Lenten Campaign 2025
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Jesus was clear that we should give to the poor generously. He did not provide an exact amount, or tell us precisely what we should give to those in need.
The primary requirement is that we should give.
Yet, many of us hesitate to be generous, often holding too tightly our own possessions.
It's true that some of us don't have much and we already give all that we can bear.
At the same time, most of us likely don't give enough, only giving pennies when we have millions of dollars saved up for a rainy day.
The cheerful giver
Ideally what we should do is give from a joyful heart. This means that we don't hoard our wealth to ourselves, but generously give the poor what we can cheerfully.
St. Gregory of Nazianzen points this out in a homily that is provided in the Office of Readings:
When we perform an act of kindness we should rejoice and not be sad about it. If you undo the shackles and the thongs, says Isaiah, that is, if you do away with miserliness and counting the cost, with hesitation and grumbling, what will be the result? Something great and wonderful! What a marvelous reward there will be: Your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will rise up quickly. Who would not aspire to light and healing.
It is good to give, but it is better to give with a joyful heart.
This doesn't mean that giving will be easy or that it won't hurt, but if we trust God and his goodness, we can experience a profound peace when we give.
Above all we need to remember that we are giving to Jesus Christ, as St. Gregory explains:
The Lord of all asks for mercy, not sacrifice, and mercy is greater than myriads of fattened lambs. Let us then show him mercy in the persons of the poor and those who today are lying on the ground, so that when we come to leave this world they may receive us into everlasting dwelling places, in Christ our Lord himself, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Whenever we show mercy and give to those in need, we are showing mercy and giving to Jesus Christ.
This reality should help us to recognize Jesus in the poor and to do all that we do in a spirit of love and compassion.
