Lent begins on Wednesday, and three specific tasks that the Church encourages Christians to embark on every Lent are prayer, fasting and almsgiving. In his 2008 message for Lent, entitled 'Christ made Himself Poor for You', Pope Benedict XVI said that almsgiving helps Christians conquer the constant temptation to become slaves to wealth and material goods.
The Pope said that besides assisting those in need almsgiving is "an exercise in self-denial to free us from attachment to worldly goods... (and teaches) us to respond to our neighbour's needs and to share with others whatever we possess through divine goodness."
Christians must also resist the temptation become the centre of attention when they give alms. This, Pope Benedict XVI notes, is "a great temptation" in today's world which is dominated by images. "Almsgiving, according to the Gospel, is not mere philanthropy; rather it is a concrete expression of charity, a theological virtue that demands interior conversion to love of God and neighbour, in imitation of Jesus Christ."
The Pope says that almsgiving transcends the purely material dimension. "Every time when, for love of God, we share our goods with our neighbour in need, we discover that the fullness of life comes from love and all is returned to us as a blessing in the form of peace, inner satisfaction and joy."
The Pope said that among the spiritual fruits of almsgiving is the forgiveness of sins. "The fact of sharing what we possess with the poor disposes us to receive such a gift".
He also referred to the Gospel story of the widow who, out of poverty, cast into the Temple treasury "all she had to live on".
"We find this moving passage inserted in the description of the days that immediately precede Jesus' passion and death, who, as St Paul writes, made himself poor to enrich us out of his poverty; He gave his entire self for us. Lent, also through the practice of almsgiving, inspires us to follow his example. In his school, we can learn to make of our lives a total gift; imitating him, we are able to make ourselves available, not so much in giving part of what we possess, but our very selves. Cannot the entire Gospel be summarised perhaps in the one commandment of love?"
The Pope's message in English can be found online at: www.vatican.va.