886. What is the true meaning of the word charity as employed by Jesus?

"Benevolence for every one, indulgence for the imperfections of others, forgiveness of injuries."

Love and charity are the complement of the law of justice; for, to love our neighbour is to do him all the good in our power, all that we should wish to have done to ourselves.

Charity, according to Jesus, is not restricted to alms-giving, but embraces all our relations with our fellow-men whether our inferiors, our equals, or our superiors. It prescribes indulgence on our part, because we need the same ourselves; it forbids us to humiliate the unfortunate, as is too often done. How many, who are ready to lavish respect and attentions on the rich, appear to think it not worth their while to be civil to the poor; and yet, the more pitiable the situation of the latter, the more scrupulously should we refrain from adding humiliation to misfortune. He who is really kind endeavours to raise his inferior in his own estimation, by diminishing the distance between them.

887. Jesus has also said: Love your enemies. But would it not be contrary to our natural tendencies to love our enemies, and does not unfriendliness proceed from a want of sympathy between spirits?

"It would certainly be impossible for a man to feel tender and ardent affection for his

enemies; and Jesus did not intend to prescribe anything of the kind. To 'love your enemies' means to forgive them, and to return good for evil. By so doing, you become their superior; by vengeance, you place yourselves beneath them."

888. What is to be thought of alms-giving?

"To be reduced to beg degrades a man morally as well as physically; it brutifies him. In a state of society based on the law of God and justice, provision would be made for assisting the weak without humiliating them; the means of living would be insured to all who are unable to work, so as not to leave their life at the mercy of chance and of individual good-will."

- Do you blame alms-giving?

"No; it is not the giving of alms that is reprehensible, but the way in which it is too often done. He who comprehends charity as inculcated by Jesus seeks out the needy, without waiting for the latter to hold out his hand."

"True charity is always gentle as well as benevolent, for it consists as much in the manner of doing a kindness as in the deed itself. A service, if delicately rendered, has a double value; but if rendered with haughtiness, though want may compel its acceptance, the recipient's heart is not touched by it.

"Remember, also, that ostentation destroys, in the sight of God, the merit of beneficence. Jesus has said: 'Let not your left hand know what your right hand doeth;' teaching you, by this injunction, not to tarnish charity by pride and vanity."

"You must distinguish between alms-giving, properly so-called, and beneficence. The most necessitous is not always he who begs by the wayside. Many, who are really poor, are restrained from begging by the dread of humiliation, and suffer silently and in secret: he who is really humane seeks out this hidden misery, and relieves it without ostentation.

'"Love one another;' such is the divine law by which God governs all the worlds of the

universe. Love is the law of attraction for living and organised beings; attraction is the law of love for inorganic matter."

"Never lose sight of the fact, that every spirit, whatever his degree of advancement, or his situation in reincarnation or in erraticity, is always placed between a superior who guides and improves him, and an inferior towards whom he has the same duties to fulfil. Be therefore charitable; not merely by the cold bestowal of a coin on the mendicant who ventures to beg it of you, but by seeking out the poverty that hides itself from view. Be indulgent for the defects of those about you; instead of despising the ignorant and the vicious, instruct them, and make them better; be gentle and benevolent to your inferiors; be the same for the humblest creatures of the lower reigns; and you will have obeyed the law of God."

SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL

889. Are there not men who are reduced to beggary through their own fault?

"Undoubtedly there are; but if a sound moral education had taught them to practise the law of God, they would not have fallen into the excesses which have caused their ruin. It is mainly through the generalisation of such education that the improvement of your globe will be ultimately accomplished." (707.)