sense of power. We learn in Christ that true power comes from self-emptying, not from self-filling. Sacrificial giving is a spiritual movement towards this self-emptying (kenotic) power of Christ.
There are many reasons why I feel comfortable encouraging you to give generously and sacrificially to God’s ministry at Good Shepherd. Your money will go to good use, because daily, lives are being transformed through this parish. This parish, of course, needs your financial support to survive and sustain its vision and God’s mission in this place. By giving, you are also supporting a place that is offering something to you in return. But most of all, I know that giving sacrificially is good for our souls. We don’t give to sway God’s hand in our favor. We don’t give to get to heaven. We give because it is the only true response to God’s inestimable love for us and for his boundless gifts to us. This is the meaning of the offertory: the more we are aware of what God has given us, the less we will want to hold back from returning to God.
This Sunday is Commitment Sunday. I invite all of you to practice or begin to move towards sacrificial giving. A gift of any amount can constitute a pledge. If you have already pledged online, please bring a physical pledge card to Mass to place in the offertory collection plate as a visible sign of your gift to God’s work at Good Shepherd. If you have lost your pledge card, there are plenty of extras at the church. If you can’t make it to Mass on Sunday, please mail your card to the church and pledge online.
We have already seen incredible generosity in this year’s campaign; thank you! I’m hopeful that we will reach our goal of $170K, and perhaps we will exceed it. The greatest thing about sacrificial giving is that it is ultimately liberating. When we are struggling with hope or despair or trust in God, the best remedy is to give—give generously. And then we will begin to understand just how generous God has been with us.
Yours in Christ,
Father Kyle