Resurrection and Charity
Resurrection Sunday – April 5, 2015
THEODORUS THE ASCETIC said, “The patriarch Abraham offered hospitality to everyone who passed by his tent, even the bad-mannered and undeserving. Because of this, he also entertained God’s angels. If we practice unconditional hospitality, we may welcome not only angels, but also the Lord himself. Jesus told us, ‘As you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me’ (Matthew 25:40). It is good to be kind to everyone, especially anyone who is not able to repay you.”
[Bernard Bangley, By Way of the Desert, p. 373]
The final spiritual practice in the Wisdom of the Wilderness series is charity. For some of us, charity is a weak word, a word to be avoided. Actually, charity is love in action, self-giving, and the generous offering of oneself for another.
Of course, today is Easter, the day on which we remember and celebrate Resurrection. Resurrection entails far more than the historical event of Jesus’ raising from death. It is also more that “what God does for me.” Christ is alive not only for me, but for every person and every living thing. Resurrection means that Christ is alive in the world, and that within other humans we can find the risen, living Christ. Thus, I am invited to see others differently . . . each person on the planet is someone for whom Christ is somehow alive.
Because life in the desert was harsh and demanding, the Monks of the Desert made much of offering hospitality to others, especially to strangers. Their lifestyle may have been austere, but they believed that love of God compelled them to offer charity to those who came to them.
They believed that in opening themselves to others, they were entertaining Christ himself. In fact, there are numerous stories from the tradition of the Desert Christians in which dreams and visions revealed to these holy men and women that in entertaining strangers, they had, in fact, encountered Christ.
A couple of centuries later, Benedict of Nursia made this the byline of his Rule of Life: “Greet the stranger as you would Christ.” To this day, Benedictine monasteries keep their doors open to wayfarers and other strangers who pass their way. I have been in monasteries to see this happen myself . . . hitchhikers and vagrants who wander in off the highway, given a place to stay and a meal by a monastic community always alert to the presence of “Christ among us.” I watched the beauty of this kind of expansive charity right before my eyes.
Such charity and hospitality is entirely consistent with the nature of God. I have come to experience that fundamentally, God is endlessly self-giving. For me, that is the essence of mercy. It is also entailed in grace. God’s self-giving never depletes God, that is, God gives from a never-ending source.
That self-giving nature of God is behind the Resurrection, which offers the life of God endlessly to the world . . . Jesus alive always and everywhere.
So one of the ways I am invited into Resurrection and into the life of God in the world is by offering myself. In other words, as I give of myself freely and generously, as God has given to our world, I extend charity (love in action) to others and to the world.
In this sense, Resurrection is never a private consumer product to be held onto, but is always to be shared, given away.
Charity.
Hospitality.
Self-giving.
THEODORUS THE ASCETIC said, “The patriarch Abraham offered hospitality to everyone who passed by his tent, even the bad-mannered and undeserving. Because of this, he also entertained God’s angels. If we practice unconditional hospitality, we may welcome not only angels, but also the Lord himself. Jesus told us, ‘As you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me’ (Matthew 25:40). It is good to be kind to everyone, especially anyone who is not able to repay you.”
[Bernard Bangley, By Way of the Desert, p. 373]
The final spiritual practice in the Wisdom of the Wilderness series is charity. For some of us, charity is a weak word, a word to be avoided. Actually, charity is love in action, self-giving, and the generous offering of oneself for another.
Of course, today is Easter, the day on which we remember and celebrate Resurrection. Resurrection entails far more than the historical event of Jesus’ raising from death. It is also more that “what God does for me.” Christ is alive not only for me, but for every person and every living thing. Resurrection means that Christ is alive in the world, and that within other humans we can find the risen, living Christ. Thus, I am invited to see others differently . . . each person on the planet is someone for whom Christ is somehow alive.
Because life in the desert was harsh and demanding, the Monks of the Desert made much of offering hospitality to others, especially to strangers. Their lifestyle may have been austere, but they believed that love of God compelled them to offer charity to those who came to them.
They believed that in opening themselves to others, they were entertaining Christ himself. In fact, there are numerous stories from the tradition of the Desert Christians in which dreams and visions revealed to these holy men and women that in entertaining strangers, they had, in fact, encountered Christ.
A couple of centuries later, Benedict of Nursia made this the byline of his Rule of Life: “Greet the stranger as you would Christ.” To this day, Benedictine monasteries keep their doors open to wayfarers and other strangers who pass their way. I have been in monasteries to see this happen myself . . . hitchhikers and vagrants who wander in off the highway, given a place to stay and a meal by a monastic community always alert to the presence of “Christ among us.” I watched the beauty of this kind of expansive charity right before my eyes.
Such charity and hospitality is entirely consistent with the nature of God. I have come to experience that fundamentally, God is endlessly self-giving. For me, that is the essence of mercy. It is also entailed in grace. God’s self-giving never depletes God, that is, God gives from a never-ending source.
That self-giving nature of God is behind the Resurrection, which offers the life of God endlessly to the world . . . Jesus alive always and everywhere.
So one of the ways I am invited into Resurrection and into the life of God in the world is by offering myself. In other words, as I give of myself freely and generously, as God has given to our world, I extend charity (love in action) to others and to the world.
In this sense, Resurrection is never a private consumer product to be held onto, but is always to be shared, given away.
Charity.
Hospitality.
Self-giving.
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