Charity, then, is the natural outgrowth of a soul pursuing love over and against anger. When we are committed to love, we do good. Yet, charity is about more than the one giving it. The exercise of charity and good works is one of the most important means by which we take responsibility for the anger and brokenness of other people, and seek to guide them, and not just ourselves, toward genuine love in accordance with the teachings of Abba Joseph. To give of ourselves in love is to offer some solace, whether physical, emotional, or both, to another person in the world. It is to take responsibility for their spiritual state, and to act from this responsibility to better it. Acts of kindness of whatever sort are among the most concrete ways that we can contribute to another person’s choosing love over anger. Thus, as much as good works, including forms of charity, can only exist in the fallen world, it is equally true that so long as the world is fallen, no Christian can be said to be pursuing purity of heart without doing them. They are not eternal, but they are critical.
Still, the contemplative life does remain more important, according to the fathers. They often mention the story of Martha and Mary from the Gospel of Luke as an illustration of this fact. Most readers are probably familiar with the tale of Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to his teaching, while Martha busies about in the kitchen, irritated that her sister is not helping. Jesus famously praises Mary for choosing the “better part,” while not condemning Martha for her work of hospitality. 18 Abba Moses and many other fathers make it clear that the monks of the desert have chosen Mary as their chief example. For them, she represents a commitment to things like theoria, while Martha represents good works in the world. Christ’s praise for Mary is, to them, an endorsement of their way of life without being a condemnation of charity and good works.
We may now make the essential observation…. As much as it is the case that those living in the world are practically certain to lack the amount of solitude necessary to pursue a life devoted chiefly to theoria, it is equally true that we who are surrounded constantly by other people have vastly more opportunities to express and develop our Christian love through acts of charity and kindness directed toward others. The Conferences remind us that we have indeed chosen the lesser part, in accordance with Jesus’ words to Martha—but they do not teach that we have chosen the part of no use at all. In our engagement with the fleeting good that is a simple act of charity, we make actual whatever love we harbor in ourselves, and promote the same within others.
The converse is just as important to notice. In a world in which we are constantly surrounded by people in need, exercising discretion regarding our reactions to that need is a powerful tool for guiding us to the love that we are meant to harbor for all people. Each opportunity to do good shines a light on our inner state. What is our reaction to such moments? Do we find in our souls a bitterness and anger, or perhaps a hesitation to help? Or do we find an outpouring of love for other people-an eagerness to assist and do good as quickly and fully as possible? And, whatever our reaction, do we let opportunities for charity slip away from us?
It is almost certain that, at least at times, we do let good works go completely undone. Yet, even this, the culmination of a failure of love, tells us something of ourselves, and counsels us to return to our pursuit of purity of heart. For, in passing by opportunities for acts of charity, we remind ourselves of our own lack of love, and thus our own complicity in anger. As we have seen, according to Abba Joseph, any simple recollection of the love that is possible between two human beings begins to make manifest that love, taking up the space within us that anger had occupied. Thus, acts of discretion regarding our responses to those in need replant the seed of love, which love we can again manifest in charity at the next opportunity-and so the cycle goes, if we will consent, upwards to God.
Part of Orthodox life in the world, then, must involve making the most of our overwhelmingly large opportunity to practice works of mercy, charity, and love. Not a day goes by for any of us that we are not accosted by a beggar, asked for help by a friend, or exposed to human suffering in the news-indeed, we probably have dozens of these experiences in the course of the average morning. Our material response to opportunities for charity may vary tremendously based on circumstances, but one thing cannot be questioned: we must react to every opportunity to offer mercy to another human being with an outpouring of love. At the very least, such an outpouring will always manifest itself as prayer, while at other times it may become material in the form of giving alms, doing volunteer work, making a phone call or visit to someone in need, or having a simple conversation with a lonely person. Such outpourings of love amount to both witnesses to and manifestations of its real presence in ourselves, and are, moreover, active attempts to begin repairing, on the side of another person, the anger that constitutes the essential brokenness of relationships.
The monks of the Conferences had many opportunities to offer acts of charity, mercy and love-but our opportunities as lay people in the world border on the infinite. To be true to the teachings of someone like Abba Moses, and the other fathers of the Conferences, we must begin to see society as a place in which we have the chance at almost any time of the day or night to offer acts of mercy and charity, and by so doing to “have our good intentions and pious will given over to the reward of the eternal inheritance.”19
~Daniel G. Opperwall, A Layman in the Desert
18 Lk 10.42.
19 Conf. I.X.5.
