Pop quiz!

Do you know the difference between almsgiving and tithing?

Study guide: “Alms” comes from the Greek word for mercy, meaning material aid with a spiritual component. While always affected by monetary help — often directly — alms are for the good of any person who enjoys less material security than ourselves. Note that, intrinsically, alms have nothing to do with anything a person has done to merit or earn the material help. “Mercy,” after all takes its name, in its deepest reality, from the eternal life God is offering us, without any work of ours to merit or earn it.

“Tithe,” on the other hand, is an Old Testament word. It is bound up in the revelation of God’s mercy through the work of “the priests and Levites.” Strictly speaking, the word meant “one tenth” to support the Levitical priests in Israel with both fiscal profits and agricultural fruits. The priestly tribe of Levi could not own land, and there were some economic ramifications. Levites were one twelfth of the people of Israel, living off the tenth/tithe of the produce from the other eleven twelfths. The tithe was all tied to a hereditary priesthood and to the temple in Jerusalem.

No percentage has been prescribed universally for supporting the work of our New Testament priests in the Catholic Church. But the Old Testament 10-percent precedent is worth considering. As a “law,” even 1 percent of a Catholic’s income would suffice as a minimum for the precept “provide for the needs of the Church” (Catechism of the Catholic Church#2043). In practice, many have given 20 percent or more. The first Christians in Jerusalem seemed to have set a trend of giving more than half to the Apostles!

Our priesthood comes from apostolic succession; is not hereditary. But the principle of needing some support remains the same. The Word of God needs to be preached with some administration. Bishops and priests need material resources to make the sacraments available. And Church communities themselves can be effective distributers of alms. All this has replaced the codified percentage of “the tithe.”

Now a last word about alms. It is our Lord himself who said, “Make friends for yourselves with untrustworthy wealth, so that when it fails you, they may welcome you into eternal dwellings” (Lk 16:9). Christ told a puzzling parable about almsgiving. (You must refresh yourself on Luke 16:1-13 for the whole story). The key moral I wish to bring forward here is this: Be strategic and intentional about using materials things for the good of other people. The “steward” of the Luke 16 parable was commended for his future-thinking prudence about finding and keeping good friends (not for his past selfishness prior to earning his lesson). What’s more, Jesus made this an explicit lesson about almsgiving. How so?

Notice the odd words of Luke 16:9, “Make friends for yourselves with untrustworthy wealth.” They are translated sometimes as “dishonest mammon.”

“You cannot serve both God and mammon,” Jesus said about worldly goods (Mt 6:24). And this Lukan parable reminds us that it is not a matter of whether we will be failed by money and the things it buys, but rather “when will it fail us?” Our money will either let us down when we die, entering that “eternal dwelling,” or even before that.

 

So what do we do with it? Be as generous as you can be. The poor, according to the Gospel of Luke, are just about guaranteed a place in heaven, but we cannot be so sure of ourselves if we despise those who have less than us.

—Father Timothy Naples is pastor of St. John Vianney Church in South Burlington.

—Originally published in the Winter 2023 issue of Vermont Catholic magazine.