Another appeal for charity?

Today is Charity Sunday. Some might react and exclaim: What? Yet another appeal for charity? It is true that the number of appeals for charity every year is enormous. Fund-raising activities are held for myriad causes. And more appeals keep on mushrooming. It seem that there is no end to them in sight.

Charity is more than almsgiving, understood as money giving. Charity is the natural consequence of our being created in the image and likeness of God. Our God is love. And whenever we love, we act like God and become like God. Since charity is the highest form of love, whoever indulges in it is acting in the most truly and intimate human way, and he/she is acting akin to the acts of the divine.

This love has to be externalised in different ways. Finding time for those who feel lonely or those who need it more than anything else, is one example. There are many others: engaging in voluntary help, lending an eager ear and an open heart are two others. Money giving is another concrete way of showing our love to others. Whenever we give time or money we are donating important things for all of us. Such giving is a basic need of the person who gives as much as it is a help for the person who receives.

On such occasions as Charity Sunday the monetary part of it is the aspect which is most emphasised. There are so many projects that are a dream and not a reality because there isn't enough money around. So many people can have an improvement in their quality of life if many others give donations that do not in any way dent their high standard of living.

We never give enough to be able to say that we gave as much as we received in life. So we should never tire of giving.

I was naked and you clothed me. I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me to drink. This is what the Good Lord will ask us when we face Him in our day of judgment. There we will be totally naked except for our deeds of charity. They will be our clothes.

Need we write more?