“As difficulties escalate and financial securities globally plummet, it is not unfeasible that charity would also be on the decline. It seems reasonable to expect that one’s circumstances would affect the way he or she is able to respond to the circumstances of others. Interestingly, however, there is no such distinction made in the great stories and statements of compassion and charity in ancient Judeo-Christian thought. In fact, there is no such distinction even made in the words themselves. The literal meaning of the word “compassion,” which derives from the Latin compassus, is to suffer together with, to feel with another. It is my neighbor’s circumstances that are elevated; my own conditions do not enter into the equation. Similarly, the Latin word caritas, used throughout the Vulgate as a translation of the Greek word agape, refers to a radical selfless love, the kind of love the world had simply never seen before Christ. Quite profoundly, this is the rich history of the English word “charity.”

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