The inclusivity of charity

TO pursue this ideal will always be a work in progress

requiring a lot of patience and prudence. Obviously, before anything

else, it will require that we be more and more Christ-like because

only then can we really have this inclusivity of charity. Let’s hope

that we be game with that.

  

            The inclusivity of charity for sure is not an

anything-goes matter. The truth cannot be compromised, but we have to

understand the truth not as a fixed, frozen thing that can be fully

captured by our articulated doctrines, laws and principles. The truth

is a living thing, as living as God himself who is precisely the

absolute truth. As such, it is dynamic and wrapped many times in

mysteries and spiritual and supernatural realities.

  

            It’s not that our doctrines, laws and principles serve for

nothing. They are necessary, but as a guide to the truth, and not as

truth itself. They will always need to be read, understood and

followed with the proper spirit that can only come from God. They need

to be continually updated, deepened, polished.

   

            It is with these parameters that we have to approach

issues like whether we should be dealing with people who are

non-believers, public sinners, those in what we call are in irregular

situations, and even those who are open enemies to the Christian

faith.

  

            If we would just stick to the literal sense of our

doctrines, laws and principles, we most likely will miss their proper

spirit, the spirit behind Christ’s teaching about loving the enemies,

looking for the lost sheep, welcoming the prodigal son, giving more

attention to the sick, weak, etc.

              If we would just stick to the literal sense of our

doctrines, laws and principles, we might end up like the Pharisees and

scribes of old, who gave Christ a big problem. They were sticklers to

the law and the tradition, but missed the real thing. Remember Christ

telling them that they strain the gnat but swallow a camel. (cfr Mt

23,24)

  

            In fact, in another instance Christ clearly told them,

“You neatly set aside the commandment of God to maintain your own

tradition.” (Mk 7,9) We have to be most careful with this tendency of

ours.

  

            Sad to say we can see in our midst today many of these

so-called pious and church-going people who are acting like the

Pharisees and scribes of old. They immediately get uneasy when there

is a move to reach out to people who are in some irregular situations,

like the divorced and remarried, the gays, etc.

  

            The inclusivity of charity is never a matter of

compromising the truth. It is more of maintaining good relation with

everybody, including those who clearly are in error. It makes one

willing to undertake a continuing dialogue with those who are opposed

to faith, done always in a friendly atmosphere. It makes one willing

to go to the gates of hell if only to save those who are entering it.

   

            Hopefully, such openness will lead to discovering those

nuances where the ray of the hope of clarification, if not of

conversion and change of lifestyle, can spring. It will occasion a

deepening of our faith, a more prompt and faithful correspondence to

the prompting of the Holy Spirit. It will take us away from our

tendency to build our own ivory towers and our walls of exclusive

elitism.

  

            Of course, in this we should ready to get dirty, and even

to be persecuted. But alas, that is how a true Christian should be. We

should live out what Christ said as one of the beatitudes: “Blessed

are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all

kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because

great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted

the prophets who were before you.” (Mt 5,11-12)