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  55 3 Three Gifts and One Election The boy Nicholas, now about eighteen, grieved for his dead parents. He had received from them love and the blessing of baptism. He had seen in them the virtues of service, selflessness, and devotion. In death, they bestowed one more gift: all their worldly wealth. In their will they had left their son, their sole heir, a hefty inheritance. “When his parents departed from this earth to return to the Lord, they left him great wealth in gold and property.”1 It was his to do with as he pleased. Like the prodigal son, he could squander it on trifles. Like the slave given a talent by his master, he could bury it in the ground and do nothing. But Nicholas was destined to do something different. The biographer Michael the Archimandrite records Nicholas ’ personal musings during this time of transition: “Thinking hard about God’s goodness, he asked God that he might dispose of his life and his assets in accordance with His will.”2 He prayed the prayer of the Psalms: “Teach me to do your will, because you raised my soul” (Ps 143:10).3 He remembered the Psalmist’s caution about material wealth: “He keeps me away from all kinds of greed and worldly ambitions” (Ps 143:8) and “Do not be attached to riches, even if they abound” (Ps 62:11).4 Nicholas was wary of the temptation his inheritance The Saint Who Would Be Santa Claus  56 presented; it opened the gate to greed, worldly ambition, pride, gluttony, and self-destruction. He wondered what he should do to avoid such pitfalls. Michael tells us that he called to mind Proverbs 11:17, “The person who has compassion on the indigent and on the poor does good for his soul.”5 Perhaps Nicholas also recalled his parents saying it was better to give than receive. This well-worn proverb once sprang with startling freshness from the lips of Jesus, as quoted by Paul in a speech he gave to the church elders of Ephesus (Acts 20:35). And Jesus had more to say on the subject. His challenge had gone beyond the occasional act of kindness as he commanded his followers to give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, shelter to the homeless, clothes to the naked, care to the sick, and comfort to the imprisoned (Matt 25:34-40). His message was radical and demanding. To the rich young man, he said: “Go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Matt 19:21). Nicholas read in Scripture about how the first believers took care of one another and met each other’s needs out of their resources: “From time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles ’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need” (Acts 4:34-35). Indeed, one of the first official acts of the church was to elect seven individuals to see to the daily distribution of food to the poor (Acts 6:1-7). Christians were supposed to take care of each other. More than that, Christians were supposed to take care of anyone in need, even those they did not know or like. And the early church did these things to the astonishment of their neighbors. When non-Christians initially encountered the new-fangled religion of Jesus, they immediately noticed how its members took care of one another. Unlike other religious cults and spiritual societies, the Christians did not collect dues or charge induction fees. Tertullian (160–220), explaining Christian behavior to outsiders, said that members of the Christian community treated each other like family—mothers, brothers, [74.48.170.251] Project MUSE (2024-09-19 02:39 GMT)  57 Three Gifts and One Election sisters, fathers—and contributed money voluntarily.6 Not only did they take care of each other, these people of the Way provided for others as well—food and shelter for orphans and widows , clothing for prisoners who worked the mines, medicine for the sick and bedridden, and even graves and coffins for the recently deceased.7 And so it was that when young Nicholas uncovered the existence of three young maidens in Patara, all daughters of a once-wealthy man who had lost everything, he decided to act and in so doing “revealed his true...

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