Tag: <span>Charity</span>

September 10, 2020August 26, 2020

The Engine of Charity

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Sometimes St. Paul’s life presents itself, humanly speaking, as something of a lonely affair. He pours himself out continuously for others, “like a libation” (cf. 2 Tim 4:6), but he is unable to receive much affection in return: He travels too much to set down roots, and he lives in the midst of constant hardship and, ultimately, persecution.

And against this backdrop, consider the delicate sensitivity of his kindness and concern for others as expressed in the first reading. He is willing to forego eating meat because for some, the temptation to believe in idols is still very strong, and meat is the stuff of sacrifice to those idols.

His words clearly emphasize how important it is to consider the subjective situation of souls, even souls in error, when evangelizing. There are some in the Church that really believe that, if we are to be faithful, we must preach the bare, unvarnished truth in all its harshness without concern for others’ state, and let anyone who can’t take it “suck it up.” We sometimes forget that the reason Jesus Christ descended to earth and became man, and dragged a cross up a hill dripping in blood, was not to defend the unvarnished truth–but to make it accessible to people once again. And we forget how delicately and mercifully He has treated us in our own sin and error, and coaxed us toward the truth in a way respectful of our freedom and limitations.

Back to St. Paul. How did he keep giving so passionately, so selflessly, with such great sensitivity, in the midst of the physical and emotional harshness he endured every day? The answer lies in the Gospel.

In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus talks about extremes of charity (that is, selfless love of others) of the sort that St. Paul would come to embody. And He reveals at the end of the passage how such a lifestyle is sustainable. When you give yourself 100% to God, without holding anything back, and recklessly dedicate your whole life in His honor to the love and care of others, “gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap.”

His intimate, personal love for us is that “good measure.” It is real. In a life that includes even a short period of daily contemplative prayer and frequent reception of the sacraments, that love is something we can experience right here on earth. It is something as powerful as it is subtle. It is so powerful that it is the only sustenance we need in a rugged life entirely given over to passionate striving for the welfare of others.

The life of reckless charity powered by Jesus’ personal, intimate love for us could not be more distantly removed from the pitiful life of those who set no boundaries and exhaust their lives “in service of others” motivated by the hopeless longing for some crumb of kindness, some word of recognition, from the ungrateful people they serve, who only disdain them in their emotional neediness.

Reckless charity like that of St. Paul is given from a position of strength that comes from the most fulfilling and intimate relationship of love with the only One who can never disappoint.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to help you persevere in prayer and grant you in His time the full experience of an intimate relationship with Him, which involves purification and crosses, but also the greatest of joy. Ask Him to be the engine that powers in you a life completely given over to charity, that is, to passionate effort for the welfare of those around you.

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September 7, 2020August 25, 2020

Purification: A Means to an End

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Purification from sin is not like purification of water, where the object is a clear, sterile substance free from contamination. The objective of purification from sin is not the purification itself, for the sake of a soul unaffected by external entities.

Rather, the process of purification from sin is like the removal of clutter from a launching pad so that a rocket–which, unlaunched, is just a collection of earthy metal and chemical fuel–can shoot beyond the stratosphere to an entirely new reality.

Far from the sterilization of a substance from all external influences, as with the purification of water, purification from sin is like cleaning up a room for a party. Welcoming the outsider is the whole point of this purification process, for it is the person from the outside–the friend, the family member–who brings joy and makes the whole process worthwhile. Only, in the case of purification from sin, the “outsider” is the divine Guest, God Himself, who transforms our lives and takes them beyond earthly joy to an entirely new stratosphere.

As we see in today’s dramatic first reading and psalm, purification from sin is a truly critical part of welcoming this Guest. St. Paul describes it as handing over the flesh to Satan, so that the spirit may be saved. Pretty intense image. Reminds one of Christ instructing the Pharisees to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. Satan can have his sin. What we want is Christ.

Purification from sin is critical, for as today’s psalm says:

For you, O God, delight not in wickedness;
no evil man remains with you;
the arrogant may not stand in your sight.

