Charity is a word which historically has had many meanings and uses. At one point in history, it defined the kind of self-giving love revealed in Jesus Christ (see the KJV translation of I Corinthians 13:13). Today it can refer to the actions of generous people and worthy organizations seeking to alleviate hunger, suffering, and poverty and to help support certain nonprofit organizations. Our national tax code defines what can be considered proper charities. Churches take advantage of these delineations. And charity can refer to the giving we do as we share from the surplus of our wealth. For many of us, our charitable giving comes only after all our needs and wants have been met. We give from the excess we enjoy in our privileged positions. Rarely do any of us give sacrificially. Whatever meaning and use we have for the word charity, most people view the term positively. And there certainly are charitable gifts which make a difference in the lives of people facing unfortunate circumstances in their lives. The church we are a part of operates a food pantry (among other programs). Such a charity makes a life and health (if not death) difference in the lives of those who come to secure enough food to make it through the week. Charity can be a worthy practice and a wholesome word.
So how, then, does charity become a dirty word? Let me suggest two ways in which what most see as an admirable quality can become suspect. When we engage in what we see as charity, it’s easy to see ourselves as generous benefactors of others. Out of the goodness of our hearts and from the abundance of our possessions, we choose to give to others what belongs to us but which we are willing to offer for their benefit. Often charity is given out of pity. In our advantaged and superior positions, we have pity on the “less fortunate” and give them some of what we think they need. But no emotionally healthy person wants to be pitied. We all need and appreciate compassion, but none of us wants pity. Pity is what someone who is advantaged and “superior” feels for someone who is regarded (consciously or subconsciously) as disadvantaged and “inferior.” We also want to feel good about our generosity. Like Little Jack Horner of nursery rhyme fame, we want to say (if not to others to ourselves) “What a good boy am I!”
We all need and appreciate compassion, but none of us wants pity.
From a Christian perspective, such attitudes and motivations are immature and blasphemous. The psalmist says, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” In other words, everything belongs to God. We own nothing. At most we are called to be faithful and compassionate stewards of what belongs to our Creator. We do not give anything to anyone. We share what already belongs to God after asking one question: What would God have me do with what God has placed in my hands? Jesus said that we are not even to let one hand know what the other hand is doing when we give to those in need (Matthew 6:2-4). Some people are eager to tell others of their charitable endeavors. Over the years I’ve seen people in churches make contributions to “those in need” who often want some form of recognition for their “goodness.” Jesus said that if that is why we give (to gain the attention of others), then that recognition is our full reward. But he goes even deeper. He says that even in the deepest recesses of our minds and hearts, we are not even to pat ourselves on our backs for our good deeds. Why? Because we have given nothing to anyone. God has given to us with the expectation that we share with others. Whatever we think we possess was never ours to begin with. (I know this biblical truth flies in the face of American crass capitalism, but I have to wonder which is more precious to us as followers of Christ: our commitment to God or our devotion to capitalism?)
Compassion demands at least a temporary surrendering of our rights and mistaken concepts of ownership to enter into solidarity with other human beings—to try and feel as they feel.
According to Jesus, compassion is the most important characteristic of God we are to emulate in our daily lives. Compassion is a matter of putting ourselves in the place of another and asking what we would want and need if we were in that person’s place. Such compassion demands at least a temporary surrendering of our rights and mistaken concepts of ownership to enter into solidarity with other human beings—to try and feel as they feel. And then to step back into our own selves and do what we can out of hearts of compassion, not out of any twisted sense of noblesse oblige. As we practice such compassion, we realize that to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves means to love God with all we are and all we have. That is the deeper meaning of the Golden Rule of “doing unto others as we would have them do unto us.” God does not call us to charity. God calls us to compassion and solidarity. God calls us to ask if WE are worthy to serve as stewards of what belongs to God and as the means whereby God can bless others.
Kahlil Gibran expresses this essential truth in his masterpiece The Prophet when he writes to those who often say, “I would give, but only to the deserving”:
And who are you that men should rend their bosom and unveil their pride unabashed?
See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving.
For in truth, it is Life that gives unto life—while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.
The medieval mystic Meister Eckhart expressed a similar thought: There is no such thing as “my bread.” All bread is ours and is given to me, to others through me, and to me through others. For not only bread but all things necessary for sustenance in this life are given on loan to us with others, and because of others, and for others through me.
St. Basil of Caesarea (d. 370 CE), who founded the first hospital, wrote, The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry man; the coat hanging in your closet belongs to the man who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belongs to the man who has no shoes; the money which you put into the bank belongs to the poor.
Luke, in Acts 4, wrote the following about the early church: Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet; and distribution was made to each as any had need.
And Paul writing in II Corinthians 8 regarding a collection for the poor in Jerusalem wrote, I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of equality your abundance at the present time should supply their want, so that their abundance may supply your want, that there may be equality. As it is written, “He who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack.” (This last sentence references the manna experience in Exodus.)
The second way charity can become a dirty word is when we substitute charity for justice. Archbishop Dom Helder Camara said that when he fed the hungry, he was called a saint. When he asked why they were hungry, he was called a communist. The status quo of any society (most of the time) has no problem with “charitable giving.” Our society will even provide tax deductions for such charity. In the minds of some “evil geniuses” throughout our nation’s history, charity has been understood as a safety valve to remove just enough pressure from the “pressure cooker” of our unjust and oppressive society to maintain a system which increasingly rewards the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor and weak. Charity can become a way of pretending to deal with the unfortunate circumstances of other people’s lives. Instead of making needed changes in the structures of a society and its systems, we comfort ourselves with the thought that we have given our pennies or dollars to help the worthy poor in our midst. Don’t misunderstand me. We need food pantries. They serve as emergency centers for hungry families. But we need to spend more of our resources trying to change the structures of a nation in which one in every five children goes to bed malnourished and hungry every single night. Imagine what the trillion dollars plus tax cuts for billionaires and corporations could do for hungry people in this world. God does not ask us just to practice charity. God asks us to do justice. All the “charity” in the world cannot begin to bring about the changes so necessary for justice to “roll down like a river and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24).
God does not ask us just to practice charity. God asks us to do justice.
So, yes, charity is unfortunately still needed in our world because of the oppression and inequity which still plague the human race (as well as those times when natural disasters and famines unexpectedly wreak havoc on our world). But what is needed so much more is justice. Jesus said, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and its justice.” He was affirming what Hebrew prophets demanded centuries before him. But let there be no doubt that such commitment will come at great cost for those who seek God’s will in this unjust world. Saints and martyrs like Archbishop Dom Helder Camara, Archbishop Oscar Romero, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are powerful witnesses to the cost of seeking first the rule of God on this earth and fleshing out what it means to realize that none of us owns a damn thing. It all belongs to God, and because God is in solidarity most of all with those in need (Matthew 25), we should have enough integrity to share what is already theirs.
