Almsgiving
by Rosie Riordan McDowell

This season we are about to enter, known on the Church calendar as  
Lent,  invites us to change our lifestyle to grow as people of God.  The 
goal of this growth is to become more like Jesus.  It seems no small 
coincidence that this Lenten season occurs on the yearly calendar at 
about the same time as the spring season, also associated with growth and 
rebirth.  Almsgiving may help us to achieve this growth.  The simple 
definition of almsgiving is  charity,  literally giving of our resources 
to others who don t have as many.  On the surface then, almsgiving doesn 
t seem too difficult:  put a couple of dollars in the basket in Church on 
Sunday.  If we think more deeply about giving however, we realize it s 
not that simple.
The New Testament story of the woman who offers her  two cents  worth  at 
the Jerusalem temple illustrates the complexity.  Jesus recognizes her 
offering, small though it was, as sincere; she had nothing else to give.  
For the woman, giving those two coins was a true sacrifice.  The others 
who made offerings that day, Jesus tells us, gave from their surplus.  
Their donations were less valuable to them than the woman s two coins 
were to her.  When we think about almsgiving this Lenten season we might 
think in terms of what is most valuable to us and decide to give that.  
We can probably very easily afford that couple bucks in the basket:  we 
would just have to drink one fewer cappuccino or Snapple this week.  
What is that I guard and value so highly that I wouldn t think of giving 
it to someone else?  Do I have some unique gift or talent that I have 
never shared with anyone?  Do I really need to spend all my time studying 
tonight, or could I spend some of my evening with a lonely dormmate, a 
person with a disability, a homeless person, a former convict, a child 
looking for a mentor, a drug addict trying to get clean...?  What could I 
give that would truly be a sacrifice?  Am I giving from my surplus, or am 
I giving of myself?  Whatever we offer as our  almsgiving  this Lent, we 
could learn from the sincerity of the woman at the temple;  we could give 
something that will make us feel as if we have nothing else to give.

Editor s Note:  Rosie is a 1993 Notre Dame graduate currently working 
with the Logan Center in South Bend.