In 1889, Andrew Carnegie outlined his views on wealth and philanthropy in his essay, The Gospel of Wealth. He suggested that dying wealthy was a disgrace and that the right thing to do was to give away the surplus. He donated over 90% of his fortune to fund libraries, Carnegie Mellon University, and Carnegie Hall. John Rockefeller donated $500 million, establishing the University of Chicago. Does this make them saints? Do we not have to consider how they created this wealth, and especially how they treated those around them? Generosity with one’s wealth does not, by itself, settle the question of whether or not that wealth was acquired justly.
An Unhappy Divorce
It is too easy for us to divorce our faith from our works. We can feel like if we made it to Mass, we have done God such a great favor that what we do with the rest of our lives really doesn’t matter all that much. We cannot use religious practice as a substitute for moral conversion. Christ proposes something along these lines in today’s Gospel (Mt. 22:34-40). How do we love God and neighbor above all else?
There can be a temptation to divide our faith and works into separate categories in our mind. Perhaps our faith and our philanthropy have no overlap. In the time of Jesus, one of the marks of a good rabbi was that he could give a workable way of looking at living out the faith. The 613 commandments traditionally identified in Jewish law addressed many aspects of daily life. Rabbis discussed how to best understand their relative importance. Christ found the fundamental principle that brings them together because he knew what God the Father is actually looking for in us.
God is not hoping for a bunch of rule followers. The laws he lays down for us are not there as a mere test to see if we can behave well enough. Rather, he wants to possess our hearts. We show that God possesses our hearts through our worship and through our works.
Worship
Christ calls us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind (cf. Mt. 22:37). We do this through worship, most perfectly in our participation at the Eucharistic Celebration.
The worship “in Spirit and in truth” of the New Covenant is not tied exclusively to any one place. The whole earth is sacred and entrusted to the children of men. What matters above all is that, when the faithful assemble in the same place, they are the “living stones,” gathered to be “built into a spiritual house” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1179).
When we participate actively in the celebration of the liturgy, we offer God our whole selves. We unite our hearts to Christ, the true High Priest. We join our prayers to his and engage our minds in what the Church celebrates. It is important to note that our participation does not end there. Our worship of God is not meant to be isolated from the rest of our lives, but should rather flow into our works.
Works
To love our neighbor as ourselves (cf. Mt. 22:39) poses quite the challenge. In Christian theology, we look at faith, hope, and charity as the three theological virtues, and they go together. This goes very much in line with Jesus connecting love for God and love for neighbor.
In the concept of justice as presented in the Old Testament, we have God serving as the one protecting the poor and helpless. There is an example of moneylending, but the lender is exhorted to be generous by not asking back the cloak that is being used as a guarantee for the loan.
You shall return it to him before sunset, for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body. What else has he to sleep in? If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate (Ex. 22:25-26).
Biblical justice is not just about getting what belongs to us. Even when a person has a legitimate claim to something, exercising the claim is not always the most just or generous thing to do. Looking at Catholic Social Teaching and following the teaching of Christ in the Gospels, it seems as if solidarity is baked into the Christian concept of justice. It is not just about getting what is ours, but also taking care of those around us.
God is not calling us to compartmentalize our lives, but rather to live generously as integral people. We are called to worship God and to work for the good of those around us. What is one thing you can do this week to combine your worship and your works?