Some give charity to their fellowmen for the simple reason of emotional sympathy, for it is repugnant to the sensitive spirit to see some living being suffer. This philanthropy is certainly commendable - but it is not the Christlike experience!
It happens that we cannot realize the Christ within us if we do not serve Him in the person of our fellow men. And that is the true Christian ethic. The internal Christ does not rise in us unless we help the external Christ in others - that is the great law of cosmic polarity! The good Samaritan, Simon of Cyrene, Veronica of the veil, Francis of Assisi, Gandhi, Schweitzer, Martin Luther King Jr and many others, realized their inner Christ. For finding Christ in others, we find Him within ourselves; if we refuse to see Christ in the destitute, mad, blind, deaf, dumb, sick and needy of all kinds, we will never see Him in His glory. No one can see the glorious Christ in the Father who has not seen him in the misery of our human brothers.
The most important thing in charity practice is not to help the suffering, the needy, the sick. God could, in a moment, end all the miseries and sufferings of humanity, even without our intervention. And why doesn't God do it? And if God doesn't, why should we do charity?
It turns out that there is, beyond all ethical charities, a great metaphysical and mystical mystery ...
The main beneficiary of our charity is not the one who receives, but the one who gives the benefit spontaneously and selflessly - "There is more happiness in giving than in receiving." The author of the benefit is a thousand times more favoured than the beneficiary. God can do the good deeds that I do - but God cannot be good in my place. Far more important than doing good is being good. The beneficiary receives the good that I do - but the benefactor becomes good for the good he does; therefore the main beneficiary is the benefactor; before doing good to another, he does it in himself, because he is good; by realizing in others the gifts of God, realizes God in himself ...
The vehicle that manifests love is charity. There can be charity without love, but there can be no love without charity. Because I do charity to someone, I awaken in me the dormant love. And as every potential state becomes dynamic with giving spontaneously, my love grows with my charity.
And most importantly - to preserve my charity from any trace of selfishness, self-indulgence, ostentation, unhealthy sentimentality, or another negative element, my charity must, according to the words of Jesus, be done "to the least of my brethren", that is, to the most imperfect and least attractive of my fellow men. Charity to a nice child, a well-formed, beautiful, the lovely and graceful creature is relatively easy; adopting a healthy and well-educated child may be even an act of secret selfishness, but wishing well and doing good to a tattered beggar, some hopeless human ruin, an ugly and repellent human creature requires the death of all kind of selfishness. These are the "lesser ones", according to Jesus - and this is the safest and the shortest path to fulfilment in Christ.
When Francis of Assisi kissed the leper's wounds, he chose the lesser of Jesus' brothers - and at that supreme moment, Francis realized in himself the birth of Christ, broke the supposedly insurmountable wall that separated him from his true self-realization; upon the ruins of his human ego exulted his divine Self.
The poor and sick may not need me - but I need them. I may not "realize" them, not their health and well-being - but what is certain that I realize and conquer great health and spiritual well-being to myself.
None of these human ruins may enjoy my benefits, they may all remain poor, sick, ungrateful - but that's not my problem. At least one man took advantage of my selfless charity - and this man is me.
Does the sun meticulously choose fertile land to radiate the abundance of its light and beneficial warmth? Is it not true that most of its solar benefits fall on oceans or deserts where plants do not sprout? And the rays that do not reach our Earth or any other planet capable of producing life! Scientists say that the temperature above the atmosphere is absolutely cold, but for billions of years, the sun has been pouring its abundance of light and heat into these empty spaces, where no plant responds to its constant benefits.
I have to serve Christ in others so that Christ can awaken in me - that's all up to me, the rest is beyond my reach ...
In serving some sympathetic creature I am always in danger of secretly serving my own Lucifer rather than serving Christ; possibly I make secret selfish calculations about how my beneficiary will someday be my benefactor, or at least be filled with recognition and gratitude for me - such is the wickedness of our selfishness camouflaged in altruism and virtue!
To avoid the possibility of future disappointment and ingratitude, many people prefer to adopt an animal rather than a child, because the human being may one day be ungrateful or consecrate its main love to another person, which would be painful to the secret selfishness of its sentimental benefactor. The animal, however, is neither ungrateful nor unfaithful.
Albert Schweitzer decided to dedicate his life to the direct and immediate service of the most unfortunate part of humanity, in a poor village in Africa, so that no one could repay him, not even evaluate the greatness of his sacrifice; thus, there was no danger that he would act under some wicked, tyrannical and well-disguised selfishness; thus, there was no danger of recognition, applause or gratitude from those who benefited from his services.
While man retains a vestige of self-serving and mercenary spirit, he has not realized the Christ within himself; he serves the indwelling Satan, believing himself to be the Christ. For someone to perform good deeds for mankind to see and hear its name in newspapers, on broadcasts, on television, or to savour the praises of the pulpits, the lips of friends, or to shine on a marble or bronze plaque at the entrance of some temple, appearing in some "golden book" as an excellent benefactor of this or that philanthropic work - all this is selfishness and hypocrisy, disguised as altruism, and all the more perverse the more camouflaged by virtue.
What most surely preserves the health of man's soul from morbid contagion is the direct contact with human misery. Those who have to endure daily the usual brutality of society, the ingratitude of those who benefit from the charity will hardly be in danger of falling prey to proud self-complacency or sickly mysticism. The rigour of a sincere and disinterested ethic is a surefire prophylactic against the bacteria of sentimental mysticism.
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