When did Christ become a product?

Over the last few weeks, it became clear to me. It became clear as to how the Church is just seen as a product. What am I getting from the Church? If I give the Church ten dollars, what am I getting for the money? If I give more, will I get more? If I give less, will I get less?

It is interesting how St. Paul argues that Christ always gives us more than we could even think. To Christ, it was never a question of what He was going to get for those ten coins. Could have Christ paid off the soldiers to not kill him? Probably. Could have Christ chosen to calculate how much His life was worth? Maybe. However, Jesus never looked at His financial wealth as a way to get ahead in the world. You never hear Christ making the argument, "if I can afford to give twenty, but only give ten, everything is good".

One can see Jesus speaking about our net worth as how much we are willing to give away. Are we willing to give away everything we own? Are we willing to risk our name and profession to follow the teachings of the Church? Many of us will say it depends on what the sin is. However, reality is we must be willing to risk everything. We must be willing to risk our name, our future, our life to follow Christ. We must see that the ten dollars we give the Church is more that what we get from the Church.

The product, we are purchasing each time we walk into a church, is knowing that we are willing to risk our own lives to follow Christ. We are willing to go against society and tell people to not buy into the craziness of seeing God as a product. Christ already paid for our redemption. Christ died on the cross for us. We need to understand that we are not getting any product for attending Mass. Instead we are called to give. We are called to give of our hearts and love like Christ. This is a hard task. However, the less we see the Church as a product, the more we are able to give fully to Christ.