2. From “Words of Long Ago” by the Mother
2.10 Impulse and Charity
For most people, charity consists of giving anything to anyone without even knowing whether this gift corresponds to a need.
Thus charity is made synonymous with sentimental weakness and irrational squandering.
Nothing is more contrary to the very essence of this virtue.
Indeed, to give someone a thing he has no need of is as great a lack of charity as to deny him what he needs.
And this applies to the things of the spirit as well as to those of the body.
By a faulty distribution of material possessions one can hasten the downfall of certain individuals by encouraging them to be lazy, instead of favouring their progress by inciting them to effort.
The same holds true for intelligence and love. To give someone a knowledge which is too strong for him, thoughts which he cannot assimilate, is to deprive him for long, if not for ever, of the possibility of thinking for himself.
In the same way, to impose on some people an affection, a love for which they feel no need, is to make them carry a burden which is often too heavy for their shoulders.
This error has two main causes to which all the others can be linked: ignorance and egoism.
In order to be sure that an act is beneficial one must know its immediate or distant consequences, and an act of charity is no exception to this law.
To want to do well is not enough, one must also know.
How much evil has been done in the world in the name of charity diverted from its true sense and completely warped in its results!
I could give you many examples of acts of charity which have led to the most disastrous results because they were performed without reflection, without discernment, without understanding, without insight.
Charity, like all things, must be the result in us of a conscious and reasoned will, for impulse is synonymous with error and above all with egoism.
Charity [CWM 2: 103-104]
