Sunday Meditation: Charity is an Act of the Will

Feed the hungry! Doing the ordinary duties of our state in life is an act of charity.

The epistle today in the Traditional Latin Mass is St. Paul's treatise on love, i.e., the divine virtue of charity. Many people associate love/charity with emotion. It is anything but! Charity is an act of the will, a decision made to treat others and ourselves according to God's plan for us. 

A person can be charitable toward someone who arouses feelings of disgust. St. Francis showed that when he kissed the leper. St. Catherine of Siena showed it when she drank the putrid water used to care for and wash a woman who treated her with contempt. St. Therese of Lisieux showed it when she treated a fellow nun as if she was particularly attracted to her when, in actuality, she could hardly bear to be around her. Charity, charity, charity!

My mom always emphasized the adage that "charity begins at home." Often the people we live with in our families offer the greatest challenges to charity. To smile and be gentle with a rebellious child, to be patient with a demanding spouse, to say yes to a reasonable request or need when we'd prefer to say no -- all these things call on us to exercise the supernatural virtue of charity. We will never do it perfectly; our actions will always be mixed with selfish motives. That doesn't matter. Doing good, even imperfectly, pleases God. 

Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Let us consider the duties of our state in life and persevere in charity.

All for the greater honor and glory of God with the help of Mary Immaculate who said, "Let it be done unto me according to Thy word." May the word of God take root in our hearts and grow.