|
"And the glory which Thou hast given Me, I have given to them;
that they may be one, as We also are one." John 17:22
The love of God, of which we have spoken, corresponds to the supreme
precept; but there is a second precept which springs from the first:
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," (1) for the love of God.
The love of neighbor is presented to us by our Lord as the necessary
consequence, the radiation, the sign, of the love of God: "Love one
another as I have loved you. . . . By this shall all men know that you
are My disciples." (2) St. John even says: "If any man say, I love
God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar." (3)
In the illuminative way of proficients, fraternal charity should
therefore be one of the greatest signs of the progress of the love of
God. Here we must insist on the formal motive for which charity should
be practiced, so that it may not be confounded with, for example,
simple amiability or natural comradeship, or with liberalism, which
assumes the exterior appearances of charity but differs greatly from
this infused virtue. Liberalism disregards the value of faith and of
divine truth, whereas charity presupposes them as its basis. To see
clearly the formal motive of fraternal charity, not only in a
theoretical and abstract manner, but in a concrete and experimental
manner, we shall examine why our love of God should extend to our
neighbor, and how actually to make progress in fraternal charity. That
we may look at the matter from a supernatural point of view, we shall
consider the love of Jesus for us.
WHY OUR LOVE OF GOD SHOULD EXTEND TO OUR NEIGHBOR
Fraternal charity, which the Lord demands of us, differs immensely
from the natural tendency which inclines us to do good in order to
please others, which leads us also to love the kind, to hate those who
do us evil, and to remain indifferent to others. Natural love makes us
love our neighbor for his natural good qualities and for the benefits
we receive from him; we find this love in good comradeship. The motive
of charity is quite different and very much higher; the proof of it is
in Christ's words: "Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you:
and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you. . . . For if you
love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not even the
publicans this? . . . Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly
Father is perfect." (4)
We should love our enemies with the same supernatural, theological
love as we have for God; for there are not two virtues of charity, the
one toward God, the other toward our neighbor. There is only one
virtue of charity, the first act of which has God, loved above all
else, as its object; and its secondary acts have ourselves and our
neighbor as their object. Hence this virtue is very superior to the
great virtue of justice, and not only to commutative and distributive
justice, but to legal or social justice and to equity.
But how is it possible for us to have a divine love for men, who,
like ourselves, are so often imperfect? Theology replies with St.
Thomas (5) by a simple example: he who greatly loves his friend, loves
the children of this friend with the same love; he loves them because
he loves their father, and for his sake he wishes them well. For love
of their father, he will, if necessary, come to their aid and pardon
them if they have offended him.
Therefore, since all men are children of God by grace, or at least
called to become so, we should love all men, even our enemies, with a
supernatural love and desire the same eternal beatitude for them as
for ourselves. We ought all to travel toward the same end, to make the
same journey toward eternity, under the impulsion of the same grace,
to live by the same love. Charity is thus a supernatural bond of
perfection which unites us, as it should, to God and to our neighbor.
It unites hearts at no matter what distance they may be; it leads us
to love God in man and man in God.
The supernatural love of charity is rare among men because many
seek their own interest primarily, and more readily comprehend the
formula: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
The precept of fraternal charity was greatly neglected before the
time of Christ; consequently He had to insist on it. He did so from
the very beginning of His preaching in the Sermon on the Mount,(6) and
He continually reverted to it, especially in His last words before He
died.(7) St. John, in his Epistles, and St. Paul repeatedly remind us
of this precept. They show us that when charity enters the heart, it
is followed by all the other virtues; it is meek, patient, and
humble.(8)
But to love our neighbor supernaturally so far as he is the child
of God or is called to become so, we must look upon him with the eyes
of faith and tell ourselves that this person whose temperament and
character are opposed to ours is "born, not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but [as we are] of God," or
called to be born of Him, to share in the same divine life, in the
same beatitude as we. Especially in a Christian milieu, we can and
ought to tell ourselves in regard to persons who are less congenial to
us that their souls are, in spite of everything, temples of the Holy
Ghost, that they are members of the mystical body of Christ, nearer
perhaps to His heart than we are; that they are living stones whom God
works that He may give them a place in the heavenly Jerusalem. How can
we fail to love our neighbor, if we truly love God, our common Father?
If we do not love our neighbor, our love of God is a lie. On the
contrary, if we love him, it is a sign that we truly love God, the
Author of the grace that vivifies us.
A young Jew whom we knew, the son of a Vienna banker, one day had
the opportunity to take vengeance on his family's greatest enemy; as
he was about to do so, he remembered the following words of Scripture,
which he was in the habit of reading from time o time: "Forgive us our
trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." Then,
instead of taking vengeance, he fully pardoned his enemy and
immediately received the grace of faith. He believed in the entire
Gospel, and a short time afterward entered the Church and became a
priest and religious. The precept of fraternal charity had illumined
him.
