After my Dad stopped driving, I had the opportunity to take him for his semi-annual checkups at the Kirklin Clinic in Birmingham. And most every time he came out, he’d comment on how much the doctor said he weighed ... and how it differed from the reading he got on the scale in his bathroom! He’d say, “The Doctor said I weighed 193 and I only weigh 185!” Well, surely the doctor’s scale had to be wrong! Has that ever happened to you? You step on the scale at the Pharmacy or your Doctor’s office and you say, “That couldn’t possibly be right. This scale must be wrong!"

Scales are devices that are used to measure the weight of things ... and for ages ... to this day ... they’ve been used to measure the weight of things ... that we buy. When you go to the Deli to get some boiled ham or roast turkey, they slice it and lay it on a scale and they mark the price on it ... you buy it by the pound. Whether its meat or potatoes or flour or tomatoes, when you buy something by weight, you’re trusting that the weight recorded by the scale is accurate and true. You expect it to be the honest weight. Now in order for scales to read accurately, they have to be adjusted and calibrated. And it’s this calibration step that opens the door to dishonesty. If a scale is set to read more that it really should, then the person selling the product is secretly cheating the customer! The customer is paying for more than they’re getting.

That’s cheating ... and that’s the sin that the Prophet Amos is chastising the people for in our First Reading today. He accuses the people of “fixing their scales for cheating.”
In other words, if they set their scales were set to read 10 pounds of potatoes, when the real weight was only 9 pounds ... then they were fixing their scales for cheating. And Amos was calling them to stop it by reminding them that God sees everything ... that He sees their every misdeed ... and that another scale is going to be used against them ... the scale of divine Justice! People who secretly cheat their neighbor may be able to pull the wool over their eyes at the time, but the day will come when all their misdeeds done in this life will be placed into God’s scale and then they’ll get to see how wrong their actions were in the sight of God. God warns, “Never will I forget a thing they have done.”

The opportunity to cheat our neighbor is still with us today. How do people cheat others? People cheat on their company expenses. (talk about biting the hand that feeds you!) People cheat on their income taxes. (putting down less than they made or claiming more deductions than they really deserve) People cheat by misrepresenting the true condition of things ... by selling used goods as new, or damaged goods as ok, or turning back the speedometer on vehicles. Well, any gain that they receive will be short term. And their dishonest act will be placed on the wrong side of God’s scale of Justice!

Our God is all good and all just and he wants us His creatures to demonstrate His goodness and His justice in the way we treat one another. Cheating is unacceptable to God because He treated us more than fairly ... when He paid the full price of Redemption for all of us. Yes, all of us were ransomed from death ... we were purchased by God ... and at a Huge Price ... nothing less than the Blood of His Only Begotten Son!

Paul reminds us of this in our Second Reading from First Timothy when he writes “Jesus Christ gave himself as ransom for all.” You see there was no way that any man could balance the scales for the offenses that man committed against God. It took the God-man, Jesus Christ, to pay the full price for our sins ... by offering Himself up to death ... for our salvation. No, God didn’t cheat us ... He paid the full price of our redemption. And so He doesn’t want us to cheat any of our neighbors. And ... He certainly doesn’t want us to cheat Him!

In our Gospel today, Jesus calls us to think about this. He says: If you’re going to be dishonest with the passing wealth of this world, How could you ever expect to be worthy to have the true wealth of heaven? It’s clear that there are many ways to cheat our neighbor. But you might ask, how does anyone cheat God? Well, it’s right there in the Book of Malachi where God says, “Dare a man rob God. Yet you are robbing me!" 

The 2017 goal for the Holy Spirit / St. John parish family is $75,000. The 2017 goal for our whole Diocese is $4.1M. Thanks to you ... we make both goals every year. Where does that money go? Part of it will go to fund the training of our Seminarians! We currently have 8 Seminarians studying to become Priests of the Diocese of Birmingham ... with the tuition totaling $30,000/ year for each of them! We currently have 28 men studying to become Deacons of our Diocese ... with monthly instruction, food and lodging being provided. Our Diocese operates 11 Catholic Centers of Concern across the northern half of the State of Alabama ... including Birmingham, Huntsville, Anniston & Tuscaloosa Last year, we helped 38,600 people with food, clothing, prescriptions, rent and utilities! That’s about 150 people per day or 14 people per location per day! Our Diocese funds Catholic Family Services that have their 4 main offices in Birmingham, Huntsville, Florence and Tuscaloosa. Last year we helped 2,300 people with counseling sessions, foster care for children, assistance for unwed mothers and placement of children for adoption! Last year we continued to offer assistance to 135 persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities with ongoing religious education and pastoral care.

It’s through Catholic Charities that we’re able to provide Diocesan-wide support for Black and Hispanic Ministry, Campus Ministry, Evangelization activities and the St. John Vianney Residence for Retired Priests. Realize that Catholic Charities is actually our Annual Diocesan Appeal. For it is through your Catholic Charities contributions that we receive the funding needed to run all of the many ministries of the Diocese for the following year. Please don’t look at this as money given over your tithe ... but just within your tithe.

Yes, I ask you to consider giving 5% of your Tithe to this Parish Church ... 1% of your Tithe to Catholic Charities ... and 4% of your Tithe to the Charities of your choice.  Like you ... I give to many educational and community charities such as 6 different Schools, 3 different Veterans Groups, 5 other Community Organizations like Habitat for Humanity and the American Cancer Society, 6 different Pro-life Groups like the American Life League, Her Choice Birmingham and Choices Pregnancy Center here in Tuscaloosa ... plus another 15 charities like the Nashville Dominican Sisters, Mercy Home in Chicago, Covenant House in New Orleans, and EWTN in Irondale.

These Charities of your choice all fall within our 10% Tithe ... ... giving to charities is giving to God. Realize that what we do for the least ... we actually do for the Lord ... and the bonus is that ultimately we do it for ourselves ... as many of the services of Charites are performed for ... people in our Church and our Community. For those of you who are registered in our Parish, you may have received ... or will receive this week ... your personal pledge card. I hope that you will take time to pray about how you will participate in this important opportunity. I give you a little reminder in my Pastor’s Desk column in the Bulletin. For those of you who are not registered, please take a Pledge Card and Brochure in the vestibule. You too, think and pray about this opportunity to honor God’s plan.

Perhaps you will commit to give 1% of your income to Catholic Charities. Perhaps some of you will choose to give more or less than that amount. Whatever your decision, even if you decide not to give, I ask you to fill out your Pledge card accordingly and bring it to Church next week. At the offertory, you will have the chance to bring your pledge card forward to the altar and place it in a basket as a sign of giving of your first fruits back to God.

Please give prayerful reflection to your giving decision.

Trust God in His plan of tithing. He calls us to give back to Him the first fruits of our labors. And we know that if we do, God will never be outdone in generosity! Remember, God didn’t cheat us ... He paid full price for our Redemption! So, let’s not cheat God out of His due! He asks for 10% of our income. Let’s give him His Tithe and designate 1% of it ... to Catholic Charities.

Thank you and God bless you!