Easter season and tax season: How do we repay our debts

Monday is a new day. Easter is a memory.

Not in the Catholic scheme of things.

In the Catholic world Easter is a 50-day occasion that continues until Pentecost Sunday, which this year does not come until May 27.

These 50 days of Easter are a wonderful time to take stock of our lives - our new lives, redeemed by Jesus' great sacrifice as the second Adam, and made eternal.

What does it mean to be saved? To be given eternal life? To become an heir to the kingdom?

How do we respond to this incredible gift? How do we repay this incalculable debt?

Fortunately, our federal government facilitates this process with its own significant date: the deadline to file income taxes.

Usually this day of dread - not to be confused with Judgment Day, however much they may have in common - comes April 15.

This year everyone got a reprieve until April 17, and I could tell from all the bright smiles I saw on people's faces between April 15 and April 17 that everybody was just thrilled by this turn of affairs.

You too, right?

If you are wondering how the deadline for income taxes helps us to reflect on the meaning of Easter in our own lives, please stay with me.

The process starts when we calculate how much we are going to pay - or have already paid - to the federal government in taxes for 2006. Even if we are slated to get a "refund," the calculations reveal just how much we have paid out in taxes.

Large or small - a nickel or several grand - whatever we have to pay in taxes is money we don't have in our pocket or in our savings or that we didn't get to blow.

Not infrequently this sum is substantial. And if it is, we start to think of it in more tangible terms.

"Nuts, I paid the federal government the ski boat I'd like to own," we might declare.

"Are you kidding? They took a new car from me," another says.

"I lost a wardrobe," says a working mom trying to stretch her dollars.

"There goes my new kitchen," someone else muses.

"I blew the cruise I've always wanted and never had - again this year," a reluctant taxpayer concludes.

"It cost me a fishing vacation to Canada," a morose man volunteers.

"I could buy the kids new shoes with that," says another.

And so it goes.

It hurts.

That's when we're tempted to make a choice.

Not about taxes. There's no choice in taxes. Just try telling the IRS - and the judge who hears your case - that when it comes to taxes you're pro-choice, and you've chosen to skip paying in 2006.

A lot of judges like to say they're "pro-choice." But choose not to pay taxes and you'll soon learn they're not talking about something as important as money.

No, the choice we consider is not about taxes. It's about what we do with the rest of our money.

Once we calculate what we have to pay in federal taxes - and to avoid paying more than we must, we calculate what we paid in local taxes too - we can be sorely tempted to hold tighter to the money the government has not confiscated from us.

Maybe we want to hoard it to build a retirement nest egg. Maybe we want to splurge on some things we would have bought if we didn't have to pay taxes.

Whatever, there's a temptation to say we have to "look out for Number One."

And you know, that's not a bad thing.

Except we get confused about who number one really is.

In our culture, it's us - make that me. When we say "we are looking out for Number One," we mean we are looking out for ourselves. It's axiomatic.

Except, as our Catholicism reminds us - especially during this Easter season - we are not number one.

God drew that straw.

And the hardest part about being a human believer is remembering that.

Right now most of us know exactly what living in this incredibly blessed society cost us in 2006. Right now we may wish it had cost us less - maybe even nothing (although most of us are more grown up than that). Right now we may be thinking it's time to close our purse and hide it behind our back for as long as we can possibly manage.

But there's something else we calculate if we itemize when we pay our taxes. We calculate what we gave to charity - not to pat ourselves on the back, but to decrease the dent in our wallet. Good move: charitable giving is an allowable deduction.

But now that we have that number, what do we do with it?

Do we commend ourselves for making an admirable sacrifice - like the one made by the widow whom Jesus stopped to commend in Mark 12 and Luke 21 for her generosity? Do we assure ourselves that we have done enough - in our eyes and in our savior's eyes?

Or do we ask ourselves if we could do more this year?

And then resolve to do it?

By the grace of God, that's another choice we get. Enjoy.

Contact

Midwest Leadership Institute
http://www.MidwestLeadershipInstitute.net ,
Owen Phelps - ,

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