The modern world talks a great deal about solidarity and human rights, yet it often fails to address the profound loneliness experienced by some people. There is a kind of poverty that cannot be cured by material goods, just as there is a kind of wealth that conceals a profound lack of meaning. People need to discover that they are loved before they are useful, that they are accepted before they have to prove anything, and that their worth does not depend on their success. It is precisely here that Christian charity reveals its relevance. It offers not only help, but fellowship; it does not merely meet a need, but bears witness that every person is called to the life of God.
There is also a truth that a person discovers only when they begin to give. They think they are losing out, but they learn that they are becoming richer. They think they are giving up something of their own, but they discover that what they keep solely for themselves ends up impoverishing them. The Kingdom of God operates according to a logic different from that of the world. Within it, a person finds themselves precisely when they cease to place themselves at the centre of existence. Love does not diminish a person, but makes them more spacious, freer and more alive.
That is why charity is not a task reserved for those who possess many goods. Sometimes, the greatest act of charity is patience with another’s weakness, forgiving an injustice, a word that uplifts, a silent presence beside someone in suffering, or a prayer offered for someone who does not even know they are held in another’s heart.
Charity constitutes one of the deepest expressions of the process of deification (θέωσις), in that through it man participates concretely in God’s love and work in the world. Deification does not represent a transformation of the human being into a divine being, but rather participation, through God’s uncreated Grace, in the divine life, without confusing the created nature with the uncreated. Thus, the entire economy of salvation is directed towards the restoration of communion between God and man and towards raising man to a state of participation in the life of the Holy Trinity. From this perspective, charity is not merely a moral virtue or a social duty, but one of the energies through which man realises his vocation to become like God.
The person who loves and gives themselves to their neighbour begins, even in this life, to live the way of existence of divine love.
The dogmatic foundation of this understanding lies in the revelation of the Triune God, Whose existence is a perfect communion of love. God does not exist in isolation, but as a unity of Persons who give themselves to one another in a perfect communion. Having been created in the image of God, human beings bear within their very ontological structure the vocation to communion and love. Deification means precisely this ever-fuller participation in God’s mode of existence, and charity constitutes one of the concrete manifestations of this participation. The person who loves and gives themselves to their neighbour begins, even in this life, to live the mode of existence of divine love.
Saint Maximus the Confessor teaches that the aim of the spiritual life is to overcome selfish self-love (philautia), the root of all passions1. When a person is dominated by this disordered love, they turn the world and their fellow human beings into objects of their own satisfaction. In contrast, God’s Grace leads them towards authentic, selfless love, which does not seek its own benefit, but the good of the other2. Charity is one of the most evident forms of this inner transformation. Through giving, a person overcomes their selfishness, purifies their heart and attains the freedom of love. Thus, the act of charity not only changes the situation of the one receiving help, but also transforms the one who gives, making them a participant in the divine work.
Charity thus becomes a concrete form of likeness to God, for one participates in the very dynamic of divine love, which is characterised by self-giving, compassion and self-sacrifice. Every authentic act of charity represents a stepping out of selfish isolation and an entry into the logic of the Trinitarian existence, in which the person finds fulfilment through communion and self-giving. For this reason, the virtue must be continuous and constant, for, ‘he who has performed a good deed once is not virtuous’3, just as ‘he who has practised charity only a little is not merciful, but he who has practised this virtue as much as possible and throughout his whole life’4.
The ascetic dimension of charity is also essential to the process of deification. In the Philocalic tradition, liberation from the passions is not achieved solely through personal asceticism, but also through the cultivation of active love for one’s neighbour. Charity combats greed, pride, indifference and self-sufficiency, opening the heart to compassion and solidarity. It thus becomes a true asceticism of love, through which a person disciplines their will and directs their freedom towards the good of others. In this sense, Saint Isaac the Syrian states that the sign of a person who has attained perfection is a ‘merciful heart’, capable of embracing the whole of creation in its love and of suffering alongside all creatures. Thus, ‘virtue instils habit in the soul, by virtue of being practised continually, and, ultimately, habit itself brings man rest in God’3, for ‘the habit of virtue moves us to think, speak or do what is good’5. We observe, therefore, that the relationship between charity and deification is an inseparable one. Deification is not achieved apart from concrete love for one’s neighbour, and charity cannot be reduced to a mere philanthropic act devoid of spiritual dimension. It represents man’s participation in God’s merciful love, the overcoming of selfishness through Grace, and the anticipation of eternal communion with the Holy Trinity. In this light, charity appears as one of the most authentic signs of a person transfigured by Grace and as one of the fundamental ways in which the image of God within a person progresses towards likeness to its Creator. Thus, a person does not merely fulfil a moral commandment, but realises their ultimate vocation: that of becoming, through Grace, a participant in divine life and love.
