How Much Should We Help Others? A Reflection on Giving, Sacrifice, and Inner Peace

How Much Should We Help Others? A Reflection on Giving, Sacrifice, and Inner Peace

Growing up Catholic, certain teachings from the Bible etched themselves deep into my thinking. One in particular always stayed with me:

“If someone asks for your shirt, give him your coat as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two.”

I used to ponder: What does this really mean? Is it a call to blind generosity? To submission? Or something deeper?

For much of my life, I interpreted it quite literally — if someone asks for something I have, and if giving it brings more joy or benefit to them than it costs me, then I should give it. If someone makes my life difficult, perhaps I should still try to walk the extra mile — not because I must, but because choosing peace over resistance might serve me better.

But then I wondered: Is this foolishness? Shouldn’t we protect our time, our energy, our boundaries?

Over the years, I’ve come to understand these verses not as a call to passivity, but as a radical invitation to choose generosity and peace — intentionally. If someone wants to borrow something that still benefits me, yet benefits many others even more, I now try to share it freely. I might even give away the coat too.

And if resisting an unwanted burden only adds more tension and robs me of peace, sometimes it's wiser — and kinder to myself — to shoulder it quietly and move forward. It’s not weakness. It’s wisdom guided by peace.

After all, our journey on this earth is brief. The things we cling to — our possessions, our pride, our power — will not follow us when we go. What truly matters is the good we do, the lives we touch, the suffering we ease. Whatever faith or belief system we hold, if it leads us to love, uplift, and care for others — then it’s pointing us in the right direction.

Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice — not just by dying on a cross, but by choosing to give up what was rightfully His, so that others might live.

“If you want to gain your life, you must lose it.”

To me, that means letting go of our obsession with material things, power, lust, and greed — so we can embrace something deeper, something eternal.

Because in the end,

There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for a friend.

And maybe, just maybe, the most generous thing we can give is not a coat or a mile — but our time, our presence, our peace.