THE GOSPEL OF CHARITY

 
THE GOSPEL OF CHARITY

I am grateful to Father David Noone for visiting us this weekend to celebrate confessions and Mass.  Father Noone is representing Unbound, an international nonprofit which is located in Kansas City and was founded by lay Catholics to provide practical help to the needy in poor countries around the world.  You are probably aware that it is a custom in parishes of the Archdiocese to regularly welcome missionaries and representatives from Catholic aid organizations to bring their message to us and make us aware of the important work they do in the name of Christ, who said “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 26:40).  The appeals made to us by the workers in the field open us to a more universal perspective on the charity works of the Church, and they give us an opportunity to contribute to this work.

Jesus said, “You will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me” (John 12:8).  He has returned to his Father in heaven, but he continues to identify with the poor in the world, so that what we do for them we do for him.  The need to give has always been an important tenet of Judaism and Christianity.  Moses, Israel’s lawgiver, taught the Hebrews to care for one another and for the orphan, the widow, and the sojourner who had no home.  “When you give, give generously and not with a stingy heart; for that, the Lord your God will bless you in your works and undertakings.  The land will never lack for needy persons; that is why I command you: ‘Open your hand freely to your poor and to your needy kin in your land’” (Deuteronomy 15:10-11). 

It’s interesting that the only time that Jesus is directly quoted in the Acts of the Apostles is in St. Paul’s farewell address to the elders of Ephesus: “In every way I have shown you that by hard work of that sort we must help the weak, and keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus who himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (21:35).  It is more blessed to give because this was the whole life of Jesus.  He gave himself to the Father, to his disciples, to the sick and blind and possessed, to sinners, and in the end, even to his enemies, whom he forgave from the Cross.  We are blessed when we give because the charity of God that is within us becomes active and is strengthened.  Without charity we will not gain heaven.  Divine charity within the soul “inspires a life of self-giving” (Catechism #1889). 

The giving of self, of course, involves more than donating our income, although that is an important and necessary element of the good works we are called to do.  Giving from our means should be integrated with the practice of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.  The corporal works of mercy are to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, to shelter the homeless, to visit the sick, to visit those in prison, to bury the dead, and to give alms to the poor.  The spiritual works of mercy are to instruct the ignorant, to counsel the doubtful, to admonish the sinner, to comfort the sorrowful, to forgive injuries, to bear wrongs patiently, and to pray for the living and the dead.  Some of these may be accomplished by our charitable donations, but some of them require our personal effort.  God has something good, some work of charity, for all of us to do. 

We give because we love God and we ourselves have received so much from him.  Our faith in Christ is the source of our desire to give to others.  “Faith in God’s love encompasses the call and the obligation to respond with sincere love to divine charity.  The first commandment enjoins us to love God above everything and all creatures for him and because of him” (Catechism #2093).  Finally, let us consider how important it was to Saint Paul to take up a collection from the churches in Greece and Asia Minor for the Christians in Jerusalem, which was suffering from a famine.  Let us consider his words with care:  “Consider this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.  Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:8).