Charity combats greed, pride, indifference and self-sufficiency, opening the heart to compassion and solidarity. It thus becomes a true asceticism of love, through which a person disciplines their will and directs their freedom towards the good of others.
Every genuine act of charity represents a stepping out of selfish isolation and an entry into the logic of Trinitarian existence, in which the person finds fulfilment through communion and self-giving.
To the extent that a person is united with God through Grace, they become capable of transforming the love received into love given, making their existence a space of communion and service to their neighbour.
The dogmatic foundation of charity lies in the very mystery of the Holy Trinity. The divine Persons exist in a full communion of love, each giving Himself to the other without diminution and without losing His own identity. This perichoretic love becomes the supreme model for human relationships, since man, created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26), bears within the very structure of his being the vocation to communion. Whilst sin introduced isolation, selfishness and self-centredness, Grace has restored openness towards God and towards one’s neighbour, and charity represents one of the most concrete forms of this restoration.
Man learns what mercy is not through a definition, but through an encounter with the living God, Who bends down to man not because he deserves it, but because God is good.
That is why God reveals Himself to Moses as ‘gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love’ (Exodus 34:6). This is not merely a message about God, but a revelation of His glory, through which man is called to be in His likeness. In Holy Scripture, mercy does not appear first and foremost as a moral commandment amongst others, but as a revelation of the image of God. Man learns what mercy is not through a definition, but through an encounter with the living God, Who bends down to man not because he deserves it, but because God is good. ‘The Lord is gracious and merciful’ (Psalm 102:8).
When Scripture speaks of mercy, it does not merely describe a good deed, but a movement of the heart that springs from God and returns to God through man. Mercy is, in this sense, a way of life. It is not something added to man, but something that awakens within him when he begins to see the world as God sees it.
In the Old Testament, God’s mercy is first revealed as patience. The people fall and rise again, forget and are reminded of God’s merciful love, err and are called back. Indeed, all God’s works in the Old Testament are dispensations of mercy: deliverance from bondage, provision in the wilderness, and the Law that was given was not alien to mercy, but a guide towards it. The prophet Isaiah showed that a sacrifice without mercy is not acceptable before God, for true fasting is to break bread with the hungry (Isaiah 58:7), whilst the prophet Micah, summarising the entire teaching of the Law in a few words, proclaimed that the good of man is: ‘to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God’ (Micah 6:8). Mercy, however, was not an addition, but a fulfilment of the Law.
In these last days (Hebrews 1:1), the Word of God became flesh (John 1:14) and revealed in Himself the fullness of divine mercy, for the Lord Christ not only commanded mercy, but He Himself became mercy for the world. Thus, the Incarnation of the Son of God was the act that provided the Christological foundation for the work of mercy. By assuming human nature, Christ the Saviour not only drew near to humankind, but made the whole of human existence a place of divine presence and action. He mysteriously identified Himself with the poor, the sick, the hungry and the imprisoned, according to the words of the Gospel: ‘Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me’ (Matthew 25:40). Thus, the act of charity transcends the philanthropic dimension and takes on a sacramental character, for the encounter with one’s neighbour becomes an encounter with Christ Himself. The one who shows mercy is not making a unilateral gesture, but is responding to God’s love and entering into a living relationship with the Person of Christ the Saviour. For this reason, our Lord Jesus Christ blesses those who show mercy: ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy’ (Matthew 5:7), revealing the spiritual work of the cooperation between divine Grace and human will. For what a person gives, that same person receives from God in greater measure, without seeking reward. At the same time, mercy leaves the other person’s freedom untouched and restores their confidence that they are loved because they are made in the image of God.
The act of charity transcends the philanthropic dimension and takes on a sacramental character, for the encounter with one’s neighbour becomes an encounter with Christ Himself.
In the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37), the mystery of the neighbour is revealed: it is not by nature, but through action that one becomes a neighbour to another. And mercy is the bond that unites the wounded with the healer, showing that love knows no boundaries of race or law. Thus, the relationship with God cannot be separated from the relationship with one’s neighbour, since the same divine love is poured out upon all people. That is why Saint John the Evangelist states: ‘If anyone says, “I love God”, yet hates his brother, he is a liar’ (1 John 4:20). ‘If anyone has the world’s riches and sees his brother in need but closes his heart to him, how does the love of God remain in him?’ (1 John 3:17). Here we see something essential: charity is not merely for the one who receives it, but is the very truth of the one who loves God.
