Mar 24 Tue
What kind of alms should I give to the poor?
“Giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God.” Charity toward the poor comes in many forms: we can give them fish for a day or teach them to fish.
What constitutes “the poor” encompasses a broad range, from destitution to struggling to make ends meet. Charity to the former may include money and clothing; to the latter, it could include scholarships for school or free training for a profession. The point for the giver is to meet the need, whatever that may be, in order both to ease the recipient’s suffering and to enable him to feel God’s love through our compassion. In doing so, we show “a preferential love” for the poor that is a hallmark of a true disciple of Christ.
'May God give you health.' - Doesn't this wish for mere physical well-being, with which some beggars demand or acknowledge alms, leave a bad taste in your mouth?
One should not be “reductionist.” What about the “spiritually poor?” In our day, sad to say, real spiritually poor people exist in droves: first, the lonely, depressed, addicted, and suicidal are some of them. Of course, these have nothing to do with the “poor in spirit,” who are the humble before God.
Then, those who live without God in their lives are also spiritually poor.
As with material poverty, spiritual poverty has a range: those who do not know God or have forsaken Him are the most destitute; those who have God but not Christ are a rung up; those who have Christ but not the Catholic Church are less poor but still suffer from not having their needs completely met; those who are Catholic but do not attend Mass are blind to their poverty.
The spiritually poor surely need to receive charity too. Should we exclude them from among “the poor”? What should this charity be?
Some think, from a materialistic worldview, that faith is relative, and secondary to persons’ “real”— that is, material — needs. Holders of this view may well believe in Christ, but they do not think, contrary to our Lord’s repeated warnings and the continuous teaching of the Church, that what they believe matters or has anything to do with salvation.
Yet Saint Josemaría told us, Agreed: your concern ought to be for 'them.’ But your first concern must be yourself, your own interior life. Otherwise, you will not be able to serve them.
"You need interior life and doctrinal formation." Be demanding of yourself! As a Christian person, you have to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, for you are obliged to give a good example with holy shamelessness.
Don’t place obstacles in the way of grace. You need to be convinced that to be leaven, you must become a saint and must struggle to identify yourself with Him.
Your interior life and your formation include the piety and the principles a child of God must have, to give flavor to everything by his active presence there.