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Joshua 21:7 "The Merarites according to their families received from the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad, and the tribe of Zebulon, twelve cities."

 

The Merarites were one of the three families of Levites, the other two were the Kohathites and the Gershonites. The leaders of these families had come to Joshua and Eleazar, the chief priest, and reminded them that God told Moses that the Levites, the priestly tribe, were supposed to be given cities and pasture land. Each family was, therefore, given land out of the inheritance of the other tribes, with the Merarites receiving theirs from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Zebulon. (Joshua 21:1-8)

 

This is making me think about how we all have to pitch in to support the Church. It is there for all of us. It's there for all of humanity, really, but until such time as all of humanity realizes that, those of us who are Catholic have to do what we can to support it. When the required support is spread out among all of us, it is not very burdensome at all. The non-priestly tribes of Israel gave up about four to five cities each in order for the Levites to have land among them. If any one of those had balked, the contribution from the others would have been that much greater, and that tribe would have not had priests among them.

 

Unfortunately, today, many Catholics support the Church minimally, or not at all. Most of the support in parishes, both financial and servce related, comes from a very small percentage of the people. It gets tiring, seeing the same people step up every time help is needed, and it is tiring for those people to always be the ones giving of themselves. If everyone would just give a little bit more each, the burden would be lessened on the few, and the community would be stronger. We all appreciate something more if we've contributed to it, and the Church is worth appreciating!