Charity Begins at Home

“Charity begins at home” is an expression we have all heard and I’m sure used and today I learnt just how true that is! Historically, the phrase is not linked to the giving of money at all but is in actual fact a word of Latin origin. “Caritas” means dearness and the giving of love based on respect, as well as expensiveness (much in the way that we use dear for both senses in the English language). Thus, Charity was the word used in the bible to mean the giving of love, which of course, should begin at home! In the Bible, another aspect of love was the giving of alms to the poor with love and giving existing along side one another and have, not surprisingly, become confused. Quite simply put, love and support should come first from ones own family - “Charity begins at home”. Today, the word charity is now almost always associated with the giving of money to those less fortunate than ourselves, which, in my logical brain can only be done with a sense of love and kindness, so the word charity remains true to its original Latin meaning!
Now, why Oh Why I hear you ask am I giving you a Religious Education based post! Well,
Charity is something more than mere kindness. It is not a beggar's dole that we offer and then pass on and forget. It is not mere composition based on feeling of superiority, as though conferring some favour. It means tolerance. Compassion, a patient sympathy for the failings and errors of others, is large-hearted concession to the weakness. It is the spontaneous overflow of our sense of humanism. It tells: "Be to their virtues very kind; be to their failings little blind." It is one of the noblest of virtues.
Hence, charity is not easy to practice. Man is by nature egotistical. Whatever is most unlike him naturally rouses his ill will. That is why there is so little of tolerance and so much of faultfinding in the world. Such men can never cultivate charity. They may throw a coin to the needy while looking down on him. A man that is