Bill Gates - Almsgiving

As I said in my post on Ash Wednesday, the first of the three pillars of Lent is Almsgiving, the act of giving what we have to people in need. Today, I want to focus on a man who I think is a pretty good example of that, Bill Gates.

Remember back when Bill Gates was by far the richest man in the world? Granted, the man still has about $49 billion to his name, but now he’s second to Carlos Slim from Mexico who has about $60 billion. What happened to the founder of Microsoft that he’s lost so much money? Surprisingly enough, the reason why Gates is no longer the world’s richest man is he and his wife founded and donated $28 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a charity which focuses on global health, development, and education. That’s about a third of his money donated to charity! (Different sites give different monetary figures, but I think you can get the picture.)

In addition to that, Bill Gates has announced (see the first link below) that at his death his fortune will not be left to his 3 kids, but rather donated to charity. That same website quotes Bill Gates as saying “I knew I didn't think it was a good idea to give the money to my kids, that wouldn't be good either for my kids or society. So the question was, 'Can I find something that had incredible impact?' I knew I wanted to do that.” What he found was a way to bring better health and education to poor people throughout the world. In addition to that, I read that Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are working to encourage other billionaires to publicly pledge at least 50% of their fortune, either during their life or at their death, to charity.

Growing up I always thought that Bill Gates was just another wealthy snob, another rich guy who thought he could buy happiness. However, I am now able to see Gates in a new light. Hearing him talk about his fortune not as something to be treasured, but rather as something to be given away to the poor people of the world really shows where his priorities are in life.

I’d say if the former richest man in the world decided that money will not bring him, or his children, happiness that’s good enough for me. If Bill Gates can realize that the world is much larger than the comforts of his home why can’t I? If Bill Gates can donate the incredible fortune that he built up throughout his life to charity, why can’t I give a little something to someone who really needs it? Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Mark 12:43-44 “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”

“Heavenly Father, help me to be more aware of the needs of the poor throughout the world. Guide me that I may look past the comforts of my home and see the needs of the sick, the poor, and the needy. Help me to find small ways throughout this period of Lent to give what I can to those in need, be it money, food, clothing, etc. Guide me in your love.”

Sources:

http://www.myfoxla.com/dpps/news/bill-gates-not-leaving-$53b-fortune-to-kids-dpgonc-20100920-fc_9708843

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/07/bill-gates-no-longer-worl_n_832634.html

Ultimate Loyalty: Japanese Dog Refuses to Leave Injured Friend Behind

Pretty Little Liars – Vocation of Parenthood

Last night’s episode of Pretty Little Liars was epic! We are a step closer to finding out why Allison died, who killed her, and who A is. There’s also the fact that someone is trying to ruin Spencer’s life, Aria and Ezra are about to get busted, and Hannah and Caleb are done. Yeah…I’d say last night’s episode was one of the best we’ve seen in a while.

If you were paying close enough attention last night, you also may have noticed a beautiful conversation that took place between Caleb and Hannah’s mom. It was about halfway through the episode, when Caleb went to look for Hannah at her house. The ghetto “bad boy” of the show openly and honestly tells Hannah’s upset mother “I think she’s lucky. Maybe if I had a mom like you I wouldn’t be sleeping on a bus and making up the rules as I go along.” It’s a beautiful, emotional scene where Caleb admits that his life would have been so much better if he had parents who cared for him.

This powerful scene from Pretty Little Liars can tell us a lot about the huge role that parents have in the lives of their children. Caleb has all the “freedom” in the world. He can go where he wants, and do what he wants when he wants without ever having to deal with parents nagging him all the time. He makes his own rules, lives whatever life he wants to. Such a life seems like it would be so perfect doesn’t it? Well if such a life is so perfect, why does Caleb never seem to be really happy?

Here in this scene Caleb acknowledges that his “parentless life of freedom” isn’t actually so great. He recognizes that he needs good, strong parents who could love him and guide him. Caleb sees this, but I’m not sure Hannah and the rest of the girls do. Actually, I’m not sure that you and I are always aware of this. Oftentimes we see our parents as the bosses always trying to tell us what to do, always thinking they know what’s best for us. I know in the past I’ve thought that life would be so good if my parents would just mind their own business and let me live my life.

The issue here is today many of us growing up, especially during our teenage years, see our parents as the chauffeur, the cook, the landlord, the bank, etc. and not as parents. What is a parent? Most of you will probably be called by God to be parents. What does that mean?

