Charity: A Return of Charity
Nwanyanwu Christopher
The
great philosopher of the social sciences Aristotle is noted among other
assertions for saying that man is a social being. He lives necessarily in the
society or he is either a beast or a spirit. The society is the agglomeration
of many other human beings who come together naturally to achieve a common good
which is manifested in the individual happiness achieved. Of course, this
individual happiness achieved would not have been possible without the aid of
others. This therefore goes on to reveal the insufficiency in the life of man;
for at every point in time of his life, he is never sufficient for himself,
since the help of others are sort in the attainment of his happiness. And as
the adage goes “No man is an Island”.
Debatably,
man can live alone. But let he who claims such put himself in the position of
our beloved famous Robinson Crusoe. At least his experiences while he was away
from the community of human beings will be enough to make the initial claim
very weak if not dead in the end. His experiences show that without the other
human beings life is not better if at all it is good. Thus, man lives on and
depends on the charity of others in one way or the other, consciously or not
and in the society too.
Man
from the moment of birth has always been a receiver of charity from some
people. The first set of acts of charity he receives is from the parents who
brought him into the world and continue to care for him. As a child, he is
being fed, bathed, clothed, etc. When he grows, (based on the uniformity of
nature) he is being socialized by various agents. He receives so many acts of charity
from people in different ways. Even as an adult, man continues to live under
the charity of others. Although at this stage, he begins to take responsibility
of whatever act of charity he receives perhaps in form of payment. But the fact
remains that those services which he receives whether he pays for them or not
show how dependent he is as he relies on people’s charity to live a meaningful
life. That is why he as a doctor will need the services of a lawyer to defend
him in court, the services of a mechanic to keep his engines in good
functionality, the services of a painter to beautify his house, etc. All these
are the manifestations of man’s dependence on others for survival.
From
the foregoing, one may jump to conclude that we receive acts of charity only
from human beings. This is not the case, as there is another set of acts of charity
which are not just particular but universal in the sense that the human acts of
charity are derivative of this superior acts of charity. These superior acts of
charity come from God whose own acts of kindness are boundless and
unconditional. Starting from birth, God continues to shower man with gifts. He
provides life for man and the basic things he needs in the society at least the
raw materials and the intellectual capacity to harness them into better things
for good living. He grants man journey mercies as he travels, provides him with
the rain and the sun which contribute to the good of man’s ecosystem as the
growth of agricultural products are enhanced.
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In
the society, there are those who are lacking so many things which we have if
not abundantly. The natural task before us becomes that of extending our hands
to these people around us. There are beggars everywhere who need our help, is
it not our duty to help them? There are those who do not measure in academics
as understanding is also difficult for them; we have no other duty but that of
assisting these people. More to this, there are those around us who lack some
basic things which we know we could offer them. Is it not our duty to provide
them with those things provided that we have the resources as our good
conscience reports to us? And so in considering the above we cannot fail to let
us know that Charity can be done in several ways such as giving gifts, sharing
one’s grief moment, assisting people in their work etc.
Further
to the above, I want to say that Charity is a Christian demand. This is because every Christian is called to
extend his/her hands in charity to those around. In fact Charity is an
expression of compassion which in itself is an expression of sympathy and
concern for others not just in thought but in actions. At least it is a value
of Christianity to do charity. The New Dictionary of Catholic spirituality
describes compassion as:
The capacity to
be attracted and be moved by the fragility, weakness and the suffering of
another. It is the ability to be vulnerable enough to undergo risk and loss for
the good of the other. Compassion involves a movement to be of assistance to
the other, but it ineluctably entails a movement of participation in the
experience of the other in order to be present and available in solidarity and
communion.
From the above, it
therefore means that we all should have that natural feeling of compassion for
the poor state of the other which will instantly and constantly spur us to
charity. And we can deduce that whoever does not consider the act of charity as
worthwhile lacks the spirit of compassion.
Come to think of it,
what has one that is not a gift from God ultimately or particularly by others.
If it is wealth which was got through hard work perhaps, was it not from God
that the hard work came even if we abandon the fact that God has put all human
elements in the process of giving one that wealth? If it is intelligence, who
gives such gift except God? What can one claim to have without receiving it
from God ultimately? None! Therefore, all gifts possessed by man came from God.
The essence of those gifts is not only for the achievement of personal
happiness but for the good of all those around. That is why who ever do not use
his gift well by helping others will lose it if not gradually and unnoticed.
And so these gifts are God’s charity which we receive from him and most often
unconditionally.
Your intelligence,
wealth, smile, cheerful faces, neatness, sound judgment, and other qualities
and talents are not meant for you alone. They are meant for you and others. In
fact by sharing out what we have, we are not doing something new since it is
just in a similar way that we received
from God and others. Charity is reciprocal. The acts of charity we express are
just a return of the same charity we had received. All we have should be used
to help those around us.
However, we cannot
neglect the fact that being charitable has some negative effects. This is the
case when the one who is helped depends solely and constantly on the giver to
the extent that he the receiver doubts his abilities and is not contributing
anything of his/her own in the assisting relationship. At this point it lies on
the giver of the charity to offer another act of charity by building up the
receiver in such a way that he/she could be a bit independent. Also, the act of
charity will actually cost one a lot. It will cost one the patience and the
spirit of endurance to accept whatever feelings people put up against the act
of charity shown. It will also need the giver to be greatly self-less, but not to
the point of being a total loser at the end of the day. Nevertheless and
finally, we are called to return the acts of charity received from God and
others by extending our hands in charity to all those around who need our help.
The varied experiences of people at the end of time as recorded in Matthew’s
Gospel chapter 25 should be ever green to us. Let us return the charity we have
received by being Charitable always!
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