Almsgiving A Case for Pastoral Theology

Doing Pastoral theology as a course in the academic world has opened our understanding of the true mission of Jesus Christ to the world, a mission which has its focal point as the redemption of the human race. One very important part of this human race is the group of persons who are suffering around the world and begging for alms to make their daily living. This mission which was handed over to the Church as a continuation of the mission, and beckoning on all people of good will to get involved in this mission to ensure the common good of all. The generality of people in the world very regularly underrate the importance of almsgiving in our daily match towards human and spiritual height. It is no doubt that every person is struggling daily to reach a certain level of perfection, whether spiritually or socially, although we make a great deal of human effort, yet no amount of this effort of ours made is enough to make us arrive at that desired height of perfect humanity. It is only by the special grace of God which is freely endowed by God and could only be obtained through our generous response to God's invitation to follow him more closely in love daily, taking up our crosses. This is by living out practically the virtues of this grace which he has freely lavished on us. Of course, all human beings, generally do believe in love, and many still do believe in charity, however, I doubt how many of those who really understand the dimension and dynamism of almsgiving if put side by side their understanding of the virtue and practice of love and charity. This study is meant to help every individual to understand the place and role of almsgiving in the building up of strong societal, personal spiritual and social foundations in life. It is the only key to realize the common good. Hence, in this study we will try as much as possible to examine the meaning of almsgiving, why people misunderstand the word and its practice, comparing its cousin terms Love and Charity. We shall discuss briefly too, the foundations and origin of almsgiving, its kinds, implication, almsgiving as a gospel of Christ preached to all and how it has affected our Pastoral theological apostolate. Towards the end of the study we bring our study to bare on our present work here as a foundation charged with the apostolate of almsgiving, and in conclusion, we shall try to bridge the gap as much as possible to be able to propose some recommendations to make a better global society. I do hope that its careful and systematic study, undemanding and application in our daily social and spiritual life would help us a great deal. Benedict Azebeokhai Oshiokhamele "Almsgiving: A Case for Pastoral Theology" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-5 | Issue-2 , February 2021, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd38363.pdf Paper Url: https://www.ijtsrd.com/humanities-and-the-arts/other/38363/almsgiving-a-case-for-pastoral-theology/benedict-azebeokhai-oshiokhamele