Love for one’s neighbour becomes the concrete criterion of the authenticity of communion with God, as the Holy Apostle James assures us, for whom ‘faith without works is dead’ (James 2:17), as it is impossible to separate faith from works. This unity between confession and charity has been present ever since the days of the Apostolic Church. The community in Jerusalem lived in full communion, in which participation in the ‘breaking of bread’ was accompanied by the sharing of goods and care for the needy (Acts of the Apostles 2:42–47; IV, 32–35). The election of the seven deacons (Acts of the Apostles VI, 1–6) illustrates that liturgical ministry and charitable ministry were not regarded as separate activities, but as different expressions of the same ecclesial mission. Diaconia arose precisely from the need to organise concrete love within the liturgical community, demonstrating that philanthropy is part of the Church’s constitutive structure, which always recognises the infinite value of the person. The person can never be treated as an object or an instrument, for every human being bears the image of God, regardless of social or material status, and is destined for eternal communion with Him, as Saint Gregory of Nyssa explains in his treatise On Love for the Poor and in his homilies on the Beatitudes. From this perspective, the poor person must not be viewed through the prism of their weaknesses, but as a bearer of the same ontological dignity. Charity is the practical recognition of the divine image in one’s neighbour. Refusing to help implies, by extension, a refusal to show the respect due to the image of God. God has no need of man’s gifts, yet He accepts charity because it transforms the heart of the giver. The act of giving thus becomes a work of spiritual restoration, through which man regains his likeness to God. Thus, love for one’s neighbour constitutes a participation in God’s own infinite love, and charity becomes a stage in the spiritual ascent towards perfection, through humility and purity of heart, for ‘let not the one who gives alms think that he is doing something great, but let him humble himself, for he receives more than he gives’, as Saint Mark the Ascetic teaches6.
A person cannot claim to love God if they remain indifferent to the suffering of those around them, since love of God and love of one’s neighbour constitute two inseparable dimensions of the same spiritual reality.
Giving without humility and without genuine love risks becoming mere self-assertion. Only when it springs from communion with God does charity acquire salvific value and contribute to the transfiguration of the person, for ‘virtue is broad and broadens the nature of each of us, lifting us out of selfishness’7.
In this sense, Saint Basil the Great8 teaches that material goods are not absolute property, but gifts received for responsible stewardship for the benefit of the whole community. Selfishly withholding them amounts to depriving the poor of what is due to them by God’s will. And Saint John Chrysostom affirms that charity is not merely a manifestation of personal generosity, but a duty of justice, founded on the ontological solidarity between all people. A person cannot claim to love God whilst remaining indifferent to the suffering of those around them, since love of God and love of one’s neighbour constitute two inseparable dimensions of the same spiritual reality.
Saint Maximus the Confessor further deepened this understanding when he showed that love is the energy through which man overcomes the fragmentation introduced by sin and restores the unity of creation in Christ. Charity thus becomes both an ascetic and an ecclesial endeavour: it does not merely seek to alleviate a material need, but contributes to the restoration of communion between persons and to the anticipation of the Kingdom of God. To the extent that a person frees themselves from the passion of possessiveness, they attain the freedom of true love and participate in God’s restorative work. The Church is not merely the community of those who profess the same faith, but the mystical Body of Christ, in which each member bears responsibility for the other. Therefore, diaconia and philanthropy are not peripheral activities of church life, but expressions of the very nature of the Church. Participation in the Divine Liturgy and communion with the Body and Blood of Christ are intended to transform the believer’s entire existence into a liturgy of love. The grace received in the Holy Sacraments bears fruit in acts of charity, forgiveness and solidarity, and Eucharistic communion is extended into communion with those in need. Ever since the apostolic age, service to the poor has been an integral part of liturgical and communal life, demonstrating that the Eucharist and charity are mutually dependent. Partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ requires that liturgical communion be extended into concrete communion in love for one’s neighbour and for all of God’s creation, for ‘the merciful heart burns for all creation, for people, for birds, for beasts and for demons, and for all that is created’, says Saint Isaac the Syrian9.
Mercy appears as a synergistic work between divine Grace and human freedom. God is the One who bestows the power of love, yet man is called to respond through concrete deeds, becoming His co-worker in the transfiguration of the world.
In this light, charity appears as a synergistic work between divine Grace and human freedom. God is the One who bestows the power of love, yet man is called to respond through concrete deeds, becoming His co-worker in the transfiguration of the world. Every authentic act of charity bears witness to the fact that selfishness can be overcome through charity, and that man fulfils his true vocation only to the extent that he lives for God and for his neighbour. From this perspective, charity becomes the very breath of life in God. Indeed, ‘man cannot attain the love of God unless he shows mercy to all creation’10. It is the sign that Grace has begun to transform the human heart, for ‘Grace makes man merciful and gentle, whilst without Grace the heart remains hardened’11.
