IS CHRISTIAN CHARITY DEAD?

To begin with, I should make my position abundantly clear so there can be no misunderstanding. I am a Hindu. My wife was a Roman Catholic. She died some ten years ago. Her father, Robert Henry Fitzgerald Manning, who came from Barbados and settled here, was a lay reader in the Anglican Church. My children are Roman Catholic though they have familiarised themselves with the teachings of other religions, especially my own.

I used to attend the Roman Catholic Church sometimes with my wife and children, here and in London. They accompanied me to some Hindu ceremonies. When I went to India on one of my two visits there I even went to a synagogue, but could only look in from the outside as it was closed. I recently had some friends where the wife is Hindu and the husband Muslim, take me to their mosque for the Eid celebration. I was given a white Muslim cap to wear and still have it and keep it with happy memories. A Hindu recognises the omnipresence of God. He is not bigoted to think that God welcomes only those who tread the path of a Hindu. When a Hindu clasps his hands and bows to another, regardless of the other’s race, religion, or social status, he is bowing to the God who dwells within the other. The Hindu knows that it is the same paramatma (universal soul or God) who dwells in him as in the other. The atma (soul, pneuma, psyche- call it what you may) which is his true self is the same which is enshrined within the other. The physical body is merely a temple for the indwelling God. It is the spirit which is immortal, not the flesh.

It seems that the religious war of words will continue. And it seems that the spirit of Enoch Powell who issued ominous warning about blood flowing, has reincarnated and issues forth from the mouths of priests! It seems that it is not Shylock alone who wants his pound of flesh. Now Roman Catholic priests and writers also want their pound of flesh- they want those non-Christians to whom they think they offered charity to grovel at them in an abject show of gratitude!

Do they not read their Holy Book, the Bible? Have they not read 1 Corinthians Chapter 13? They have become “as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.”