Do we really need our garage-sale profits?
By Rev. Paul Donlevy
Almost everybody
is familiar with Jean-François Millet’s famous painting,
The Gleaners. Painted in 1857, it portrays three peasants bent over
picking up a few stalks of wheat and grains of wheat after the harvesters
have passed through the field. Although not a religious painting, it
caused me to think of a passage in Leviticus 19: 9-11: “When you
reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges
of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not
strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard;
You shall leave them for the poor . . . .”
‘Tis
the season for garage sales. Up and down our streets through this spring
and summer, garage sales will pop up like dandelions on front yards
and driveways. Folks will be cleaning out material they’ve had
in their garages, basements, attics, even in rented storage stalls,
all expecting to get rid of clutter and pick up some extra cash. Churches
will be having garage sales too.
Viewing Millet’s
Gleaners and reflecting on Leviticus 19: 9-11, I have become increasing
uncomfortable. If this passage says what I think it does, it applies
to us garage sale entrepreneurs.
Leviticus
shows that the harvest we didn’t pick up the first time is to
be left for the poor. No going back for the missed sheaves, overlooked
olives or the fallen grape. They belong to the poor.
Don’t
our “leftovers” fall into the same category? It’s
all material we have no use for and perhaps never did. These items are
just taking up space, so we might as well cash in on them. For most
of us, the extra cash would be a handy supplement but not life-changing.
We have lived without it for the last year or more and our lives have
not suffered because of it.
My conscience tells me that stuff we’ve been hoarding or selling
should be used, not for our own added comfort or amusement, but, as
Leviticus teaches, for the poor.
Sure, some
of us might truly depend on the extra cash to get us through, for example
to renew car plates or for emergency dental work, but for most of us,
it’s just plain extra cash to play with.
I believe
we are looking at a modern-day gleaner’s opportunity with our
garage sale-laden streets.
If we have
lived quite well without the goods being sold, or without the extra
cash up until now, we are like the owners of the field who have already
gathered in the harvest. Now we should leave the rest for the needy.
What does
this mean?
It means
that we should donate those goods to those who need it. It means that
if we have a garage sale, the money should be used for them, and not
us. This should also apply to our parishes. When a parish has a garage
sale, is it to provide something really necessary for people, or simply
to decorate the church or pave the parking lot? If our essential needs
have been met and we have lived quite well without it to this time,
then the funds should be used for the poor.
My clutter
embarrasses me because it’s a reminder that I have much when others
do not. The excess really belongs to the poor.
Here’s
an added thought: that tax refund I’ve been waiting for. Isn’t
it the same?
Blessed garage
sale season! Many happy (tax) returns!
Donlevy is chancellor for the Saskatoon diocese.
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