Even about an adversary we must tell ourselves that we can and
ought to love him with the same supernatural, theological love as we
have for the divine Persons; for we ought to love in him the image of
God, the divine life that he possesses or is called to receive, his
supernatural being, the realization of the divine idea which presides
over his destiny, the glory which he is called to give to God in time
and eternity.
The following objection has occasionally been raised against this
lofty doctrine: But is this truly loving man; is it not loving God
only in man, as one admires a diamond in a jewel-case? Man naturally
wishes to be loved for himself, but as man he cannot demand a divine
love.
In reality, charity does not love God only in man, but man in God.
and man himself for God. It truly loves what man should be, an eternal
part of the mystical body of Christ, and it does all in its power to
make him attain heaven. It loves even what man already is through
grace; and, if he has not grace, it loves his nature in him, not so
far as it is fallen, unbalanced, unruly, hostile to grace, but so far
as it is the image of God and capable of receiving the divine graft of
grace that will increase its resemblance to God. In short, charity
loves man himself, but for God, for the glory that he is called to
give to God in time and eternity.
EFFICACY OF THE LOVE OF CHARITY
Whatever naturalism may say, in loving our neighbor in God and for
God we do not love him less, we love him much more and far more
perfectly. We do not love his defects; we put up with them; but we
love in man all that is noble in him, all in him that is called to
grow and to blossom in eternal life.
Far from being a Platonic and inefficacious love of our neighbor,
charity, in growing, disposes us to judge him well and to condescend
to his wishes in whatever is not contrary to the commandments of God.
Condescension thus born of charity makes indifferent things good, and
the painful things that we impose on ourselves for our neighbor,
fruitful. There is great charity in thus preserving union with all by
avoiding clashes which might arise, or by effecting a reconciliation
as soon as possible. Charity that grows has thus a radiating goodness;
it makes us continually love not only what is good for us, but what is
good for our neighbor, even for our enemies, and what is good from the
superior point of view of God, by desiring for others the goods which
do not pass, and especially the sovereign Good and its inamissible
possession. St. Thomas sums up all this briefly: "Now the aspect under
which our neighbor is to be loved, is God, since what we ought to love
in our neighbor is that he may be in God. Hence it is clear that it is
specifically the same act whereby we love God, and whereby we love our
neighbor. Consequently the habit of charity extends not only to the
love of God, but also to the love of our neighbor." (9)
Thus sight perceives light first of all and by it the seven colors
of the rainbow. It could not perceive colors if it did not see light.
Likewise we could not supernaturally love the children of God if we
did not first supernaturally love God Himself, our common Father.(10)
Whereas justice inclines us to wish good to another inasmuch as he
is another or distinct from us, charity makes us love him as "another
self," an alter ego, with a love of truly supernatural friendship, as
the saints in heaven love one another.
THE COMPASS AND ORDER OF CHARITY
Therefore our charity should be universal: it should know no
limits. It cannot exclude anyone on earth, in purgatory, or in heaven.
It stops only before hell. It is only the damned that we cannot love,
for they are no longer capable of becoming children of God. They hate
Him eternally; they do not ask for pardon or for the grace to repent;
hence they can no longer excite pity, for there is no longer in them
the faintest desire to rise again. However, says St. Thomas, they are
still the object of the divine mercy, in the sense that they are
punished less than they deserve, (11) a fact that gladdens our
charity, which extends even that far.
Beyond the certain fact of damnation (and we are not certain of the
damnation of anyone, except that of the fallen angels and of the "son
of perdition"), charity is due to all; it knows no limits, it is
broad, in a sense, like the heart of God. We had examples of this
breadth of charity in the first World War when, on the battle front, a
French boy at the point of death finished the Hail Mary begun by a
young German who had just died beside him. The Blessed Virgin reunited
these two youths, in spite of the harsh opposition of the war, in
order to introduce them both into the supernal fatherland.
