The
following adaptation are thoughts regarding what I believe to be the roots and
driving spirit of what it means to be a Christian. I am using this approach to
express an idea and for the purpose of reflection and deliberation. At the end
of this adaptation you will find a definition that I use, in part, to bring
this work into a different light. There is no intention here to discredit or
demean Holy Scripture.
If
I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not extend my love through works of charity,
I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
And
if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge;
if I have all faith so as to move mountains but I am not charitable,
I am nothing.
If
I give away everything I own,
and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but don’t achieve it with true charity,
I gain nothing.
Charity is patient,
chairty is kind.
It is not jealous,
(charity)
is not pompous,
it is not inflated,
it is not rude,
IT DOES NOT SEEK ITS OWN INTERESTS,
it is not quick-tempered,
it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices
with the truth.
It
bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
Love
brought forth through charity never
fails.
If
there are prophecies,
they will be brought to nothing;
if tongues, they will cease;
if knowledge,
it will be brought to nothing.
For
we know partially and we prophesy partially,
but when the perfect comes, the partial will
pass away.
When I was a child,
I used to talk as a child, (selfishly)
think as a child, (selfishly)
reason as a child; (selfishly)
when I became a man,
I put aside childish things.
At
present we see indistinctly, (as humans
see)
as in a mirror,
but then face to face. (with God)
At present I know partially;
then I shall know fully,
as I am fully known.
So
faith, hope, and charity remain,
these three;
but the greatest of these are the works of charity towards those who are in greater need than ourselves.
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- Adapted from the NABRE
- Italics are my thoughts inserted.
- Caps are mine. (IT DOES NOT SEEK ITS OWN
INTERESTS)
* Encyclopedia Britannica (on-line edition)
Encyclopedia
Charity
In Christian thought, the highest form of love,
signifying the reciprocal love between God and man that is made manifest in
unselfish love of one's fellow men. St. Paul's classical description of charity
is found in the New Testament(I Cor. 13). In Christian theology and ethics,
charity (a translation of the Greek word agape, also meaning "love")
is most eloquently shown in the life, teachings, and death of Jesus Christ.
St. Augustine summarized much of Christian thought about charity when he wrote:
"Charity is a virtue which, when our affections are perfectly ordered,
unites us to God, for by it we love him." Using this definition and others
from the Christian tradition, the medieval theologians, especially St. Thomas Aquinas,
placed charity in the context of the other Christian virtues and specified its
role as "the foundation or root" of them all
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May you be blessed with a charitable heart.
By David E. Gonzales
