Charles Feeney was a highly successful businessman; in fact, Forbes magazine listed him among the top 400 richest Americans, with a net worth of about $400 million. Still, he was a shabby dresser, wore a $15 watch, flew coach everywhere, and didn’t own a house or a car. That doesn’t sound like your typical multi-millionaire, but it turns out he was worth far less than estimated. Why? Because, over his career, he had been giving it all away.
Over the years, hospitals, schools, service groups, and others received random checks supporting their efforts. For a long time, no one knew where they came from, but eventually the truth surfaced. It was Charles Feeney. Until he was discovered, Charles Feeney had donated over $4 billion anonymously! By 2012, after his secret was revealed, he had given away $6 billion. There’s a biography about him: The Billionaire Who Wasn’t: How Chuck Feeney Made and Gave Away a Fortune Without Anyone Knowing. His actual net worth at that time was only 1% of the $400 million estimated by Forbes. When he died in 2023, he had nearly nothing except a rented two-bedroom apartment and a $15 watch. He had given $8 billion to those in need.
Jesus said, “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Maimonides, the 12th-century Jewish rabbinic leader, taught that ”the highest form of giving was anonymous and selfless.” Both of these teachings seem to be lessons that Chuck Feeney sincerely practiced.
And Fr. John, I thought we were celebrating Saints Simon and Jude. Yes, we are, yet these two saints are as anonymous as Charles Feeney’s giving was for all those years. Simon is listed in all three of the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), and Jude is named in the list of apostles in Luke’s Gospel and in the Book of Acts, but there is no agreement that he is the author of the epistle of Jude in the New Testament.
Legend has it that they preached in the area of Persia and eventually came together in Mesopotamia, where pagan priests martyred them for their faith. Apart from that, there’s nothing more.
The connection I see between Simon and Jude and someone like Charles Feeney is the fact that Simon and Jude, like Feeney, lived very anonymous lives and gave so much to advance the Gospel, yet, aside from being named occasionally on lists, there is silence. They sacrificed everything, even their very lives. Not for fame, but for the glory of God.
St. Josemaría Escrivá writes, “When you have finished your work, do your brother’s, helping him, for Christ’s sake, so tactfully and so naturally that no one—not even he—will realize that you are doing more than what in justice you ought. This, indeed, is virtue befitting a son of God!”
We are called to do the work of God, like Simon and Jude, like Charles Feeney, not for the praise of men, but for the glory of God.
Candle in a Cave 