A Few Special Thoughts on Charity
Jesus made the message rather clear on the that fatal but glorious weekend. He washed their feet (Jn 13:1-11) and told them to do the same. He gave them the new law. “Love one another as I have loved you.” (Jn 15:12) He disclosed that love on the cross. (Jn 19:17-30) Then on Sunday evening, amidst the scene dominated by feelings of guilt for their betrayal, fear for their life and total confusion, He offered the world-shattering greeting, “Peace be with you.” (Jn 20:20)
We have much to learn about charity from these events.
POPE FRANCIS
In The Joy of the Gospel, Francis describes how far we are from that fundamental Christian goal of love for one another. “How many wars take place within the people of God and in our different communities! In our neighborhoods and in the workplace, how many wars are caused by envy and jealousy, even among Christians. Spiritual worldliness leads some Christians to war with other Christians who stand in the way of their quest for power, prestige, pleasure and economic security.” (#98)There is no limit to the ways the human heart can separate, cut down and divide in hostile and destructive ways, often in the name of righteousness and even love.
With individuals, groups and peoples, the hostility of division, separation and outright hatred are accepted as a necessary in the name of security and survival.
“It always pains me greatly to discover how some Christian communities, and even consecrated persons, can tolerate different forms of enmity, division, calumny, defamation, vendetta, jealousy and the desire to impose certain ideas at all costs, even to persecutions which appear veritable witch hunts. When are we going to evangelize if this is the way we act?” (#100)
This does not even include the more universal source of hurt and pain, the family.
TERESA OF AVILA
Teresa’s teachings on personal charity are clear, simple and powerful. The fundamental expression of the Christian life is our love for one another. Even prayer comes in a deep second to this all-important truth. Secondly, she stresses the need for humility – to see our own reality as sinful but forgiven in the mercy of God. She points out how Jesus taught us to seek forgiveness not because we pray faithfully, not because we are great servants of the Gospel, not because we are generous to the needy. We are taught to seek forgiveness because we forgive!Mercy was the firepower Teresa employed when talking about charity. God loves us in our brokenness without condition and without limit. We need to show that same mercy and love with our brothers and sisters.
Teresa also offered a great bit of wisdom when she talked about the volatile concept of “honor.” This notion has the great ability to divide and separate individuals and groups and peoples. Even the slightest infringement of “honor” in its manifold expressions often activates a torrent of animosity. Teresa summarizes her teaching quite simply. What is known as “honor” and what is good for our spiritual growth, are incompatible. ’Honor” contributes nothing to our search for God in the footsteps of Jesus. “Honor” sows the seeds of division and hostility. Humility fosters peace and healing.
In The Interior Castle, as the individual arrives at third third stage of spiritual growth, there is real progress. The new arrival is in a good place. However, there is one urgent requirement: growth in self-knowledge. One needs to become aware that the egoism, so blatant in previous struggles and victories, has gone underground. It often surfaces in the guise of virtue. It is particularly prone to be wrapped up in self-righteousness that runs over many a person in pursuit of a distorted sense of the good. Any parish or even local communities, faculties or various groups of employees are virtual minefields of ego-agendas waiting to explode because of this reality. Another common example is those who use “the truth” to build walls of privilege and exclusion.
THOMAS MERTON
Thomas Merton has his usual profound comments on this issue of charity for the sisters and brothers. He talks of our manipulation of the situation with the concept of “worthiness” as the measure of our love. “A basic temptation: the flatly unchristian refusal to love those who we consider, for some reason or other, unworthy of love.” (Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, p. 171) We use sophisticated mind games to list the beneficiaries of our love and others who often become the recipients of our aloofness, suspicion and even contempt.“God is asking of me, the unworthy, to forget my unworthiness and that of all others, and dare to advance in the love which has redeemed and renewed all of us in God’s likeness. And to laugh, after all, at the preposterous idea of worthiness.” (Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, pp. 171-72)
We need a life of prayer that will open new possibilities where selfishness has labeled others not worthy and not fitting of our love. We need to look at the Cross. We should ask ourselves, who does Jesus exclude as not worthy and not fitting for his sacrificial love?
FRANCIS: PART II
Francis, ever the pastor, asks us to pray so we can understand the call of love. Obviously, it is so simple and clear. Yet our broken human nature manipulates us to distort and torture the call to love into all kinds of self-deception and self-righteousness. This clearly violates the Gospel mandate to love one another. Francis says, “We need to love in spite of everything. Yes, in spite of everything!” (#101) We can all fill in the blanks with our personal stories of life’s unfairness and evil. Francis calls us beyond these hurts to pray for those who have offended, hurt or even violated us. “To pray for the person with whom I am irritated is a beautiful step forward in love.” (#101)We all have the possibility of this love and reconciliation within us. We all have the seeds of peace and the seeds of justice in a loving heart. We hold the possibility of a new harvest of the bread of life. This happens when we open our heart, clear it of all the false deception and distortion, and simply walk with Jesus on the way to love, service and reconciliation. The feet of our sisters and brothers are waiting for the cleansing touch of our love.
