Message from Fr. Darling

During Lent we practice our three disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.We practice them for six weeks so that practice will make them perfect. The third of these disciplines on which we reflect is almsgiving.

We remember that the great commandment is that we love our God above all of our things and love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Prayer reminds us to love God more than our things, and fasting reminds us to love ourselves and not do harm to ourselves with things. Almsgiving reminds us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

I cannot tell you how many times over the years the question has been put to me as to why someone should give their hard earned money to “those people” instead of spending it on themselves. Trying to be like Jesus I often answer their question with the question of why they change diapers for their children or grandchildren. Obviously the answer to my question is that the baby is incapable of changing their diaper for themselves. So too there may be some people who through problems they have created in their own lives or who through no fault of their own are incapable of being able to successfully provide for themselves.

If the shoe was on the other foot and we were the ones lacking the skills or opportunity to provide for ourselves what would we want our neighbors to do for us? So we try to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, caring for them as we care for ourselves. How is it that we who have life’s opportunities just happened to be here instead of in a third world country where we don’t have clean water, indoor toilets, adequate housing, health care, or the opportunities to have a job to provide for ourselves?

So during Lent we practice giving alms—a portion of what we have because we are trying to get perfect the great commandment of loving our God above all of our things and of loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.