Parents are given a special vocation by God himself. They are entrusted with bringing new life into the world. See how amazing it is, God puts a newborn baby into the care of parents, actually trusting those parents with the life of his own beloved son/daughter. Therefore the vocation of parenthood goes beyond simple care giving; parents are to love their children as God does, as the newborn baby is to first experience the love of God through his/her parents. To reduce parenthood to a simple biological requirement of procreating the human species would be an absolute tragedy. The vocation of the parenthood is in fact a vocation in and of itself, a vocation that exists within the context of marriage. It is a calling by God himself to an extraordinary standard of love.

This is why it is so tragic when parents give birth to a baby but do not live up to the parental vocation given to them by God. Not only is the virtue of the parents themselves weakened, as they are not living up to their own vocation, but the child himself/herself then goes through a crisis as well. When parents give birth but do not recognize and live up to this calling from God, a child is forced to grow up without the natural way God wants us to experience his love throughout our lives, and especially throughout childhood. Of course it is still possible for such a child to find God’s love and grow in holiness, but they are forced to do so without the help of the most fundamental guides, one’s parents.

Parenthood is a unique vocation given by God himself. It is a call to love, just like marriage, religious life, and the priesthood. I think looking at parenthood in this light can help me appreciate everything my parents do for me so much more. God has actually chosen to use them to share his love with me.

“Heavenly father, thank you for blessing humanity with the vocation of parenthood. Bless and guide our parents. Keep them strong in their vocation, that they may always seek to bring your love to their children. Also, guide those of us who you are calling to this beautiful vocation. Help us to never reduce parenthood to anything less than that, to never forget how truly fundamental the vocation of parenthood is for the building of your kingdom here on earth.”

Ash Wednesday - Giving or Recieving?

So today is Ash Wednesday, the day most people flock to mass to receive ashes. Yes, we receive ashes as a sign that “we are dust and to dust we shall return.” However, in reality the season of Lent which begins today is not about receiving at all! It is a season of giving, giving all we have to God so that come Easter Sunday we are more ready to receive the resurrected Lord into our hearts. How should we go about doing this? Look no further than today’s Gospel for 3 very practical, simple, and powerful ways to prepare yourself for Easter over the next 40 days…

“When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others” (Matthew 6:2). Almsgiving…the first pillar of Lent. Lent is a time when we should start looking at things we have that the poor may need. Maybe you have some clothing that you haven’t worn in years that could keep a homeless person warm at night. Maybe you could donate a few bucks here and there to people who need it a little more than you. Maybe you could spend some time hanging out at a local soup kitchen, giving some human contact to people who usually get none. In this first pillar we seek to give to God through those around us, to those in most need just as Christ himself did during his Earthly life.

“When you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret and your Father who sees in secret will repay you” (Matthew 6:6). Prayer…the second pillar of Lent. Through prayer we seek to connect ourselves to God in a very real way, by communicating directly with Him. During Lent we should find some more time during each day to pray. There are so many powerful ways to do this…a few extra decades of the rosary, read some more scripture, receive the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist more regularly, a couple extra Hail Mary’s before going to bed, or even just finding a short period of time each day to just sit and be quiet just to be with God. The choice is yours, but the idea is to unite yourself more closely to our Heavenly Father through prayer, just as Christ did during his Earthly life (think of the Agony in the Garden).

“When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden and your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you” (Matthew 6:17-18). Fasting…the third pillar of Lent. Everyone is familiar with the age old tradition of “giving up something for Lent.” But I don’t think people are as familiar with the reason why we “give up something.” When we fast, we create a certain degree of discomfort, a certain hole in ourselves. Whether the fasting consists of giving up desserts, soda, snacking, television, Facebook, or anything else, the fasting still creates a hole within ourselves… a hole that we seek to allow God to fill. When we give up simple things such as those listed above, we show God that he is more important to us than any of these material things. We can live without them, but we could never live without God. When we fast, we seek to unite ourselves with God through suffering and attaching ourselves to God, just as Christ did during his Earthly life.

Through these three pillars of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting we seek to give, give, give. Give it all up to God. Give Him material things, your prayer life, and a spirit of suffering. Lent is the perfect time of year to grow in holiness, to let God into our lives. If we can all do this, make Lent a time of truly turning to God, of allowing him to fill every part of our lives, we will all be able to make Easter the high point of the year that it needs to be. There is no resurrection without the cross, so if we want to unite ourselves with the resurrection, the receiving of life everlasting, we must first unite ourselves with the suffering of the cross, the complete giving of self to God.

