YES!

Tonight I witnessed one of the most beautiful, yet simple, acts of selflessness.

At Our Lady of Holy Souls Catholic Church in Little Rock, a small basket is placed at the foot of the altar during collection time. While baskets are passed around the pews by ushers of the church for the adults, children have the opportunity to take their tithes up to the altar. It’s a blessing of great joy to watch children bring up tithes, despite the well-regarded, purposefully overlooked fact that the parents gave the children this money (in most cases, anyhow.) This particular evening, though, proved to be especially eye-opening, meaningful, and eye-moistening.

A young Hispanic boy who appeared to be about nine years old stepped up to the altar and dropped what looked to be his grandmother’s tithe envelope. At first, there was nothing about this event that carried much meaning. (Other than the important inclusion of children in the act of tithing.) Yet, as the young boy had turned to walk back to his grandmother, he took two steps and then stopped suddenly. I scoured his face to see if I could ascertain any hints of why he suddenly stopped. Did he put the wrong envelope in? Did he miss the basket? Did he have a change of heart?!

What he did next was both surprising and moving.

He reached into his pockets. He pulled out some change. He turned back toward the altar and headed back to the basket. Then he dropped his change into the basket.

Immediately, I teared up. The boy had given everything, and I was witness. You could tell the boy stopped suddenly, not because he forgot something, but because God tugged on his heart. I could sense that God told him that he hadn’t given Him everything yet. Being a good son of our Father, this boy listened to the movements of God’s heart in his own and acted upon the intentions of our Lord.

“Give me everything,” God said.

And this young boy did exactly that. Every penny he had on him he dropped in the basket.

Listening to the clinks as the change fell, it left me with the impression that it wasn’t very much money. However, the amount was inconsequential. It did not matter that the boy didn’t drop a twenty. It mattered that he gave it all to God.

What a beautiful and inspiring moment of selflessness and obedience!

While reading this, I am sure you are reminded of the story we read in Luke and Mark’s Gospels of the Widow and the Mite. Jesus makes it very clear that although the widow only contributed a few cents, she gave more than all the rich contributors to the church’s treasury. I’m fact, she gave it all – all she had.

I cannot say for sure how often we get to live our lives and then watch a story from the Gospel recreate itself before our very eyes. What a beautiful gift from God to be a witness for such a moving action of Love.

The beauty is not the amount of money given, but that all was given to God. This is the key message that God needs us to understand. He wants it all! All of us! Everything we are, everything we have, everything! It’s all God’s anyway. Everything that makes us He gifts to us. He asks that we give it all back to Him for His glory.

This young boy from Mass answered God’s call with a yes. How often do we say yes to this calling…this, dare I say, obligation…to give it all back to God?

Speaking truthfully, I know that I hold back a lot from my Heavenly Father. All sorts of self-imposed barriers have been set up around me to prevent me from giving all…fear, pride, indecision, lack of faith, blindness, ignorance, selfishness, anger. These barriers serve to prevent me from being able to consistently say “Yes!” to God and give Him my all. When I say no to God, opportunities to bring Life into people, places, or circumstances are lost. Times where I could be gifting someone a little bit of Jesus never come to pass. How tragic!

We all have experienced moments where we feel the nudge in our hearts from the Holy Spirit to do something in very specific moments of our lives. The young boy felt the nudge to give all of his money, for example. When we say “Yes!” in those moments, then we essentially allow God to breathe His Breath of Life into the situation. That moment in time then becomes Life-Bearing and God can bring to Life the dried bones that we read about in Ezekiel.

This is our battle-ground, our mission, our Raison D’être. Christ give us the Graces needed to say “YES!”