Last weekend, I quoted the first commandment in my homily and said that, among other things, it calls on us to put God first in our lives.  That, of course, is a very challenging thing to do, and the temptations to put others or things first is always there.  If one has put God first in terms of the gift of one's resources that have been obtained through hard work or in other ways (which the Bible promotes as at least a tithe or ten percent of resources) then what does this mean upon one's death?  I would argue that it means, as a final act of faith, that a person sees to it that at least ten percent of what they have or own when they die, goes to the Church and/or other charitable endeavors.  While some family members of the departed may be upset by this last act of faith (of putting God first) because they had hoped that all of it would be somehow given to surviving family members, others will learn a very important lesson and hopefully be inspired in faith, to follow that example when making decisions about where their assets will go when they die.  I must honestly say that in my nearly 30 years of priesthood in all of my parishes where I have celebrated the funerals of countless people, I rarely have seen bequests of people's estates coming to the Church.  I can only pray that more of us will recognize throughout our lives that everything we have is a gift from God and that our ongoing response to this truth is a generosity that is consistent till the day we die.