When we think of charity, it is impossible not to remember the words of Saint Paul:
“If I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have no charity, I am like a ringing metal, or like a tinkling bell. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries, and how much can be known; and if I have all faith, even to the point of moving mountains, and do not have charity, I am nothing. And if I distribute all my goods for the support of the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, if, however, I do not have charity, none of this benefits me. Charity is patient, it is kind; charity is not envious, does not work rashly or rashly, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not suspect evil, does not rejoice in injustice, but rejoices in the truth. It tolerates everything, believes everything, hopes everything, suffers everything.”
This passage from the Gospel gives us the true dimension of what charity is and how hard it is to be charitable. Charity requires an enormous degree of self-knowledge. It demands of us the best part of us, the one we need to work incessantly.
Charity requires an enormous degree of self-knowledge.
Before Paul, Jesus left us the maxim: “Without charity there is no salvation”, as the main guide of conduct. Conducting our actions pondering this lesson puts us in front of virtues based on love, faith, benevolence and it is these virtues that lead us to the evolution of the soul.
Charity is benevolence, it is pity, it is the compassion one has for the pain of another. It is understanding with the heart what makes the other suffer. Feel what he feels, put yourself in his place to illuminate your own vision of the other. The most important thing in the act of being charitable is to feel part of the other, to understand that we are all made of the same essence.
Charity makes us see beyond our own navel, makes us seek what is most divine within us. More than not doing harm to another, it is doing good. We leave the comfort zone for the benefit of the other, we leave our interests for the interests of others and, even if we are not aware, when we take care of the other, we take care of ourselves.
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Being charitable requires action. Knowledge without action is nothing! It doesn't get us anywhere.
However, watching how we do this charity is even more important. If we let pride come first, charity is worthless. If charity only has the objective of showing how good you are, it has not achieved its objective. True charity is love, it is veiled, it is one that does not humiliate, that does not make anyone inferior.
Is charity in supplying those in need of material things? Yes, if that's the need. What mother who doesn't have anything to eat or clothe her children who doesn't feel happy and grateful to receive the supply? Who doesn't feel blessed when they realize that the other felt their pain? But there are other ways to be charitable. Giving a smile, listening to someone, visiting a sick person, hugging someone who feels sad, are so many ways to put love into practice. The Christian concept of charity is to be the subject of any attitude that generates a positive impact on someone's life, whether by acts, words or even positive thoughts sent to someone. Send light to those in need.
It seems strange, but we also need to be charitable with our own difficulties, we need to look at our own weaknesses and defects as opportunities for learning, without victimism, without guilt, without demands, feelings that only bring us down, that only bring us more. discouragement and difficulty getting up in the face of a difficult situation. To be charitable to us is to understand and look inside ourselves and realize what we need to change.
Finally, if we manage to base our attitudes on the maxim: “Love your neighbor as yourself: do for others what we would like others to do for us” (Gospel According to Spiritism, chap. XI), it will already be a great advance.
The practice of charity will be the fastest way to know true happiness.
