Plunging into the heart of Charity

After spending 10 days in a 10 passenger van traveling across the country with the Eagle Eye Institute, stopping at various churches and shrines, shows a person a lot about themselves. Through all the moments of still silence in the midst of the long trek, God continually strummed one word into my heart: charity.

Living in community has taught me a lot about what it takes to live charity. To truly live Christ’s call to “Love neighbor as self,” is an extraordinary virtue. Because when you analyze it, you find that you actually have to put your neighbor before yourself in order to even come close to living charity.

The hardest part of that for me while living in community is that I know these women. I see them day in and day out, I know their strengths and I know their weaknesses. Unfortunately, the weaknesses often shine more brightly than all the beautiful strengths. I know that my weaknesses tend to stand out more when I examine my life. The challenge is to love them through their weaknesses. Allowing their weaknesses to be a source of light and love is something foreign and difficult.

It’s amazing that it’s taken me 23 years to discover that I can’t do it. I’m not a sufficient source of love in those difficult moments. But before the walls of hopelessness could close in around me, I realized that Christ loves them because of their weaknesses, as he loves me.

Tackling every relationship with renewed vigor is also too much for me. In discovering a little more about what it means to live charity in a community, I have had to lean more heavily on Christ. Those split seconds where too much can be said in a situation have become a moment to remember how much Christ loves the beautiful women I’m surrounded by.

It’s encouraging to find the victory of the Cross in these small moments. I, more often than not, fail my sisters, but Christ never fails them. Through his unquenched desire for them, He’s given me new life, offering me opportunities to place them before my own wants and desires. In relying on Him for my strength I’ve witnessed, through Christ’s victories over my weaknesses, His love for them. In teaching me humility He’s showing me how beautifully my sisters in community sparkle, and how much it delights Him.