If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Galatians 6:3
“As thou hast forsaken the world, as it were a dead man, and turned to our Lord bodily in the sight of men, so thou be in thy heart as it were dead to all earthly loves and fears, and turned wholly to our Lord Jesus Christ: For be thou well assured, that a bodily turning to God, without the heart following, is but a figure and likeness of virtues, and not the truth in itself.
Wherefore, wretched men and women are they, who neglecting the care of their interior, show only exteriorly a form and likeness of holiness, in habit or clothing, in speech and outward carriage and works, casting their eyes upon other men’s deeds, and judging their defects, esteeming themselves to be something, when indeed they are just nothing, and so deceive themselves.
Do not thou so; but together with thy body, turn principally thy heart to God, and frame thy interior to His likeness, by humility and charity, and other spiritual virtues, and then art thou truly turned to Him.
I say not that thou mayest early on the first day be turned to Him in thy soul in perfection of virtues as thou mayest with thy body be enclosed in a house; but my meaning is, that thou shouldst know that the end of thy bodily enclosure is that thou mightest thereby the better come to a spiritual enclosure; and even as thy body is enclosed from bodily converse with men, even so thine heart might be enclosed from the inordinate loves and fears of all earthly things.
And that thou mayest the better come thereto, I shall in this little treatise yield thee the best instructions and helps that I know, or can.”
Walter Hilton (c. 1340-1395) in “That the Inward State of the Soul should be like the Outward” (Chapter One) of The Scale of Perfection (London: John Philip, 1870) 1-2.
Hilton had me with ideas such as dying to “earthly” and “inordinate loves and fears” and framing my “interior to His likeness by humility and charity.”
Why cite this in a meditation on generosity?
Until our interior is framed according to the likeness of Christ, our exterior will never look like Christ. In other words, don’t both pursuing a life of generosity without first dying to “earthly” and “inordinate loves and fears.”
What does that mean?
Until you are willing to let go of the things of this earth, and the fears that people have of losing those things, you won’t ever exhibit the virtue of generosity. You might give token gifts but you will never be generous.
Want to start that interior framing process?
In your heart, ask the Holy Spirit to help you let go of earthly things which cannot give you the security or satisfaction you seek. Turn “principally” your heart to God instead. Now that you have found the security and satisfaction you seek in Him, use whatever you possess for God’s glory as a tool for extending charity with humility.
Christ be with you.