Because of His own veneration of human freedom, and the limits He has put on Himself because of it, God cannot enter in where sin reigns. We must be fully purified of the reign of sin, like a clean room, before God can fully enter in as Guest of honor. Before the countdown sequence can begin to the launch of our souls to the infinite heights of God Himself.

And what is the destiny of this launch? What destiny are we preparing for as we “tidy up the launchpad?” Today’s gospel reveals it to us. It is certainly not sterile, perfect compliance with a dead book of rules that does nothing for anyone. The destiny is the infinitely potent Charity of the Heart of Christ. It is the passion, the thirst, and–importantly–the power, the glorious power to effect the salvation and happiness of our neighbor. It is the same powerful passion for others that leads God made man to cure a withered hand on the Sabbath.

Recently, a priest commented how the Holy Spirit is moving with His gifts in the world today–how we have those gifts at our fingertips, if we just have the faith to reach for them. Specifically, he was commenting how abundantly the Holy Spirit gives the gift of miraculous physical healing power to those who trust Him and reach out for that gift. It is the same gift by which Jesus heals in the gospel today.

But even more importantly, a life purified from sin and given over consciously and daily to God gradually grows in Charity to the point that that daily gift itself, regardless of how it manifests itself in external activity, brings about per se a continuous burst of additional actual grace from God, and many souls are healed, converted, and saved. If we knew the kinetic power of a purified soul, given to God in trust and love, all external endeavors would take on a relative importance to us and become filled with the joy of continuous awareness of our gift–the potency of our lives given freely and trustingly to God.

The destiny of purification is not purification itself, but the fullness of our lives to bursting with the joy of God and with His potent Charity.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to make your daily effort to turn to Him and away from sin not the drudgery of removing the impurities from something for the sake of purification, but the ordering of your soul for its true fulfillment in Him. Ask Him with passion and urgency to help you purify your soul so that He can enter in more fully. Most importantly, tell Him that the goal of your efforts is not your own spiritual “tidiness,” but your love for Him and for the people He loves. Ask Him in as your Guest, to fill your soul and your life completely, to bursting.

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August 10, 2020August 10, 2020

Lavish Charity

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

“Lavishly he gives to the poor.” (Ps. 112:9) “Lavish” is a word we usually associate with luxurious enjoyment, not giving. But the heart electrified with true supernatural charity, a virtue impossible to develop through practice but rather infused directly into the human soul from above as God’s greatest gift–such a heart gives lavishly.

Some virtues, such as honesty and temperance, are gained through practice and habit, like muscles built up through a daily workout. Supernatural charity, the queen of all the virtues, is more like a superpower than like a bulging muscle. It is more like Superman’s ability to fly than a strong man’s ability to lift. It is not proper to human nature; rather, it is itself a sharing in divine nature.

The soul that is infused with charity has a blessing and a cross. Such a soul is blessed with the heart of Christ: It senses the needs of those around it, large and small, and aches to fill those needs, more than it aches over its own needs. It invests the best of its powers of creativity, and passionate effort, into the happiness of others. But in this, its cross is compounded because it shares intimately in the crosses of others.

Thus, the soul infused with charity gives lavishly, gives to overflowing.

How do we “score” this gift from heaven, the gift of divine charity? It is simple, but not easy. We do so by dedicating time to get to know the Sacred Heart of Christ through meditation on the Gospel and conversation with Him, as well as through participation in the sacraments. It is not that charity comes “automatically” through these means. But, these are the means through which He ordinarily chooses to grant this gift, sometimes little by little, and sometimes in startlingly large doses.

Today is the feast of St. Lawrence, and the readings are chosen for him. This saint, a deacon in ancient Rome, a deacon among deacons, was known for giving lavishly to the poor. His heart was driven, impelled, by charity. And like the grain of wheat in today’s gospel, following in the footsteps of his Lord, he gave his life out of charity, out of love, as a martyr.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Talk to Christ about what drives His Heart. What did He feel when He healed people’s physical afflictions? Did He want His healing to go deeper? Did He feel passionate zeal for others’ happiness? What drove Him, dripping in blood and exhausted, to grasp a heavy cross and push it up the hill of Calvary?

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