Give
to him who begs from you, do not refuse him who would borrow from you...You
received without pay, give without pay."
(Matthew)
To act out of charity then is to come to
the aid of our neighbor in his spiritual and bodily needs. Works of charity or mercy include forgiving
and bearing wrongs patiently. The
corporal works of mercy or charity include: feeding the hungry, sheltering the
homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned,
God blesses those who come to the aid of
the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them. It is by what they have done for the poor
that Jesus Christ will recognize his chosen ones. Love for the poor is even one of the motives
for the duty of working, so as to "be able to give to those in
need." Wow, that's a really strong
statement (Catechism #2443); a reason for working is to be able to give money
away! We are responsible for what we do
with our money, or you could say we are stewards of our money. But what if we don't know anyone who needs
housing, or who is hungry? One of the
ways to help is to give to reputable organizations that do know who is in
need. Another way is to give to Church
collections for various needs, or keep the food pantry full, or put money in
the poor box.
St. John Chrysostom maintains, "Not
to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them
of life. The good we possess are not
ours, but theirs." Heady
words. How do we choose what to keep and
what to give? The question seems to be
what do we need? Anything more than a
need is to be given away, but it must be given generously, with a loving heart,
or it does no good.
I am sure you
have heard that everything we have is a gift from God. If we say we worked hard for what we have,
consider where our talent came from, and the gift it is to have a job when so
many in the world don't. If we only
consider what we do have then we will realize that the poorest of us is richer
than most of the world. To thank God for
his many gifts, we give our gifts.
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