Tuesday, January 22, 2008

"Give alms from your possessions. Do not turn your face away from any of the poor, and God's face will not be turned away from you. Son, give alms in proportion to what you own. If you have great wealth, give alms out of your abundance; if you have but little, distribute even some of that. But do not hesitate to give alms; you will be storing up a goodly treasure for yourself against the day of adversity. Almsgiving frees one from death, and keeps one from going into the dark abode. Alms are a worthy offering in the sight of the Most High for all who give them. (Tobit 4:7-11)

Almsgiving can be an expression of צְדָקָה (zedakah or tsedeqah). This is giving that fulfills God's intent and advances justice.

Everything that we possess is owned by God. We are God's stewards. To care for those in need is a key aspect of our stewardship.

By caring for others we can find ourselves. In zedakah we recognize our self in the other and find our shared identity with God.
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1 comment:

raphaelwing said...

Tobit speaks eloquently of the simple truth of giving of our abundance or our poverty. Such giving is fundamental for us as individuals as well as for the collective community and world. Our salvation depends on others salvation, my finding justice depends on the justice others find. My receiving grace through the sacrifice of God depends on my giving grace through my own sacrifice. Tobit is wonderfully human and therefore mistaken about many things (the way he treats his wife, his desire to die, his simplistic theology that he should get what he "deserves" in a deuteronomic economy). But Tobit is also well aware of his call to sacrifice himself for others (burying the others killed at great personal expense).
We Christians understand -- at least some of the time as flawed human beings (and more easily in a blog than in eveyday existence!) -- that the cross is not just something God did for us long ago, but "The Way" for us as well. We must sacrifice for others and for the world with the same grace of God. It is, as St. Francis said, "in giving that we receive." There can be no integrity for an individual without that individual's love and sacrifice for the other.

January 22, 2008 at 5:20 AM

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