Page 119 - Mystic Pathways through the Bible

d
chapter five 113
alive? I would gain nothing, unless I loved others. Love is kind and patient, never jealous, boastful, proud, or rude. Love isn’t sel sh or quick tempered. It doesn’t keep a record of wrongs that others do.
(CEV1 Corinthians 13:1-4)
As Saint Paul asserts, you may be magnanimous in words (the “languages of angels”), but if you don’t have charity, then all that you express intellectually to the world is of very little value for you or others. You may have developed wonderful intellectual qualities and acquired fabulous possessions, but if you are destitute of charity within your heart, you have gained nothing. Although you may have given all you have, even sacri cing your body, you may still lack real charity. Therefore, you have given nothing and received nothing. What then, is that true charity that the Bible exalts?
Charity is an inner attitude of Cosmic or unconditional love—an attitude that never causes a feeling of inferiority or diminished worth within one who receives charity. Charity allows the recipient to feel joyous while maintaining a sense of dignity and the donor to feel a sense of humility and gratitude.
When you possess an attitude of true charity, you do not judge people, and you are ever ready to forgive. You spontaneously look at the positive aspect of a person, not the negative.