Concrete expressions of charity

This year, Charity Day, organised by the Church Secretariat for Social and Charitable Action, falls on Sunday and will have as its main theme: The Poor Are Always Among You.

On this occasion please allow me to share with readers some reflections donated to us by Pope Benedict XVI. This would help us deepen our knowledge on the true sense of Christian charity.

The practice of almsgiving represents a specific way to assist those in need and, at the same time, an exercise in self-denial to free us from attachment to worldly goods.

Almsgiving helps us to overcome the constant temptation to make material riches an idol. It teaches us to respond to our neighbour's needs and to share with others whatever we possess through divine goodness.

This is the aim of the special collections in favour of the poor, which are promoted in many parts of the world. In this way, inward cleansing is accompanied by a gesture of ecclesial communion, mirroring what already took place in the early Church. In his Letters, St Paul speaks of this in regard to the collection for the Jerusalem community (cf. 2 Cor 8-9; Rm 15, 25-27).

The Gospel teaches us that we are not owners but, rather, administrators of the goods we possess: these, then, are not to be considered as our exclusive possession but means through which the Lord calls each one of us to act as a steward of His providence for our neighbour. Material goods bear a social value according to the principle of their universal destination (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2404).

In the Gospel, Jesus explicitly admonishes the one who possesses and uses earthly riches only for self. In the face of the multitudes, who, lacking everything, suffer hunger, the words of St John the Evangelist acquire the tone of a ringing rebuke: "How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help?" (1 Jn 3,17).

In those countries whose population is majority Christian, the call to share is even more urgent because their responsibility towards the many who suffer poverty and abandonment is even greater. To come to their aid is a duty of justice even prior to being an act of charity.

St Matthew's Gospel highlights a typical feature of Christian almsgiving: It must be hidden: "Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing," Jesus asserts, "so that your alms may be done in secret" (Mt 6,3-4). Just a short while before, He said not to boast of one's own good works so as not to risk being deprived of the heavenly reward (cf. Mt 6,1-2). The disciple is to be concerned with God's greater glory. Jesus warns: "In this way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven" (Mt 5,16). Everything, then, must be done for God's glory and not our own.

This understanding must accompany every gesture of help to our neighbour, avoiding that it becomes a means to make ourselves the centre of attention. If, in accomplishing a good deed, we do not have as our goal God's glory and the real wellbeing of our brothers and sisters, looking rather for a return of personal interest or simply applause, we place ourselves outside of the Gospel vision.

In today's world of images, attentive vigilance is required because this temptation is great. Almsgiving, according to the Gospel, is not mere philanthropy, rather it is a concrete expression of charity, a theological virtue that demands interior conversion to love of God and neighbour, in imitation of Jesus Christ, who, dying on the cross, gave His entire self for us.

How could we not thank God for the many people who silently, far from the gaze of the media world, fulfil, with this spirit, generous actions in support of one's neighbour in difficulty? There is little use in giving one's personal goods to others if it leads to a heart puffed up in vainglory. For this reason, the one who knows that God "sees in secret" and in secret will reward does not seek human recognition for works of mercy.

In inviting us to consider almsgiving with a more profound gaze that transcends the purely material dimension, the Holy Bible teaches us that there is more joy in giving than in receiving (cf. Acts 20,35). When we do things out of love we express the truth of our being. Indeed, we have been created not for ourselves but for God and our brothers and sisters (cf. 2 Cor 5,15).

Every time when, for love of God, we share our goods with our neighbour in need we discover that the fullness of life comes from love and all is returned to us as a blessing in the form of peace, inner satisfaction and joy. Our Father in heaven rewards our almsgiving with His joy. What is more, St Peter includes among the spiritual fruits of almsgiving the forgiveness of sins: "Charity," he writes, "covers a multitude of sins" (1 Pt 4,8).

God offers to us sinners the possibility of being forgiven. The fact of sharing with the poor what we possess disposes us to receive such a gift. Pastoral experience points to those who realise the weight of the evil they have committed and, precisely for this reason, feel far from God, fearful and almost incapable of turning to Him. By drawing close to others through almsgiving, we draw close to God; it can become an instrument for authentic conversion and reconciliation with Him and our brothers.

Let us remember the Gospel story of the widow who, out of her poverty, cast into the Temple treasury "all she had to live on" (Mk 12,44). Her tiny and insignificant coin becomes an eloquent symbol: This widow gives to God not out of her abundance, not so much what she has, but what she is: her entire self.

We find this widow's testimony inserted in the description of the days that immediately precede Jesus' passion and death, who, as St Paul writes, made Himself poor to enrich us out of His poverty (cf. 2 Cor 8,9); He gave His entire self for us.

Every season of Lent inspires us to follow His example. In His school, we can learn to make of our lives a total gift; imitating Him, we are able to make ourselves available, not so much in giving a part of what we possess, but our very selves in solidarity. Cannot the entire Gospel be summarised perhaps in the one commandment of love?

The practice of almsgiving thus becomes a means to deepen our Christian vocation. In gratuitously offering himself, the Christian bears witness that it is love and not material richness that determines the laws of his existence. Love, then, gives almsgiving its value; it inspires various forms of giving, according to the possibilities and conditions of each person.

The Church constantly invites us to train ourselves spiritually, also through the practice of almsgiving, in order to grow in charity and recognise in the poor Christ Himself. In the Acts of the Apostles, we read that the Apostle Peter said to the cripple who was begging alms at the Temple gate: "I have no silver or gold but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk" (Acts 3,6).

In giving alms, we offer something material, a sign of the greater gift that we can impart to others through the announcement and witness of Christ, in whose name is found true life.

Mgr Victor Zammit McKeon