Be merciful! – This means: have hearts filled with mercy. To whom? – To others, to people, their neighbors and their own kind! Mercy is a great thing – it warms and gives life like the Sun, heals like balm. What is life without mercy? Cruelty is something devilish, uncharacteristic of the destiny of the human race.
Human needs are innumerable, human weaknesses are many, human suffering is innumerable. And if there was no mercy, if there was no mercy, what torment would the Earth be ?! That is why the Lord commands us to be merciful, to warm mercy in our hearts and to show it in life. We are created in the image of God and are called to be like God. Therefore, our mercy must be similar to God’s. God Himself is “kind to the ungrateful and to the wicked; He lets His Sun shine over the bad and the good, sends rain to the righteous and the unrighteous.
To do good without expecting anything in return – “when you do alms, do not blow the trumpet in front of you, as hypocrites do in synagogues and streets to be praised by men … let your left hand not know what your right hand does.” Thus we do not even know the name of the good Samaritan in the Gospel Parable of the Good Samaritan. No such medical prescriptions for physical and mental health and peace have been found, which piety seeks and finds in faith. As we look at the needs and sorrows of the people around us and try to alleviate their fate, by enriching their lives with good, we will enrich our own souls.
Good is done with a joyful heart and kindness to those in need, with tact and respect for the dignity of those we help, with the awareness that by helping them, we have actually done good to Christ.
Charity develops only with the advent of Christianity, only it convincingly enough to incite it. For according to the Christian religion all men are created in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:27); all people are descended from one parent; all people are brothers and as brothers they must support their neighbors. And our Christian conscience will show us how much to sacrifice. One, swimming in luxury, will say that there is nothing superfluous to give, and another, by limiting his needs, will find, in his own scarcity, superfluous for himself to share with those in need. All selfish purposes, all praises and human glory must be far from us. We must benefit unselfishly, out of compassion for the poor. “Do good, and lend without expecting anything,” says Christ (Luke 6:35). Elsewhere, He adds: “When you make alms, do not blow your trumpets in front of you, as the hypocrites do in synagogues and in the streets, so that people may praise them … let your left hand not know what your right hand is doing, so that alms may be alms. you be a secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly ”(Matt. 6: 2-4).
And really people who would never give a penny for the unfortunate or the starving, in front of the smile of an actress or top model are ready to sacrifice hundreds of levs.
In order for our charity to be organized, it needs to be organized. The great success of charity in the ancient Christian church is largely due to its communal character. Both the church and the state, and especially the former, must take an active part in it. Occasional and at the same time unsystematic charity, giving help to everyone who meets us and extends a hand “for Christ’s sake”, is not only useless, but often harmful.
Charity that is done in order for people to see us is not real charity. Nor is this charity real, which allows only pleasure, pleasure, to be connected with the deeds of charity. All kinds of concerts, balls, lotteries given for charity have nothing to do with Christian charity. We do not dispute that the purpose for which these entertainments are given is good and useful, but the means are not those recommended by Christianity. This kind of charity is justified and testifies only to our rudeness and hardness of heart and that something can be taken from us with cunning for the poor and needy.
And really people who would never give a penny for the unfortunate or the starving, in front of the smile of an actress or top model are ready to sacrifice hundreds.
In order for our charity to be organized, it needs to be organized. The great success of charity in the ancient Christian church is largely due to its communal character. Both the church and the state, and especially the former, must take an active part in it. Occasional and at the same time unsystematic charity, giving help to everyone who meets us and extends a hand “for Christ’s sake”, is not only useless, but often harmful.
Such charity becomes alms, humiliating for the person to whom it turns out. At the same time, we often find ourselves unwittingly supporters of laziness and laziness, or vices, such as various drug addictions and other ungodly acts. But even in organized charity, we should not be satisfied and think that we have fulfilled our duty to our neighbors by contributing a certain amount to a charity, but we must enter into personal communion with those in need. In this way we will know their needs better and it will be easier for us to be able to satisfy those needs without affecting their human ambition. Often these people value our brotherly sympathy for their misfortunes more than material help.
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