Mercy becomes the concrete expression of man’s deification, the visible manifestation of communion with God and a foretaste of eternal life, in which love will constitute the full and unceasing existence of all in God.
Thus, charity reveals that the love of Christ the Saviour has become his very life and that the Kingdom of God is no longer merely a promise of the future, but a reality that begins to illuminate the world’s existence even here and now.
Consequently, the foundations of the work of charity highlight the fact that it cannot be reduced to a philanthropic act or an ethical obligation. It springs from the mystery of the Trinitarian love, is founded on the Incarnation and sacrifice of Christ the Saviour, is animated by the Grace of the Holy Spirit, and is realised in the communion of the Church. From this perspective, charity becomes the concrete expression of man’s deification, the visible manifestation of communion with God, and a foretaste of eternal life, in which love will constitute the full and unceasing existence of all in God.
The Last Judgement, as described in the Gospel according to Matthew (XXV, 31–46), highlights the fact that love, realised in acts of mercy, is the criterion for the definitive encounter with God. This does not mean that salvation is attained through the merits of one’s deeds, but that acts of mercy constitute the outward manifestation of man’s union with God and of the workings of Grace in his life. They are the fruits of a transfigured existence and the signs of genuine participation in divine love. All a person’s deeds will be brought to light on the day of the Lord’s revelation. And then it will be shown that neither wealth, nor power, nor knowledge will remain, but only active love. For what is given to the needy is stored up in the treasuries of heaven. Thus, the merciful person gradually becomes like the One Who ‘gives to all life and breath and everything’ (Acts of the Apostles 17:25), and mercy is the beginning of eternity even in this life, for it unites man with God, Who is eternally loving.
- 1
Saint Maximus the Confessor, ‘Chapters on Love’, in The Philokalia, vol. II, translated, with an introduction and notes by Saint Dumitru Stăniloae, published by the Orthodox Biblical and Missionary Institute, Bucharest, 1981.
- 2
Philokalia, vol. III, p. 487, note 344. ‘A person’s love and goodness are reflected on their face like light’ (St Dumitru Stăniloae, Jesus Christ, the Light of the World and the Deifier of Man, Anastasia Publishing House, 1993, p. 45). Virtues are God’s gift to those who strive for them throughout their lives; that is why ‘the image of God shines upon the faces of His saints’ (Paul Evdokimov, Woman and the Salvation of the World, Translated by Gabriela Moldoveanu, Christiana Publishing House, Bucharest, 1995, p. 101).
- 3a3b
The Philokalia, vol. IX, translated, with an introduction and notes by Saint Dumitru Stăniloae, published by the Biblical and Missionary Institute of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Bucharest, 1980, p. 594.
- 4
The Philokalia, vol. IV, translated, with an introduction and notes by Saint Dumitru Stăniloae, published by the Biblical and Missionary Institute of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Bucharest, 1981, p. 212.
- 5
The Philokalia, vol. IV, translated, with an introduction and notes by Saint Dumitru Stăniloae, published by the Biblical and Missionary Institute of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Bucharest, 1981, p. 32.
- 6
Saint Mark the Ascetic, ‘On the Spiritual Law’, in The Philokalia, vol. I, translated, with an introduction and notes by Saint Dumitru Stăniloae, published by the Orthodox Biblical and Missionary Institute, Bucharest, 1979.
- 7
Saint Maximus the Confessor, ‘Replies to Thalassius’, in the Philokalia, or a collection of writings by the Holy Fathers showing how man may be purified, enlightened and perfected, vol. III, translation, introduction and notes by Saint Dumitru Stăniloae, Published by the Biblical and Missionary Institute of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Bucharest, 1981, p. 502, note 559.
- 8
Saint Basil the Great, ‘Homily to the Rich; On Greed; I Will Destroy My Barns’, in PSB 17, translated by Rev. Prof. Dumitru Fecioru, published by the Orthodox Biblical and Missionary Institute, Bucharest, 1986.
- 9
Saint Isaac the Syrian, ‘Words on Asceticism’, in The Philokalia, vol. X, translated, with an introduction and notes by Saint Dumitru Stăniloae, Humanitas Publishing House, Bucharest.
- 10
Ibid.
- 11
Saint Diadochus of Photice, ‘Chapters on Knowledge and Discernment’, in The Philokalia, vol. I, translation, introduction and notes by Saint Dumitru Stăniloae, Published by the Orthodox Biblical and Missionary Institute, Bucharest, 1979.