“Grace be with you, mercy, and peace from God
the Father, and from Christ Jesus the Son of the
Father; in truth and charity.” – 2 John 1:3
All the noble aspirations of the heart of man, aspirations that so often seem unrealizable in our condition of human weakness, are answered in our seeking to be ever more and more perfect in the spiritual life. But before we can begin to imitate God, we must know who He is, and in what His perfection consists. Holy Scripture tells us, “God is charity.” It does not say, “IN God there is charity, but God IS charity,” that is, everything in God is love; God is essentially love.
Love of God is the essential principle of the spiritual life; without it everything else is useless. For we know well that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them. And the one who loves more, knows more, because love is a way of access to the truth. In fact, love itself is a form of knowledge.
As we grow in love we gain a richer understanding of the object of our affection––the Person of Truth, the God Who is Love. For love of God itself is knowledge of Him: unless He is loved, He is not known, and unless He is known, He is not loved. He is known only insofar as He is loved, and He is loved only insofar as He is known, and God communicates Himself most to that soul that has progressed farthest in love. All the teachings on the spiritual life are synthesized in this one thought––love. For knowledge (without love) puffs up; love builds up.
To be encompassed in the love of God for us, and to seek always supernaturally to return to God love, is the spiritual life of the Christian soul. Christian perfection has no other end but love, and the way to this love is love itself. Love impels the soul to union with God, and God in His love gives the soul the capacity for supernatural union with Him. All that is necessary for salvation can find in love alone its highest, most complete, most beneficent perfection. It is by love alone that we turn to God, are transformed into His likeness, and are united to Him, so that we become one spirit with Him, and receive by Him and from Him all our happiness––here in grace, hereafter in glory.
This union of love is essential for salvation, since it consists in the practice of the precepts of the Gospel and in conformity to the Divine will. For when love is deeply rooted in the soul, it shows itself exteriorly. Jesus said, “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me, and I will love him and reveal myself to him. Whoever loves me, my Father will love him, and we will come and make our dwelling with him.” “And by this we may be sure that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him’ but disobeys His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him truly love for God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in Him.” “For the love of God is this, that we obey His commandments.” Hence loves separates us from whatever would war against the essence and habit of charity, such as mortal sin.
Love can find no rest till she reposes in the full and perfect possession of the Beloved. It is by the path of love that God draws nigh to man, and man to God, but where love is not found God cannot dwell. If then we possess love we possess God. Love has the power of uniting and transforming; it transforms the one who loves into him who is loved, and him who is loved into him who loves. Each passes into the other, as far as it is possible.
There is therefore but one thing that has power to draw us from outward objects into the depths of our own souls, there to form an intimate friendship with Jesus. Nothing but the love of Christ and the desire of His sweetness can lead us thus to feel, to comprehend, and experience the presence of His Divinity. The power of love alone is able to lift up the soul from earth to the heights of Heaven, nor is it possible to ascend to eternal beatitude except on the wings of love and desire for the one loved.
Now love, even human love, is a desire for what is good; to love is to desire the good of another; it is the act by which the will is drawn toward the good. In God, the infinite Being, love is an infinite will for good and is directed toward infinite good, the divine essence that God possesses and in which He delights. This love, which is God, is therefore an infinite, complacent love of His own infinite goodness.
Yet, His embrace extends even to the creatures whom He creates, to communicate to them His own infinite goodness and happiness. Infinite charity, which is God, turns therefore to creatures, bringing them into existence by an act of love which does not stop at the limited good they possess, but brings them back to the infinite good, the Trinity. In other words, God creates and loves them for His own glory.
We, poor creatures, are called to share in this sublime life of love that is God, and grace has been given us for this expressed purpose. The soul in the pursuit of the way of perfection labors tirelessly according to its state in life to bring all men to God. Were it to content itself with its own perfection, it would lose the very thing it seeks. How can we love God and not love with God? How can we find God without searching in love for the things that God loves?
St. Paul exhorts us, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” For he who says he abides in God ought to walk in the same way in which He walked. Thus if we are to imitate God, our supernatural life must be essentially love, that is, a love of benevolence for God and a will directed toward good, loving that infinite good which He is, and loving all creatures for Him and in Him. “If any one says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.”
Charity is so essential in the supernatural life that on it presence or absence depends the Christian’s state of life or death. He who does not possess charity, does not possess sanctifying grace either, because they are absolutely inseparable, “He who does not love abides in death.” On the other hand, he who possesses charity, also possess grace and shares in the life of God. “He who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him,” and according to St. Thomas, “Charity unites man with God so that he no longer lives for himself but for God.”
The three theological virtues, faith, hope, and charity are infused into the soul together with sanctifying grace. God is the object of all three, but “the greatest of these is charity.” It is the greatest, because without charity there can be no Christian life, and because it will never end. Further, it is the unitive force that binds us to God Himself. When our charity is perfect, it will keep us completely united to God and will direct all our activity to Him. Hence, in the measure that a soul is dominated by charity, it is mature in the supernatural life, and is holy, to a greater or lesser degree. For when we are charitable, it is Jesus alone who acts in us; and the more we are united to Him, the more do we love.
Love is the life of the soul, its nuptial garment, and its perfection. Upon charity are based the law, the prophets, and the precepts of the Gospel. “Love is therefore the fulfilling of the law,” “The end of the commandment is charity.” In fact, to the Pharisee who asked which was the greatest commandment of the law, Jesus answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets,” the precepts of the Gospel, and the “life of monks”. “For by this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” “So let us love, since our heart is made for nothing else.” – St. Therese of Lisieux
TRUTH & CHARITY