Apr 28 Tue
Should I be charitable to everyone?
Charity embraces everyone, in the right order.
The Parable of the Good Samaritan describes how, about halfway between Jerusalem and Jericho, just beyond the mountains, some robbers came upon a defenseless man who was easy prey. "They stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. A priest and then a Levite passed by; … and passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion. The Samaritan didn't placate his conscience with the thought that he owed the wounded man nothing. Rather, he saw himself as indebted to the stranger.
"I cannot love the devil, Saint Josemaría said, but I love all those who are not the devil, everyone without exception. I don't see myself as anyone's enemy. I'm opposed only to the ideas that oppose the faith and morals of Jesus Christ. But we need to understand those who hold these ideas, and pray for them."
Christ taught us to love those who do us harm, to wish everyone well, and to understand even those who fail to understand us. “For Christians, loving means ‘wanting to love’, making up one's mind in Christ to work for the good of souls, without discrimination of any kind; trying to obtain for them, before any other, the greatest good of all, that of knowing Christ and falling in love with him."
"Our Lord spurs us on: ‘Do good to those who hate you, pray for those who persecute and insult you.’ We might not feel humanly attracted to those who would reject us were we to approach them. But Jesus insists: we must not return evil for evil; we must not waste any opportunities we have of serving them wholeheartedly, even if we find it difficult to do so: we must never cease keeping them in mind in our prayers."
Our charity should be universal and self-sacrificing like the good Samaritan's charity, who did all he could without asking himself who it was he was helping. We too should love in this way, without discrimination of any kind, which would imply small-heartedness. Saint Josemaría helped us with his continual example here. "I welcome everyone, he said. I keep my heart and the doors of our houses always open to everyone, for I couldn't commit the injustice of depriving a single soul of Christ's charity."
Charity expands our hearts to make room for all: "You have enlarged my heart,” sings the Psalm. Charity is a supernatural gift, a work of God, that transcends every human difference. "You have to do things for Christ. It's good for you to have a human heart, but if you do things only for such-and-such a person, that's bad! Though you also do it for that person, do it above all for Christ."