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I am
starting to feel resentment toward the catholic church. . . . Let me explain,
I am a good person (or so I like to think) but I do not have alot of money.
I try very hard to make sure my children are brought up the right way. We
use to go to church every sun or sat night as a family. But then I was told
I don’t put enough money in my envalopes so they stopped sending them
to me. . . . Then when it was time for my children to start
a CCD program I was told it would be $75 for both of them. I told them I
could not give $75 all in one lump sum but could I please make payments.
I was told this was ok. I did pay in full before the year was up. Well this
year when I went to sign my children up for CCD again I was told that I needed
to make sure I had the whole $75 this time. There would be no “payment
plan”. Well I couldn’t do that so they are not signed up as of
yet. I feel like because I can’t hand out money at every turn I am being
told that I am not good enough to be a part of this church. I gave $1 every
sun, even if I had to give change I did it. I did pay the $75 fee for CCD
last year, it just took me a while to get it all there. Why is it that my
$1 was not good enough every sun?? Why is it that a “payment plan”
is not good enough?? . . . I have talked to people at the
rectory and I am not being giving any answers. Do you have any for me?? Am
I wrong?? I was raised roman catholic, I want my children to be rasied roman
catholic but I guess I just can’t afford to be roman
catholic!
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 ou tell an astonishing story,
considering what Christ said about The Poor Widow’s Contribution:
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When He looked
up, He saw some wealthy people putting their offerings into the treasury,
and He noticed a poor widow putting in two small coins. He said, “I
tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest; for those
others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her
poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.” |
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—Luke
21:1-4 |
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 To begin
to answer your questions, then, it is important to understand what Christianity
is all about. One of the best authorities to whom we can turn, especially
in regard to matters of poverty, is Saint Francis of Assisi. In his words,
Christianity is about accepting injustice, cruelty, and contempt with patience,
without being ruffled and without murmuring, and enduring it all with charity
and total
faith.[1]
Moreover, realize that
there is a Church and there is a Church, and not
everyone who claims to be in the Church really has a clue to what it’s
all about. Therefore, if you want your children to be good Catholics, it
all depends on you, right now. You can’t leave the responsibility
of their education to anyone else. You have to
be clear about what a Christian
life entails.
Saint Francis, for example, praised
the virtues of Lady Poverty. But she was not a woman who sat around all day
smoking cigarettes, drinking beer, eating potato
chips, watching TV, yelling at the children, and wallowing in
sexual perversion. She was—and is—a Lady
of virtue and chastity whose life and entire
being is centered in Christ.
Be clear, then, about how you
spend the money you do have. If you can afford to spend money on cable TV
and cell phones and movies and sports and junk foods and cigarettes and anything
else, then you had better rethink what it means to not have money for the
Church. But if you really do set aside worldly pleasures for the sake of
more meaningful, spiritual things, then you are teaching your children something
good by example.
Still, it’s not just a matter
of money. You have to teach your children to
pray constantly, for example, by praying constantly
yourself. Do you watch TV in the evening, or do you pray the
Rosary with your children? Do you read the
Bible daily, and read the Catechism, and
read the writings of the saints? If
not, how can you teach your children solid theology? And, if you don’t
go to Mass at least every Sunday and every
holy day of obligation, despite how others treat you, then how will your
children learn what faith is all about?
So, in the end, even if you
don’t have much money—if you really, really don’t have much
money—you can still teach your children to be Catholic without paying
anyone else to do the job. It all depends on you.
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 For,
though you live out
your life amid great need, you can always set aside your
wrath, be humble,
pray diligently and condemn your own
sins; poverty is no hindrance. Poverty is not an
obstacle to our carrying out the Lord’s bidding, even when it comes
to that path of repentance which involves
giving money (almsgiving I mean). The widow proved that when she put her
two mites into the box! |
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—From a homily
by Saint John Chrysostom, bishop
Office of Readings, Tuesday,
Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time |
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Notes
1. See
The
Little Flowers of St. Francis of Assisi, Chapter VII.
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