Fr George AdimikeThat charity is faith in action is self-evident, but not so evident is that charity is prayer. Acts of charity stream worship and confluence with prayer, praise, and penance to form one ocean of worship to the triune God. Charity is a tributary of worship to God, streaming human surrender and absolute obedience to God. In doing charity, one acknowledges God’s sovereignty over creation and the human agency of divine providence. Through charity, Christians attribute worth to God, accentuate His government of creation and establish His reign on earth. It is a prayer because it puts one into a deep relationship with God for the benefit of humanity.
Charity, an English derivative of ‘caritas’, which is love beyond itself, motorises the response of the beneficiaries of divine love, making them benefactors of God’s grace and love. In the divine and human intercourse of love, Christians participate in the covenant of grace. Indeed, charity is prayer in action; it is praying with action, and it is a prayer of action. Charity streams into the lip service of prayer and flows into the whole ecclesial act of worship, forming one big ocean of cosmic worship to God. Charity is prayer; it is an aspect of our relationship with God. Traditionally, prayer is the ascent towards God, an ecstasy of encounter and a personal relationship with God. This relationship is at once familiar and personal. It involves one and many, collective and individual, society and solitude. Therefore, charity involves three dimensions of man: charity in thought, charity in word and charity in action. These three aspects of charity produce three-fold goodness, namely, good word (benediction/blessing), goodwill (benevolence) and good deed (benefaction). A charitable person is a person of benevolence, benediction and benefaction.
Works of charity are the greatest outdoor advertisement for Christian discipleship. They are the best marketing tool for Christianity. Acts of charity make the Paschal mystery contemporaneous with the faithful of today and participate in the mystery of the Cross of Christ as a saving mystery. By works of charity, a Christian demonstrates the fascinating and life-transforming impact of the Gospel, which alone can marginalise or slaughter the ego within to live for others. Charity flows from a transformed self in which the avaricious, lustful, greedy and self-referential prioritisation of the self is evangelised, catechised, taught and tamed.
No one can practise charity without, first of all, travelling the rocky road to Calvary, through which the self is re-oriented and transformed. With proper harmonisation and orientation of appetites, needs and instincts, the self acquires a more precise vision that recognises the true status and value of all things. Gradually, it grows to witness the Cross of Christ by subjecting the destructive and selfish acts to crucifixion in order to savour the life that flows from the charitable exercise. Charity, as such, is prayer and penance. It helps to tame that which is stubborn in us, namely the will. Through charity, one is emptied of the self and enters radically into the deepest recesses of the person, wherein the ego is confronted. It helps the process of ‘de-egotisation’, offers better orientation to life, heals greed, wickedness, and vengeful attitude and facilitates growth in love and forgiveness. Charity is the motor that drives the journey from the self-serving to the self-sacrificing course of life. It is the socialisation of love and humanisation of agape because the love that does not impact positively is stillborn.
The human response to God’s overture of love actuates the relationship between dialogue partners who operate with wills, words and works. Prayer is the act of being in the currency and frequency of relationship with God, and therefore it is an action of the whole person. It is beyond lip service (verbalisation); it is a bodily or personal service. Words take flesh and mature in actions. These actions reveal their meaning and depth in words. Therefore, charity is praying with action, an actualisation and maturation of prayer. From verbalisation to actualisation, prayer stands out as the fulcrum of the divine-human relationship. Through it, God establishes His will and exercises His universal government. From actualisation to verbalisation, prayer is a well-thought-out and clearly willed, meaningful and profound act. It saves action from the fallacy of activism or social work that lacks deep content and lasting meaning. Prayer is not just a feeling from an inner emotive stirring, leading to a feel-good exercise. Simply, it is not a superficial busy-body act of a wannabe pursuit. Yes, prayer is not superficial activism, dead formalism, shallow emotionalism or empty intellectualism. It is none of these though it has an element of action, formality, sentiment and use of the intellect.
Charity is for all seasons, yet it is specially required during the Lenten season. Lent is a season of love, a season of prayer and penance. A well-lived Lenten experience produces fruits of virtue. It transforms our actions into prayer and translates our prayer into positive action. Charity attains its purpose and makes its impact when it truly becomes an action that gives glory to God and facilitates human flourishing. It accentuates one major form of prayer: prayer of action. This praying with gestures corresponds profoundly with the Benedictine principle of life: ‘laborare est orare’ (to work is to pray). As such, charity becomes a medium of communication between God and humans and mediates the relationship.
Fr George Adimike
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