Everything is a gift. It’s a ‘tag line’ for Stewardship and an important reminder as we begin our parish renewal. It’s a principle that ultimately is the foundation of all spirituality, all morality, and every commandment. Everything is gift. Nothing can be ultimately claimed as our own. Nothing comes to us by right.
This isn’t something we automatically know. During a class some years ago, a Monk shared how, for all the early years of his religious life, he had been resentful because he had to ask permission of his Abbott if he wanted anything: “I used to think it was silly, me, a grown man, supposedly an adult, having to ask a superior if I wanted something. If I wanted a new shirt, I would have to ask the Abbott for permission to buy it. I thought it was ridiculous that a grown man was reduced to being like a child.”
But there came a day when he felt differently: “I am not sure of all the reasons, but one day I came to realize that there was a purpose and wisdom in having to ask permission for everything. I came to realize that nothing is ours by right and nothing may be taken as owned. Everything’s a gift. Everything needs to be asked for. We need to be grateful to the universe and to God just for giving us a little space. Now, when I ask permission from the Abbott because I need something, I no longer feel like a child. Rather, I feel like I’m properly in tune with the way things should be, in a gift-oriented universe within which none of us has a right to ultimately claim anything as one’s own.”
This is moral and religious wisdom, but it’s a wisdom that goes against the dominant thought within our culture and against some of our strongest inclinations. Both from without and from within, we hear voices telling us: If you cannot take what you desire then you’re weak, and weak in a double way: First, you’re a weak person, too timid to fully claim what’s yours. Second, you’ve been weakened by religious and moral scruples, so as to be incapable of seizing the day. To not claim what is yours, to not claim ownership, is not a virtue but a fault.
It was those kinds of voices that this monk was hearing during his younger years and because of them he felt resentful and immature.
But Jesus wouldn’t echo these voices. The Gospels make it pretty clear that Jesus would not look on all that is assertive, aggressive, and accumulative within our society, despite the praise and envy it receives, and see this as admirable or healthy for our humanity. I doubt too that Jesus would share our admiration of the rich and famous who claim, as by right, their excessive wealth and status. When Jesus states that it is harder for a rich person to go to heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, he might have mitigated this by adding: “Unless, of course, the rich person, childlike, asks permission from the universe, from the community, and from God, every time he buys a shirt!” When Jesus tells us that children and the poor go to heaven more easily, he is not idolizing either their innocence or poverty. He’s idolizing the need to recognize and admit our dependence. Ultimately, we don’t provide for ourselves, and nothing is ours by right.
A seminary professor tried to impress upon his students the meaning of religious poverty by making them write inside of every book that was given them the Latin words: Ad Usum. Latin for: For use. The idea was that, although this book was given for their personal use, they ultimately did not own it. It was just theirs temporarily. This is true of everything else given to us for our personal use, from our toothbrushes to the shirts on our backs. They were not really ours, but merely given us for our use.
It might be good for us to write Ad Usum, inside everything we have. Ultimately, we don’t own anything. There is no such thing as a free ride. The Church and buildings are not ours. Our homes are not ours, nor are our cars, children, time… it’s not ours, really. Nothing belongs to anybody and it’s good never to forget that!
It’s not a bad thing as an adult to have to ask permission to buy a new shirt, or to be encouraged to give and not just receive as members of a community. This is our reminder that the universe belongs to everyone and that we all should be deeply grateful that it gives us even a little space. As we ask everyone in our parish to share their time, talents, and financial treasures for the greater mission of Church, it is good for us all to remember first: “Nothing is really ours --- it is all gift.”
God Bless,
