Personal Active Charity
Mother Teresa once commented, “Love is not patronizing and charity isn’t about pity, it is about love. Charity and love are the same — with charity you give love, so don’t just give money but reach out your hand instead.”
As Franciscans, we are called to give more than money and donations. We are called to reach out with our hands, to take a personal active role as best we can.
St. Francis himself was not afraid to make his charity personal. Thomas of Celano noted in his first life of Francis that our Seraphic Father did more than kiss a leper once.
“And then the holy lover of all humility betook him to the lepers, and was with them, serving them all most zealously for God's sake, washing all foulness from them and even wiping away the matter from the ulcers; even as he says himself in his Testament, ‘For when I was in sin it seemed to me exceeding bitter to look on lepers, but the Lord brought me among them, and I showed mercy unto them.’”
Thus we each need to find ways – based on our particular circumstances – in which we can go beyond donating money and goods, and undertake direct, active works of charity as individuals and as a Fraternity.
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