​Eleemosynary

Let me be charitable from the outset: Eleemosynary means “charitable,” so you don’t have to look it up. The word derives from a Latin word for “alms” and a Greek word for “pity.” Pity, in turn, derives from the Latin word pietas, “piety,” which appears to also mean “loyalty” and “duty.” The word pity also comes from the Old French word for “mercy,” “compassion,” “care,” “tenderness” and for the state of those pitied: “wretched condition.” So, there we have it. If you are eleemosynary, you might also be compassionate, merciful, tender, loyal, and dutiful. Did you throw some coins into the Salvation Army bucket? Did you give some support in the form of time or money to a worthy cause? Did you assist someone in a task? Did you help someone in need? What are you, some kind of saint?
 
Heard a sermon on a blisteringly hot summer day in a small church with no air conditioning. It was the best homily I ever heard, and I have some familiarization with sermons, having read, for example, those of the great poet John Donne. As I was saying, there the congregation was, sweltering in the church, and the guy at the altar looks at everyone and says, “If you’re not a saint, you ought to be one.”
 
That’s it. That’s what I call the greatest homily ever spoken. Oh! I know, Buddha supposedly topped it just by holding up a flower without speaking. Okay, Buddha gets the brevity trophy, a very short statue. Nevertheless, “If you’re not a saint, you ought to be one” certainly makes a hard-hitting point. In a world with “oughts” and “shoulds” dictating lives and frustrating people, one “ought” should be a focus. We ought to be eleemosynary.
 
Who loses when everyone is eleemosynary? Who loses when piety turns to care? Who loses in tender compassion? You know the answer: No one. No one loses when everyone is a saint. If you’re not a saint, you ought to be one.