Charity Sunday

My brothers and sisters,

Every Sunday we come here to profess our faith. We say the Creed. We sing the hymns. We receive the Lord.

But today the Church asks us a harder question. Not: Do you believe? But: Do you love?

Charity Sunday is not about a collection. The collection is only the symptom. It is about whether our faith has ever left this building.

St. Paul tells us something frightening. He says you can have faith that moves mountains. You can speak with the tongues of angels. You can give your body to be burned. And if you have not love, you are nothing. Nothing.

That is a hard word. Because it means you can be very religious and still miss the whole Gospel.

1. Charity is not pity.

We often confuse charity with pity.

Pity looks down. It says, “Poor you.” I am glad I am not you. Pity gives a coin to quiet its conscience and then walks on.

Charity looks across. It says, “You are my brother. You are my sister. What hurts you hurts me.

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite did not hate the wounded man. They just had somewhere more important to be. They had a service to get to. They had a schedule to keep.

The Samaritan had no schedule. He had a heart that stopped.

True charity is not what we give when we have extra. It is what we give when it costs us something: our time, our comfort, our pride.

Who is the wounded man on your road to Jericho today?

Maybe it is not a stranger in a faraway country. Maybe it is the lonely neighbor in Linz who has not had a real conversation in a week. Maybe it is the young mother who is overwhelmed in the supermarket. Maybe it is the colleague everyone laughs at. Maybe it is the person in your family you have stopped really seeing.

Charity begins at home, but it must not end there.

2. Charity is not just money.

We need money for the works of Caritas, for the food banks, for the shelters, and for the missions. And I thank you for every euro you will give today.

But St. Paul did not say, “Give.” He said, “Love.”

You can give money without loving. You cannot love without giving yourself.

Sometimes the greatest charity is not a donation, but attention. To listen without checking your phone. To forgive without keeping a ledger. To visit without being asked. To speak kindly when everyone else is speaking harshly is a good thing to do.

A kind word costs nothing, and yet we are so stingy with it.

Ask yourself this week: When was the last time someone left my presence feeling more dignified than when they came?

That is the test of charity.

3. Charity is how the world will know us

Jesus did not say, “They will know you are my disciples by your perfect doctrine.” He did not say, “by your beautiful liturgy,” though we love it.

He said: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35)

The world is not waiting for Christians who are louder. The world is waiting for Christians who are kinder.

Faith tells us what to believe. Hope tells us why to go on. But love tells the world who God is.

God is not an idea. God is love made flesh in Jesus Christ, who did not just preach about the poor, He became poor for us.

So today, let us not just admire charity. Let us practise it.

Before you leave this church today, make one quiet decision:

One person I will call.
One person I will forgive.
One person I will help, without telling anyone I did it.

Do not wait to feel charitable. Act charitably, and the feeling will follow.

Because in the end, when we stand before God, He will not ask us how many sermons we heard. He will ask us how many people we loved.

And that, my friends, is the only sermon that will still matter in eternity.

Amen.