It's Lent! Today we begin a spiritual pilgrimage through the desert with Jesus as we examine His life, death, and resurrection. Lent is about entering in to the story ourselves. Jesus says, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." The three pillars, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, of Lent are all ways by which we deny ourselves.
In prayer, we seek to draw close to Jesus. The more we allow Jesus into our hearts, the less room there is for our own selfishness.
In fasting, we reject the things of the world that we're attached to in favor of attaching ourselves to the things of heaven. Many people decide not to give anything up, but rather do something extra. Sometimes people will even give up a sin that they struggle with. Fasting is meant to be something else entirely. We must give up some legitimate good in favor of what is greater. That's what it means to deny ourselves.
Almsgiving is similar. Giving is the antidote to greed. I recently heard someone complain about the Church's expectation that people give. They said, "Jesus didn't care about money!" I would disagree. Jesus cared about money to the degree that people loved money more that Him. He said, "You cannot serve both God and mammon." Money is a legitimate good. We need it in order to take care of ourselves, but like the man in the Gospel story who tore down his barns to build bigger barns, are we saving money for its own sake? Are we pursuing money as an end in itself? If so, we need to let go of our attachment to it. Almsgiving also helps us in our love of neighbor. To love is to will the good of the other. Sometimes another's good comes at the expense of our wallets. Should that prevent us from loving them? By no means.
So dedicate yourself to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving this Lent. The more you invest, the more the Lord will bless you.