Deus caritas est

I learnt something recently that made a lot of difference to my whole perspective on life. The word 'charity' has in fact two real meaningful meanings!
In a modern context it refers to benevolent giving and is used as a noun and verb to express this.
However, charity is also one of the 'seven heavenly virtues' which are the righteous alternatives to the 'seven deadly sins'. Should I have been a nineteenth century maiden I would have known all about it, but as God chose to make me in the here and now I have just realised.
Charity represents loving-kindness in the Christian theological sense. It is the agape of the eros - philos - agape triangle. I had agape down as 'God's love' but thought this was like God loves you as a fact without the 'how'! This 'Charity' refers to the ultimate perfection of the human spirit, as it both glorifies and reflects God's nature. It is selfless and alturistic.

One can be forgiven for mistaking the word love as having multiple meanings and contexts in the English language. So to be clear the 'love' to which I am referring is the selfless love which is infused into you from God. This used to be called 'charity' in the past.

This type of love curls around your will and guides it. It is the non-messy doing and being. It is the expression of God's love to another man whether friend or enemy.

Take the phrase 'God is love' or in Latin 'Deus Caritas est'. This is the love that represents God's care. Caritas is best translated as charity: alturistic love.

I have been privileged as a nurse to meet many alturistic people. I work as a research nurse and have to enrol patients onto clinical trials. More often that not, the trials cannot offer or cannot guarantee to offer any personal benefit to the participant. However, they are a small part of a bigger picture. Participation leads to greater knowledge on a certain subject or problem which will be information to benefit future generations. Many willing volunteers into clinical trials suffer extra uncomfortable procedures in addition to the illness they are being treated for as a result of taking part. Don't get me wrong, all the research performed in the NHS is strictly controlled by ethical criteria. It's my job to protect patients as well as enrol them. I am always impressed by the person who volunteers willingly despite their own pain and suffering. For every person that does however, there are also those who decline 'I'm not interested', 'I can't be bothered with that'

When I worked with melanoma patients in my previous job, many patients were more than willing to donate their skin. This required small amounts of skin being surgically excised - an extra and uncomfortable process. You may not know that melanoma is a cancer agressive and fast acting, and tends to be underestimated. Many of the patients donated small pieces of their skin on several occasions to help solve the killer riddle. As yet we have no cure for this type of skin cancer, but I know that at Guy's and St Thomas' they are pulling out all the stops to work out how. I know how much the scientists and patients are trying to work it out. Both are up and down in many different ways, but will travel along this road with determination and...love, that charitable love I'm trying to explain.

In chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians, in the King James version it says;

'Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.'

In the New International version it replaces the word charity with the word love. I have for a long time considered that this was a reflection of how love was to be. To understand the word charity in the theological context like this helps me understand more about the how than the what and of what God's love actually is. I am indeed grateful for this revelation.