To be universal, charity does not have to be equal for all, and its
progress in the illuminative way shows increasingly better what is
called the order of charity, which admirably respects and elevates the
order dictated by nature. Thus we should love God efficaciously above
all else, at least with a love of esteem, if not with a love that is
felt. Next we should love our own soul, then that of our neighbor, and
finally our body, which we should sacrifice for the salvation of a
soul, especially when we are obliged by our office to provide for it,
as happens to those who have charge of souls. The order of charity
appears more clearly as this virtue grows in us. We understand better
and better that among our neighbors we should have a greater love of
esteem for those who are better, nearer to God, although we love with
a more sensible love those who are nearest to us through blood,
marriage, vocation, or friendship.(12) We also distinguish
increasingly better the shades of the different friendships based on
the bonds of family, country, or profession, or on bonds of an
entirely spiritual order.(13)
The scale of values which appears more and more in this order of
charity shows that God wishes to reign in our hearts, without
excluding the legitimate affections which can and ought to be
subordinated to the love we have for Him; then these affections are
vivified, ennobled, purified, rendered more generous. Consequently the
progress of charity" does away with that esprit de corps, that
collective egoism, that nosism which sometimes recalls painfully the
chauvinism of certain narrow patriots who belittle their fatherland in
their desire to magnify it. A spiritual daughter of St. Francis de
Sales, Mother Louise de Ballon, who reformed the Bernardines and
founded seventeen convents, used to say on this subject: "I can belong
only to one order by profession and state; but I belong to all orders
by inclination and love. . . . I confess ingenuously that I have
always been afflicted at seeing monasteries envy each other . . . , at
hearing some say that the good of the children of St. Augustine should
not be for those of St. Benedict, and others say that the good of St.
Benedict should not be given to the disciples of St. Bernard. Is it
not the blood of Jesus Christ and not that of St. Augustine, St.
Benedict, or St. Bernard, which purchased for their religious all the
good that they possess? O my Lord! Establish solidly a good
understanding among Your servants. . . . The different orders are
composed of different bodies, but they should have only one heart,
only one soul, as it was written of the first Christians." (14)
Without this broad charity, we would fall into the defect, into the
narrowness which St. Paul blamed in the Corinthians, some of whom
said: "I indeed am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollo," to which the
saint replied: "What then is Apollo, and what is Paul? The ministers
of Him whom you have believed; and to everyone as the Lord hath given.
I have planted, Apollo watered, but God gave the increase. Therefore,
neither he that planteth is anything, nor he that watereth; but God
that giveth the increase." (15)
In the same epistle the great Apostle writes: "Is Christ divided?
Was Paul then crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of
Paul?" (16) "Let no man therefore glory in men. For all things are
yours, whether it be Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world or life or
death or things present or things to come; for all are yours; and you
are Christ's; and Christ is God's."
Such indeed, above all individual or collective narrowness, is the
admirable order of charity, as it should appear increasingly in the
disinterested proficient, whose heart should enlarge in a sense, like
the heart of God, by the very progress of charity, which is truly a
participation in the divine life, in eternal love.
This growing charity ought to be not only affective but effective,
not only benevolent but beneficent. The lives of the saints show that
they understood the Master's words: "This is My commandment, that you
love one another as I have loved you." (18) Christ loved us even to
the death of the cross; the saints loved their brethren even to the
martyrdom of the heart, and often even to giving the testimony of
their blood.
Such is fraternal charity, the extension or radiation of the love
we should have for God. Similarly, humility in respect to our neighbor
is the extension of the virtue that leads us to humble ourselves
before God and before what is of God in all His works.
HOW TO MAKE PROGRESS IN FRATERNAL CHARITY
Occasions of failing in fraternal charity present themselves only
too often even in the best surroundings; first of all, because of the
defects of all who, though tending to perfection, have not reached it.
Each of us is like a truncated pyramid that has not yet its summit.
Our neighbor often seems so to us, and we forget that we appear in
like manner to him; we see the mote in our neighbor's eye, and do not
see the beam in our own.
Moreover, if, by an impossibility, all our defects were suppressed
before our entrance into heaven, occasions of clashes and offenses
would still subsist because of the diversity of temperaments -
bilious, nervous, lymphatic, or sanguine; by reason of the diversity
of characters - some inclined to indulgence, others to severity;
because of the diversity of minds - some inclined to view things as a
whole, others in the minutest detail; by reason again of the
difference in education; because of nervous fatigue; and finally
because of the demon, who takes pleasure in causing division that he
may destroy our Lord's work of truth, unity, and peace.
The devil intervenes more directly in certain excellent centers in
order to obstruct the great good that might be done there. He seeks
much more directly to disturb such groups than he does less good or
positively evil centers, where he already rules through the maxims
there diffused and the examples found there. As we see in the Gospel
and the lives of the saints, the enemy of souls sows cockle among the
best, placing in imaginations, as it were, a magnifying glass which
transforms a grain of sand into a mountain.
We should also keep in mind that Providence designedly leaves among
the good many occasions for humility and for the exercise of fraternal
charity. It is in weakness that the grace of God manifests its power
and that our virtue is perfected; our weaknesses humiliate us, and
those of others exercise us.
Only in heaven will every occasion of conflict completely
disappear, because the blessed, illumined by the divine light, see in
God all that they should think, will, and do. On earth the saints
themselves may enter into conflict, and occasionally no one yields for
some time, because each is persuaded in conscience that he must
maintain his point of view; that he may indeed yield in regard to his
rights, but not in respect to his obligations. The case of St. Charles
Borromeo and of St. Philip Neri illustrates this point. They could not
come to an agreement on the foundation of one order; and, as a matter
of fact, in this case the Lord wished two religious families instead
of one.
