O Christ, the Light of the world,

enlighten our minds.

May our faith in You be fruitful.

We give You praise.1

Charity and the Works of Mercy

“Love makes the world go round,” it is said, and for the most part this is true: God initiated creation, the providence of the world and the redemption of mankind from divine love. The restoration of all things in the Parousia will also be an act of eternal love. However, the quotation is false if understood in the modern sense where “love” is identified with “feeling”. If we equate love with sentiment and feeling then we are doomed to constant frustration in our lives. If we try to construct true love out of emotion we shall always be disappointed.

Indeed, it is this modern and contemporary misunderstanding that has allowed “charity to become cold”:2 marriages fail when “feelings” cease; families disintegrate when “feelings” are not acknowledged; and, friendship flounders when “feelings” are firstly self-interested self-seeking.

Although emotions swirl all about it, some quite wonderful and others rather horrid, love is not essentially feelings. Feelings may be perfectly good and lovely sometimes, but they are not free human acts. Emotions are responses to our environment and are not freely experienced; they are not anymore free than one can decide whether the snow falling outside the window is wet or not.3 Circumstances, whether outside or within, cause responses, and internally these reactions are called “feelings” or emotions.

The image of God in human beings includes the capability of free choice: free will. We can “fall into” sentiments and feelings, but we choose to love or not to love. As with any act of free will, knowledge, choice4 and action must be present. “Good intentions” are often simply velleities,5 and it is true that the “path to hell is paved with good intentions”. Making a free choice to do something good, but then not to put it into action is practically as lame as velleity. Virtue, beauty and true nobility exist only when something good is seen, chosen and then actually acted upon.

True love has two basic elements: wishing/choosing good is what we call benevolence; and, subsequently acting on this choice, beneficence is to actually do good. Any human action that lacks either of these elements is not “love”.6 It may be “feeling in love”, but it simply is not love. True love and the works of mercy can be accomplished only by freely chosen acts of the will. This is why true love “costs”7 and the ultimate expression of this is seen in the crucifix.8

Love is fundamentally a beautiful thing, and when it is inspired by divine grace – the true meaning of charity – then it becomes completely sublime. In English, it is unfortunate that we have only one word for love. Other languages and cultures have developed a more sophisticated approach and have often two or three words that describe the quite broad spectrum we call “love”.

“Love” these days, in its most general understanding, can mean anything from basic physical sexuality to self-sacrificing devotion; but when properly understood, “love” that is radically inspired by divine grace is properly known as “charity”. We confuse the two often, but it is better to speak of “God’s charity” or the “charity” in the context of grace rather than to lump all things into one – often air-headed and vague – idea called “luv”. Think flower-painted VW vans ………

Love, even in the world’s best understanding, is something that moves us beyond ourselves; it turns us toward others. Nonetheless, the fullest and divine understanding of love – charity – is that which originates in, properly belongs to, and is graciously given to us by God.

The supreme gift of our Savior to mankind, the result of His life-giving Death on Calvary, is God Himself in the Person of the Spirit – the immediate source of grace. This divine Living Water infuses into the human heart the love that is proper to Hidden One: eternal charity.

It is charity that constitutes the Christian as a child of God; it is what gives him the ability to love with the love that is properly God’s. Charity requires that we see so that we may judge correctly.9 Charity is a type of dilection proper to the children of God, one meant to be a sign of the authentic disciple of the Lord.10

As this divine Gift elevates the human condition to an altogether different plane of existence, it inspires the possessor to adopt moral actions that conform to this new dignity: he is to become an imitator of God.11 This moves us beyond “just being ‘nice’”. Anyone can be “nice”, only grace can transform us into the children of the Light.

Breaking us out of our own self-centeredness that comes, sadly, so naturally to each of us, grace inspires the Christian life to become a progressive conquest of freedom. It is less a question of shattering bonds, or of purification (these are only means) than of undergoing a “spiritualization”. Grace detaches us from not only our selfishness and places the world in clearer perspective. Grace permits us to judge “the world” correctly and unhook the moorings that tie us to this world here below. Freed from surrounding distractions, we are able to redirect our vision and begin to see reality with the eyes of the Great Light unclouded: charity grants wisdom and sight to those previously blind. This profound deliverance can derive only from the very Person of the Holy Spirit.12

Arriving now at this last week of Lent, “Hosanna Week”,13 we should reflect on the third classic “work” of Christianity: alms. Contrary to the common misunderstanding, “alms” is not “money given”, but is a modern contraction of the ancient word “ελεημοσυνη/eleémosúné”, the Greek word for “compassionateness”. One may easily recognize its cognate in “kyrie eleison”: “Have mercy on us, O Lord”.

While “money” may often be the way that compassion is expressed, it is not limited to this means. Rich or poor, each of us is able to be compassionate and do good, we need only begin to see and notice those around us. This is why “vision” and “sight” are necessary for charity to flourish. The blind man in today’s Gospel, once healed, follows our Lord. With true vision and the true ability to love as part of our lives, alms are inevitable.

Without grace a person can certainly be “good”, but only grace allows us to become Christ-like, that is, selflessly transformed in the liberating Spirit of Salvation; from which, we help other wounded individuals we find along the way.