Money Can't Buy Salvation

𝐎𝐂𝐓. 𝟏𝟓, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓: 𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐓. 𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐀 𝐎𝐅 𝐉𝐄𝐒𝐔𝐒, 𝐕𝐢𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐨𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐡

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝟏: 𝐑𝐨𝐦 𝟐:𝟏-𝟏𝟏

𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐦: 𝐏𝐒𝐀 𝟔𝟐:𝟐-𝟑, 𝟔-𝟕, 𝟗 “𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐝, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬”

𝐆𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐋: 𝐋𝐊 𝟏𝟏:𝟒𝟐-𝟒𝟔

𝑲𝒆𝒚 𝑽𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆: “...𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒏𝒆𝒈𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑮𝒐𝒅.” (𝒗.42) 

          Parish churches and spiritual communities get by from the love offerings, donations and tithes from their parishioners and members and the importance of tithing in the life of a church or a community cannot be discounted nor ignored. Sadly, however, there are those who believe that to give a tithe is enough and can supplant love of God and neighbor, then you are not only being overfamiliar with God but imprudent as well. At times, the amount of their donations and love offering is equated with the level of their spirituality.

         This is the comparison that Jesus was trying to raise in his continuing discussion with the Pharisee who invited Jesus to dine with him at his home. And the Pharisee must have fallen flat on his face because Jesus minced no words in telling him pointblank that they “𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒔, 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒌 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒕.” (𝒗.44)        

        In fact, the Pharisee did react saying “𝑻𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒓, 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒖𝒍𝒕 𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐.” (𝒗.45) And for a better understanding of the dispute between Jesus and the Pharisees, it was not the observance of the Laws of Moses that Jesus was against but the amendments and revisions the Pharisees inserted into the law that created additional burdens to the Jewish people.

         The way the Pharisees played around with the Laws of Moses is somewhat similar to the way our legislators played with our civil laws.  The “pork barrel” which was known in years past as Countryside Development Fund (CDF) was previously limited to public works projects, health and sanitation, and educational projects like classrooms and infrastructure.

         As the years passed, the CDF was replaced with the Philippine Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and the scope was amended to now include financial assistance to Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) and this scheme allowed our legislators to help themselves with the financial largesse that was made available because of the flaws in the process. Today it goes by the name of budget insertions.

         And just like the Jews who were burdened by the additions to the Laws of Moses that the Pharisees made, the Filipino people are likewise burdened because the services that are supposed to be funded by the PDAF can no longer be delivered. The stark difference between the CDF, PDAF and the Budget Insertions today is that legislators in previous years satisfied themselves with commissions from a low of 15% to a high of 30%.

         Today, they – Government officials and private contractors - took everything and left nothing for the projects for which these funds were intended to. If you have been following the news reports on the flood control projects you will see that the funds were divided among the sources of the funds, the conduits, the generator of the projects and the facilitators and none whatsoever went to the projects that were identified for funding. What made it even worse was that the supposed end-user of the funds ghost projects and this actually turned the whole thing into a criminal activity.

         How blessed are we then who are in a spiritual or renewal community when all that is asked of us is just 10% of our ‘gross’ income because the Pharisees wanted the people to give not just a tithe but there are at least three different tithes that the people in those days have to observe. These are:

         1) 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦, 𝘦.𝘨., 𝘧𝘪𝘨-𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘴, 𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴, 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘺, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘵, 𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴, 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴; (2) 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘦𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘩 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘸𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘳 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘑𝘦𝘸𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 1/50𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘺𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥; (3) 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘵𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘪𝘴 1/10𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘱𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘢 𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘴.        

         These additional burdens are what Jesus was opposed to because it diverted the minds and hearts of the people to what Jesus felt was far more important than these outward expressions of faith and that is the - love of God and love of neighbor as well.

         Jesus made mention of "unmarked graves" to draw the attention of those listening to him to the Jewish tradition that contact with a grave made a person unclean for seven days. His referral to the Pharisees as “unmarked graves” was because of their teachings that defiled the people who did not recognize the spiritual decay that lay in the false doctrines preached by the Pharisees.

         The point that Jesus was trying to make in this Gospel was that the commandments of God should not translate into a compendium of laws that will make it hard for us to observe but should instead lead us to an understanding that love of God and love of neighbor should precede everything else.

         Translated into our present-day reality as Christian disciples it simply means that while tithing is important in the maintenance of our Church’s and Community’s day-to-day operations, such cannot find favor with God if we are to neglect love of God and love of our neighbor.

         This means that it is only our love of God that will help transform us from within that will keep us connected with the source of all that we are, all that we have and all that we will ever be. In the same way, our love for our neighbor is what will enable us to carry the burdens of others. And this is what today’s Gospel is all about. This should serve as a warning to those involved in the historic graft and corruption case in the country today. 𝐈𝐭 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.                             

          Community is all about love of God and love of neighbor. One cannot exist without the other. These two principles are what I refer to as the two pillars of our Christian faith and both are equally important if we want to grow as Christian disciples. (CCC, Part 3, Sections 1 and 2)

          As such even the programs and or projects that communities have in their pipelines should precede from love of God and love of neighbor. Outside of these, it will just take the form of programs that will titillate our egos and pride.

          Love is sacrificial which is why our love of God is a great sacrifice on our part because it must lead us to die to our sinful nature and to metanoia or the transformation of our inner selves so that “𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝑰 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒆” (𝑮𝒂𝒍 2:20). And our love of our neighbor should lead us to “𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓’𝒔 𝒃𝒖𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒇𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒘 𝒐𝒇 𝑪𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕” (𝑮𝒂𝒍 6:2).

          For those who are in a church organization or in a community of disciples, charismatic or otherwise, it would help to know that we should not focus so much on the mundane concerns of the organization we belong to. What we must constantly remind ourselves is that an authentic Christian life is anchored on our relationship with God that is propelled by our love of God and love of neighbor.

          It may be difficult to love others especially the unlovable but do we have any choice? That is why it is always a good exercise to sit down in a quiet place in your home just before you call it a day and try to look back at how your life went during the day. Did you let an opportunity to proclaim the Word of God pass you by? Was there an occasion when you could have shown your love for your neighbor and you hesitated? Did you hold back in coming to the aid of someone in need just because you didn’t like the person?

          Every day you will be faced with situations when you can show your love for your neighbor and it’s not easy because there are human factors that will definitely get in the way. But when you find yourself agonizing on whether to love or not to love your neighbor, just look to Jesus who offered his life to ransom us from our sins out of his great love for us even if we don’t deserve it. (𝘌𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘺 - 𝘖𝘤𝘵. 15, 2025)