Charity

Tomorrow the Church celebrates the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, the day that Mary and Joseph, in accordance with the law, brought the infant Jesus to the Temple to present Him to the Lord, and offer the ritual thanksgiving sacrifice of a pair of young pigeons. While they are there, an old priest named Simeon recognizes Jesus as the Savior promised for centuries, and he recites a prayer of thanksgiving to the Lord, and then turns to Mary and warns her that a sword shall pierce her heart. This bittersweet prayer is a foresight of the Crucifixion that Jesus would suffer, and the pain Mary would feel standing at the foot of His cross. On Good Friday, Mary would again offer sacrifice to the Lord, but it would be in the form of Her Son, who's death and suffering was the very reason for His coming into the world.

Mary's charity was sincere and honest. The motivations behind charity and generosity are often complicated and difficult to untangle. Often charity can be motivated by self interest. Or when a teacher rewards his/her students with some sort of treat, yet really he/she is only manipulating the children. Or how about at Christmas when we go to the mall thinking about who we "have to" buy for. "Joe" got me something last year and didn't get him anything, so I better be on top of that this year. If this year "Joe" doesn't get me anything, how likely is it that the gift I had purchased will end up in the hands of someone else. Very often the purity of a public act of charity or generosity have a deeper, and perhaps selfish intent behind them.

In a way the classic test of the legitimacy of the pureness of any charity or gift is when the recipient does not respond with any apparent payback, how does the giver react? The pigeons Mary offers at the Presentation, while simple gifts, are given with a pure heart, in total charity, and the response that she gets for this gift is a warning from the priest of her own impending suffering. When that suffering is endured in silence at the foot of the Cross when the ultimate sacrifice is offered, is a testimony to her dignity, and the purity of her gift.

How pure and true is our generosity when we offer it? The answer to that question is known by only us, and God alone. So when we give it is important to do so without counting the cost, or calculating the benefits. In Seminary we debated this topic extensively. Even an act of charity that is done with the hopes of "spiritual reward", or "good karma", in a sense are still not strictly speaking selfless. It's very difficult to do a truly and purely selfless act, but they do exist, and when they happen, they communicate God's selfless love to the recipient.