Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. Matthew 10:39
“The charity of Christians in the use of money sacramentally — in both the liturgy and in the world — has no serious similarities to conventional charity but is always a specific dramatization of the members of the Body of Christ losing their life in order that the world be given life. For members of the church, therefore, it always implies a particular confession that their money is not their own because their lives are not their own but, by the example of God’s own love, belong to the world.
That one’s own life belongs to the world, that one’s money and possessions, talents and time, influence and wealth, all belong to the whole world is, I trust, why the saints are habitués of poverty and ministers to the outcasts, friends of the humiliated and, commonly, unpopular themselves. Contrary to many legends, the saints are not spooky figures, morally superior, abstentions, pietistic. They are seldom remembered, much less haloed. In truth, all human beings are called to be saints, but that just means called to be fully human, to be perfect — that is, whole, mature, fulfilled. The saints are simply those men and women who relish the event of life as a gift and who realize that the only way to honor such a gift is to give it away.”
William Stringfellow in “Money” in Simpler Living, Compassionate Life: A Christian Perspective, ed. Michael Schut (New York: Morehouse, 2008) 71-72.
This meditation will post while I am on the long journey home from Seoul to Tokyo to Denver. It summarizes why Jenni and I love to extend sacramental charity to all those we serve whether we are in our neighborhood or all around the world.
Simply put, our lives are not our own, and because we relish life as a gift we realize the only way to honor such a gift is to give it away! And only when we actually do it, do we get a taste of what it means to be fully human. But that’s not even the best part.
What drives our enthusiasm is that this way of living is God’s design and desire for everyone. God wants every member of the Body of Christ to lose their life for the sake of Christ, because only then will they find it. We have discovered that you don’t figure it out until you live it out.