Oct. 12, 2010 Tuesday: To freely give away charity
Ch 4: Sanity of Loving Freely
What allowed Therese to live in a state of sane state of mind was not looking beyond her choices for a reward. By focusing on what God was asking her to do, while not being concerned with the results of her actions, she freed herself from much worry and heartache. She said to her sister: "Be like a child...practice all the virtues and so always lift up your little foot to mount the ladder of holiness, but do not imagine that you will be able to ascend even the first step. No! The good Lord does not demand ore from you than your good will...He will come down and take you in His arms. He will carry you up. But if you stop lifting your little foot, he will leave you a long time on the ground."
By letting go of the desire that her efforts would bear fruit, Therese let go of what was not in her control. She knew that she could not make people accept what she said. All she could do was speak the words that she believed God wanted her to say.
Like the sower in the Gospel, Therese realized that all we can do is sow the seed. The fruitfulness of our actions depends upon the soil on which it lands. If our words fall on dead ears, shouting louder and wringing our hands in worry will accomplish nothing. Letting go of the need for results in things over which we are powerless is letting go of useless care and worry...
Doing everything for God but expecting no reward on earth isn't doing anything magnanimous. It is a simple formula for sanity, for the more we expect people to appreciate it efforts, the more we make ourselves vulnerable to feeling hurt. Therese was not not hurt by the ingratitude of others because there was no strings attached to her charity. She gave freely.
What helped her give freely was that she prepared herself mentally in advance, such as anticipating that she would be interrupted in what she was doing. For instance, at the beginning of every free time, the only time she had to do her writing, she would decide to discontinue her writing if a request for her assistance was made. This is an application of St Paul's advice: "Everyone must give according to what he has inwardly decided; not sadly, not grudgingly, for God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Cor 9:7).
The reason we often give grudgingly is that we feel that something is being taken from us. However, when we inwardly decide to give, before we are asked, the feeling that something is taken from us disappears because we have already made a choice to give it away.
