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Reflection for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2014

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We have a
Treasure

He said to them in reply, “Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

We are rich. We indeed have a treasure. We have built our Church and our local parish in which we participate in and increase our personal and collective treasure. This treasure makes our lives whole and complete. We are filled with true riches that will not fade away!

Our Holy Church expresses this well in the second verse of the Hymn of the PNCC: Unto Thee we built a temple, Which for us became a treasure, Pouring gifts of faith and courage, In it is our hope forever…

Our treasure gives us hope. Our treasure is all we gain through faith. Our treasure both increases in and is expressed by our weekly worship, prayer, study, and outreach to others.

This treasure is a secret, a mystery, to those without faith in Jesus. Even if they know a little about it, they miss the true meaning of that treasure when they fail to accept it into to their lives, or if they let their faith die because they do not enrich the soil that faith was planted in.

The soil that must be enriched is our faith lives. We need to enrich that soil regularly in worship, prayer, study, and outreach or our lives will grow shallow and our treasure will be scorched away. We need to pay attention and protect against neglecting our soil or the weeds of the world will take over and choke out our faith.

In the Holy Church, filled by the Holy Spirit, we worship, pray, study, and reach out. Our treasure grows and we become rich.

The treasure we possess and that grows day-to-day, week-to-week, and year-to-year by worship, prayer, study, and outreach is our eternal loving relationship with God. The secret of the kingdom of heaven is that God’s kingdom is a never-ending place of love, forgiveness, and mutual support. It is knowledge that we receive God’s free gift of love – grace – and that if we cooperate with that grace our lives will be enriched, we will advance into greater holiness.

Our treasure comes from the free choice we have made for God. The first disciples had that choice – to follow Jesus or to stay behind, to stay on the path with Him or to fall away. We have chosen to: “Love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind.”

The task ahead, our work, is to increase our treasure. Let us till the soil of our lives with worship, prayer, study, and outreach. Ask for Jesus’ grace of increase. Let us be very greedy for His treasure alone.

PNCC, , , , ,

Potential issue for parish treasurers

At a training session for church treasurers, an accountant discussed recent instances where an IRS auditor has disallowed a charitable deduction to a church. In each case both the church and the donation were legitimate and documentation was ample. The churches had mailed the required annual statement of cash donations received from the giver. These auditors are disallowing the entire year’s donations because the annual statement of donations did not contain the required boilerplate language, “No goods have been received in exchange for this donation.”

Parish treasurers should be aware of this potential issue and insert the required language in their donation statements as appropriate.

Regulations and law:

Under U.S. Tax Code Sec. 170, a taxpayer is allowed a charitable contribution deduction for a contribution or gift to or for the use of an organization organized and operated exclusively for charitable or educational purposes. Under Code Sec. 170(f)(8)(A), no charitable contribution deduction for any contribution of $250 or more is allowed unless the taxpayer substantiates the contribution with a contemporaneous written acknowledgment of the contribution by the donee organization that meets certain specified requirements. Under Code Sec. 170(f)(8)(B), the donee organization must state in the acknowledgment whether the donee organization provided any goods or services in consideration, in whole or part, for the contributed property or cash. If so, the acknowledgment generally must include a description and good faith estimate of the value of any goods or services provided. (Reg. § 1.170A-13(f)(2)) Under Code Sec. 170(f)(8)(C), a written acknowledgment is contemporaneous if it’s obtained by the taxpayer on or before the earlier of: (1) the date the taxpayer files the original return for the tax year of the contribution; or (2) the due date (including extensions) for filing the original return for the year. (Reg. § 1.170A-13(f)(3))

See articles on this issue here, here and at Law as Ministry.

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