“Heavenly Father, help me to make this Lenten Season a period of real growth in holiness. Help me to turn myself to you through almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. I know that this will not be easy, but with your guidance I trust that these practices will help me to grow in your love, allowing you to live within and through me. Be with me, bless me, guide me that through the sufferings of Lent I will find the resurrection of Easter that much more special.”

The Last Song

Every so often I love to watch a nice dramatic chick flick. I know I may be risking my manhood with this one…but this afternoon I watched the movie “The Last Song” with my sister. Say what you want about Miley Cyrus, I think this movie is yet another piece of evidence that Nicholas Sparks is a genius. It’s a beautiful, emotional, and funny story that I really enjoyed. It also centers on a theme that is central to our lives as Catholics: the idea that struggles aren’t necessarily always a bad thing.

Throughout this movie Ronny (Miley Cyrus’ character) undergoes tremendous maturity and growth. She starts out as a selfish, and quite unhappy, teenage girl. She is bitter about everything and just wants to do her own thing. However, at the end of the movie she is portrayed very differently, as a mature young woman. She comes to value and cherish her family. She even begins to embrace her musical talent, sharing her gift with those around her. It is a beautiful story about the transformation of this young girl.

What was it that brought about Ronny’s incredible transformation? It was the extreme struggles that she had to endure throughout the movie, especially her father’s illness and death. Just as Ronny seemed to be starting to get close to her dad, the poor guy has a terrible heart attack, is forced to give up playing piano because of his illness, and then dies. It almost seems unfair that Ronny would have to go through so many struggles over the course of just a couple months, but there is no doubt that she became a stronger person because of those struggles.

Do you ever wonder why life seems to be so unfair sometimes? Why do some people have to go through such extreme struggles? Divorce, teenage pregnancy, and painful illnesses such as cancer are just a few of the incredible struggles that people today have to endure. Although struggles like these could never be wished upon anybody, the fact of the matter is that they do exist. What then should we do with them? Should we lose hope, concede that life sucks and just give up? Should we concede that maybe God loves some people more than others? If God loves each of us as sons and daughters why would he let us struggle as much as we do?

To answer these questions we need look no further than the life of Jesus Christ. Through his life, God the Father fully revealed himself to us. Did Jesus ever struggle? Isaiah 53:5 says “But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed.” Jesus had to endure the struggle of the cross. Think about the physical pain: the blood, the whipping, the crown of thorns, carrying the weight of the cross, and the nails themselves. Think about the emotional pain: the ridicule, the embarrassment, the complete rejection by everyone. Think about the spiritual pain: having to carry the weight of all humanity’s sins on his back. Christ suffered more than anyone on this earth, but also think about the blessing of the resurrection that came about because of that suffering. Through the suffering of Christ the whole world was brought back to God’s love. How amazing is that!

God used the suffering of Christ to bring about extraordinary goodness to the world. Can’t God do the very same thing with our own sufferings? If we look at this movie in light of the Gospel, can’t we say that God was able to use the sufferings Ronny had to endure to make her a better person? In the same way, we need to have the faith and hope in our own lives to trust that God is always with us. God’s plan for each of us is far more complex, and even perfect, than we could ever understand. No, maybe it’s not always “fair”, that we have to endure the struggles and sufferings that life presents us with, but if we have faith that God plans on using those sufferings to help bring about the kingdom of God then those sufferings take on a whole new meaning, a holy meaning.

“Heavenly Father, today I want to offer up a new prayer, a somewhat unusual prayer. Today I want to thank you for my struggles, my sufferings. Thank you for allowing me to share in this most important, and most holy, part of the life of your son. Help me to have the faith and hope I need to trust that these sufferings are vessels that you will use to bring your infinite love into the world.”

Taken

One of my favorite movies of all time is “Taken.” It is a movie packed with action, drama, and suspense. It also features a plot that hits home for all parents, or older brothers like me, of teenage girls. Basically the parents of this 17 year old girl allow her to go with her friend to Europe to follow their favorite touring rock band. Her mother willingly lets her go, but her father Bryan (played by actor Liam Neeson) is extremely reluctant to give her permission. In the end, he was right as his daughter and her friend are “Taken” by slave traders.

