True Charity Is A Complete And Sincere Faith

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, 

and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. 

And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 

St. Matthew 22:35-39 

As Christians we are called to love our neighbours - everyone. But not offending anyone? That’s a bit different. As I recall, Jesus offended a lot of people. But He never compromised on His values to fit in with the culture He lived in, He never watered down His message – and sometimes His message wasn’t always easy to hear. Indeed, he offended people so much that they ended up killing Him for it. Jesus stood up for truth, justice, love, mercy, grace, peace & forgivness. He took a stand against injustices He saw, He upset people when they offended His Father – the turning of the tables was how He responded to people disrespecting God. Not the actions of someone desparate to please everyone. If Jesus had tried to please everyone all the time, there’s no way He would have ever been killed.

1 Corinthians 13:3

“And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.” 

You will know that a person’s charity is false,if it is not founded on the true Faith. 

Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos (# 9), Jan. 6, 1928: 
“For which reason, since charity is based on a complete and sincere faith, the disciples of Christ must be united principally by the bond of one faith.”

Hebrews 11:6: 
“But without faith it is impossible to please God…”


Jesus wants us to follow Him. He isn’t calling us to make Him a section of our lives, and He’s not calling us to offend people, or to be different for the sake of being different. He just asks us to live by a set of values, to love one another, to follow His doctrines, serve one another, whatever our culture tells us.  He asks us to go and make disciples. He tells us to live in such a way that it impacts on the lives of others.


Pope St. Pius X, Notre Charge Apostolique, August 25, 1910:

"But Catholic doctrine tells us that the primary duty of charity does not lie in the toleration of false ideas, however sincere they may be, nor in the theoretical or practical indifference towards the errors and vices in which we see our brethren plunged, but in the zeal for their intellectual and moral improvement as well as for their material well-being. Catholic doctrine further tells us that love for our neighbor flows from our love for God, Who is Father to all, and goal of the whole human family; and in Jesus Christ whose members we are, to the point that in doing good to others we are doing good to Jesus Christ Himself. . .No, Venerable Brethren, there is no genuine fraternity outside Christian charity. Through the love of God and His Son Jesus Christ Our Saviour, Christian charity embraces all men, comforts all, and leads all to the same faith and same heavenly happiness. If, as We desire with all Our heart, the highest possible peak of well being for society and its members is to be attained through fraternity or, as it is also called, universal solidarity, all minds must be united in the knowledge of Truth, all wills united in morality, and all hearts in the love of God and His Son Jesus Christ. But this union is attainable only by Catholic charity, and that is why Catholic charity alone can lead the people in the march of progress towards the ideal civilization.

True, Jesus has loved us with an immense, infinite love, and He came on earth to suffer and die so that, gathered around Him in justice and love, motivated by the same sentiments of mutual charity, all men might live in peace and happiness. But for the realization of this temporal and eternal happiness, He has laid down with supreme authority the condition that we must belong to His Flock, that we must accept His doctrine, that we must practice virtue, and that we must accept the teaching and guidance of Peter and his successors. Further, whilst Jesus was kind to sinners and to those who went astray, He did not respect their false ideas, however sincere they might have appeared. He loved them all, but He instructed them in order to convert them and save them. Whilst He called to Himself in order to comfort them, those who toiled and suffered, it was not to preach to them the jealousy of a chimerical equality. Whilst He lifted up the lowly, it was not to instill in them the sentiment of a dignity independent from, and rebellious against, the duty of obedience. Whilst His heart overflowed with gentleness for the souls of good-will, He could also arm Himself with holy indignation against the profaners of the House of God, against the wretched men who scandalized the little ones, against the authorities who crush the people with the weight of heavy burdens without putting out a hand to lift them. He was as strong as he was gentle. He reproved, threatened, chastised, knowing, and teaching us that fear is the beginning of wisdom, and that it is sometimes proper for a man to cut off an offending limb to save his body. Finally, He did not announce for future society the reign of an ideal happiness from which suffering would be banished; but, by His lessons and by His example, He traced the path of the happiness which is possible on earth and of the perfect happiness in heaven: the royal way of the Cross."

The truth offends most people, but God teaches that we should love the truth. But sometimes I think a lot of Christians are so afraid to tell the truth in order not to offend people and they end up compromising in their faith. One reason people compromise the truth is they want to please men rather than God. They are more afraid of offending people than offending God. 

Liberalism Is A Sin

By Father Felix Salvany, 

Chapter 19, Charity and Liberalism, 1899

"The good of all good is the divine good, just as God is for all men the neighbor of all neighbors. In consequence the love due to a man inasmuch as he is our neighbor ought always to be subordinated to that which is due to our common Lord. For His love and in His service we must not hesitate to offend men. The degree of our offense towards men can only be measured by the degree of our obligation to him. Charity is primarily the love of God, secondarily the love of our neighbor for God's sake. To sacrifice the first is to abandon the latter. Therefore to offend our neighbor for the love of God is a true act of charity. Not to offend our neighbor for the love of God is a sin.

Modern Liberalism reverses this order. It imposes a false notion of charity; our neighbor first, and, if at all, God afterwards. By its reiterated and trite accusations of intolerance, it has succeeded in disconcerting even some staunch Catholics. But our rule is too plain and to concrete to admit of misconception. It is: Sovereign Catholic inflexibility is sovereign Catholic charity. This charity is practiced in relation to our neighbor when in his own interest, he is crossed, humiliated and chastised. It is practiced in relation to a third party, when he is defended from the unjust aggression of another, as when he is protected from the contagion of error by unmasking its authors and abettors and showing them in their true light as iniquitous and pervert, by holding them up to the contempt, horror and execration of all. True Catholic Charity is practiced in relation to God when, for His glory and in His service, it becomes necessary to silence all human considerations, to trample under foot all human respect, to sacrifice all human interests, and even life itself to attain this highest of all ends. All this is Catholic inflexibility and inflexible Catholicity in the practice of that pure love which constitutes sovereign charity. The saints are the types of this unswerving and sovereign fidelity to God, the heroes of charity and religion."