Designing the Charity Service

Abstract

The contribution aims to address the question of the planning of the service of charity through a theological-pastoral deepening. To plan the charitable action means to become sensitive to the action of the Spirit in the community of men today by reading reality in a Christological way and orienting oneself to decision and action. A possible way to direct this conjunction of theological quality and concrete practice consists of three distinct and correlative dimensions: prophetic, eschatological and communicative. In addition to planning, it is also important to verify the service of charity that intends to proceed not so much by investigating any concrete paths, but on the possible criteria that should be adopted to verify their effectiveness. The criteria identified and proposed aim to ascertain how the service of charity implements the dynamism of evangelization; transmit and communicate the language of presence and relationship in terms of compassion; promote the building of communion. All this is important because through the service of charity we participate in the work of evangelization; indeed, charity and the practice that manifests it – in this sense – are already a sign and evidence of God’s love: the central content and dynamism of evangelization.