When Bryan and his wife find out that their daughter has been taken, all happiness is sucked out of them. They have lost the most important thing in their lives, their beloved daughter Kim. However, the second Bryan finds out that Kim was taken his immediate thought is how to hunt down the people that captured her and get her back. He doesn’t waste any time weighing his options, the only option is to rescue her. The rest of the movie surrounds Bryan putting the skills he learned when he worked as an officer for the CIA to use in order to find his daughter. Although the situation seems almost impossible, Bryan is determined to go to extreme lengths to get her back. Nothing will stop him from seeing his daughter again.

The past few months I’ve been reading (and teaching my CCD class) about a section of the bible that I think many people are unfamiliar with, the books of Kings. This has really enhanced my faith life and stresses a theme which I think relates perfectly to what happens in the movie “Taken.” After King David, we see king after king after king “do evil in the sight of the Lord.” The Kings, as well as the Israelites themselves run away from their Heavenly Father, forgetting the covenant their fathers made with the Lord. As they continue to be more and more lost and “Taken” by their ways of sin and idolatry, the Israelites lose everything…their kingdom, their temple, everything.

Although the Israelites had run so far away from God, our Heavenly Father simply would not stop searching after his people. In the book of Ezekiel 34:11-12 God so lovingly tells us “For thus says the Lord God: I myself will look after and tend my sheep. As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep. I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark.” In this beautiful verse, God promises us that he will never give up on us, no matter how lost we get. Even if we find ourselves wandering into the thickest of darkness will always be there to look after and guide us as a shepherd watches his sheep. Just as in the movie Byron is determined to find his beloved daughter, God our Father is determined to never stop searching for us, his beloved sons and daughters.

In fact, God shows just how far he is willing to go to search us out and bring us back to his love in the very person of Jesus Christ. God wants to love us so badly that he himself came down to Earth to show us his love, and to save and redeem us. God himself shepherds us, just as prophesized in the book of Ezekiel, but not in some far off spiritual sense. He actually comes down to Earth to live among us. But wait…not only does he come down to Earth, he actually dies for us. Jesus Christ died the most horrific, most painful, most embarrassing death imaginable at the time. One of the most famous verses in the bible, John 3:16, reads “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” What more proof do we need of God’s incredible love?

Just like Byron never stopped looking for his seemingly lost daughter Kim in the movie “Taken”, God never stopped searching for the seemingly lost Israelite people. He is also looking for you and for me. He will never stop seeking us out until we open our hearts to receive him. I don’t know what God sees in me that he would offer me this amazing love that I am so unworthy of, but I am eternally grateful for that love that reaches out to me every moment of every day.

“Heavenly Father, thank you for loving me, for never giving up on me. You are my Father, my King, my Comfort, my Guide, my Lord and God. Help me to accept the love you are constantly offering to me. Help me to not be afraid to let you into the depths of my heart. Give me the strength and courage I need to allow you to live and through me, bringing your love to everyone I meet.”

Honesty

As kids, I'm sure you were used to hearing, "Honesty is the best policy." or "The truth shall set you free." These are not new revelations. They've been with us since the beginning of time it seems. However, in the past few months, or even years, I have come to realize what it means to be honest with myself, a whole new dimension to just an honest opinion.

I was watching a clip from the show 90210 on YouTube and this line stuck out, "I don't think you can see this right now but you're being honest with yourself and everyone else. It's only going to lead to good things!" Personally this struck a core because I have reached a point in my discernment where I am being honest with myself and things are starting to make sense. In a broader, more general sense though I think what this quote gets at is the thought of personal acceptance.

Many of the pop artists, athletes, celebrities, and average people seek tangible evidence to know they are accepted. Pop artists look towards record sales and views and fans to feel accepted. Athletes look towards their pay checks. Celebrities look towards the number of Oscars they were nominated for. {I know I am playing off of stereotypes but you get the picture} The thing is, all of those tangible pieces of evidence are temporal and fleeting. Their lime-light comes and goes. However, a sense of personal acceptance, a sense of being honest with yourself will last much longer and have a greater impact.

If you want to go far, you have to be honest with yourself. You have to accept who you are. Be comfortable in your own skin. There is always going to be someone to love you. There is always going to be someone to care for you. There is always going to be someone to offer you an umbrella on a rainy day or shelter in a storm or whatever other type of analogy you want to use. Anyways, there will always be people who love you and there will always be people who don't. So be yourself. Be honest with who you are. Let good things happen.

From my own experience, in being honest with myself and with others I have found peace even in times of opposition. I know my family is by my side. I know my friends are my true friends because they love me for who I am and not for who I make myself out to be. Honesty has done a lot for me. What's it going to do for you?