PWJ: S1E22 – MC B4C9 – “Charity”

We will spend the remaining episodes of Book III, we will be looking at the theological virtues. Today we begin with Christian love, also known as “charity”…

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Episode 22: “Charity” (Download)

— Show Notes —

• My outline for today’s chapter is available here. Unfortunately, there isn’t a C.S. Lewis Doodle for it.

• If you want a great way of preparing for Confession, take 1 Corinthians 13 and replace the word “love” with your own name.

• In this episode we’re going to answer the following questions:

1. What is charity?
2. What does charity require of us?
3. How do we grow in charity?
4. How does it apply to our relationship with God?

• The quote-of-the-day is:

“Agape is all giving, not getting”

– C.S. Lewis, Collected Letters.

• I’m sick this week – my voice is almost deeper as Barry White’s. To help with my sore throat, Matt and I are drinking Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey.

• Before we started recording this week, Matt proudly told me that he had Lagaveulen for the first time at a party that week, completely forgetting that he had drunk it with me on this show recently. This is why Matt isn’t invited to my “Finer Things Club”…

• Matt mentioned an essay of Lewis’ which I’ve never read: The Inner Ring.

1. What is charity?

• Charity has a couple of definitions. These days it typically means to give alms to the poor, but originally it meant love in the Christian sense.

• Charity is principally about the will, not our emotions.

• We naturally love ourselves. The Christian Faith says we should do this for other people.

2. What does charity require of us (and what does it not require)?

• Charity does not require me to like everybody I encounter.

• Your likes and dislikes of people isn’t sinful, no more than your preference for a particular flavour of ice-cream. What we do with these likes or dislikes, however, matters very much.

• Liking people often makes it easier to love them. However, it can actually cause the opposite problem. If we like someone, it might cause us to be uncharitable to another. Matt gave the example of a spoiled child. I gave the example of when a girl I really liked entered a competition where I got to pick the winner…

3. How do we grow in charity?

• Feels can help actions.

• Acting like you love someone can help nurture affection towards them.

• Motivations do matter though. If you are willing the good of the other in anticipation for their praise or gratitude, you will be disappointed.

• Acts of hate beget feelings of hate. Hate and love work with “compound interest”. I have heard it said that Einstein said that the most powerful force in the universe is compound interest. Matt and I talk about financial stuff for a while. I told the story about the man who asked for grains of rice on a chessboard.

• Small steps will lead you to do great things e.g. running a marathon.

4. How does it apply to our relationship with God?

• What do you do if you don’t have feelings of love for God? Do the same as you do with people. Don’t wait for feelings, act as though you did.

• This was the same idea as Christian marriage.

• Told C.S. Lewis stories told by his stepson in a video. In the video he quotes the following poem:

“Any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind and therefore send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee”

– John Dunn

• Someone we mentioned last week, St. Maximillian Kolbe.

•  God cares about our sins:

“…the great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him.”

– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (Book III, Chapter 9)