In the midst of so many difficulties, how should fraternal charity
grow? It should grow especially in two ways: by benevolence and
beneficence; that is, first by considering our neighbor in the light
of faith that we may discover in him the life of grace, at least what
is good in his nature; then by loving our neighbor effectively, and
that in many ways: by putting up with his defects, rendering him
service, returning good for evil, praying for union of minds and
hearts.
First of all, we should view our neighbor in the light of faith
that we may find in him the life of grace, or at least the image of
God a ready graven in the very nature of his spiritual and immortal
soul. Since charity, in its aspect as love of God, presupposes faith
in God, in its aspect as love of neighbor it assumes that we consider
him in the light of faith and not only in that of our eyes of flesh,
or in that of a reason more or less deformed by egoism. We need a pure
gaze fitted to see the divine life of others under an envelope that at
times is thick and opaque. We see the supernatural being of our
neighbor if we merit to do so, if we are detached from self.
In this connection we would do well to face the fact that often
what irritates us against our neighbor is not serious sins against
God, but rather defects of temperament which sometimes subsist despite
real virtue. We would perhaps easily put up with sinners who are quite
removed from God but naturally amiable, whereas advanced souls are
occasionally very "trying" to us. We must, therefore, resolve to look
at souls in the light of faith that we may discover in them what is
pleasing to God, what He loves in them, and what we should love in
them.
This higher light produces benevolence, whereas rash judgment most
seriously opposes this benevolent view. For this reason Christ insists
so strongly on this point in the Sermon on the Mount: "Judge not, that
you may not be judged. For with what judgment you judge, you shall be
judged; and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you
again. And why seest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, and
seest not the beam that is in thy own eye? . . . Thou hypocrite, cast
out first the beam out of thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast
out the mote out of thy brother's eye." (19)
It should be clearly noted that rash judgment is not a simple
unfavorable impression; it is a judgment. It consists in affirming
evil on a slight indication; in reality a person sees two objects, but
because of pride affirms that he sees four. If this judgment is fully
deliberate and consented to in a serious matter, that is, judging
one's neighbor guilty of a mortal sin, the one who judges, himself
commits a mortal sin.(20) Consequently, says St. Thomas, if we cannot
avoid certain suspicions, we should take care not to make a firm and
definitive judgment on slight indications.(21)
Rash judgment, properly so called, is a sin against justice,
especially when it is outwardly expressed by words or acts.(22) Our
neighbor has, in fact, a right to his reputation; next to the right
which he has to do his duty, he has the right to uphold his good name
more than to defend the right to property. We should respect this
right of others to their reputation if we wish our own to be
respected.
Moreover, rash judgment is often false. How can we judge with
certainty of the interior intentions of a person whose doubts, errors,
difficulties, temptations, good desires, or repentance, we do not
know? How can we claim to know better than he what he says to God in
prayer? How can we judge justly when we do not have the details of the
case?
Even if a rash judgment is true, it is a sin against justice because,
in judging thus, a man arrogates to himself a jurisdiction which is
not his to exercise. God alone is capable of judging with certainty
the secret intentions of hearts, or those that are not sufficiently
manifested. Hence even the Church does not judge them: "de internis
non judicat."
Rash judgment is likewise a sin against charity. What is most
serious in the eyes of God, is not that this hasty judgment is often
false and always unjust, but that it proceeds from malevolence, though
often expressed with the mask of benevolence, which is only a grimace
of charity. Anyone judging rashly is not only a judge who arrogates to
himself jurisdiction over the souls of his brothers which he does not
possess, but a judge sold by his egoism and his pride, at times a
pitiless judge, who knows only how to condemn, and who, though unaware
of it, presumes to impose laws on the Holy Ghost, admitting no other
way than his own. Instead of seeing in his neighbor a brother, a son
of God, called to the same beatitude as he is, he sees in him only a
stranger, perhaps a rival to supplant and humiliate. This defect
withdraws many from the contemplation of divine things; it is a veil
over the eyes of the spirit.
If we do not go so far, we may judge the interior life of a soul
rashly in order to enjoy our own clear vision and to show it off. Let
us remember that God alone sees this conscience openly. We should be
on our guard and remember with what insistence Christ said: "Judge
not." At the moment when we are judging rashly, we do not foresee that
shortly afterward we shall perhaps fall into a more grievous sin than
the one for which we reproached our neighbor. We see the mote in our
neighbor's eye and do not see the beam in our own.
If the evil is evident, does God demand that we should not see it?
No, but He forbids us to murmur with pride. At times, He commands us
in the name of charity to practice fraternal correction with
benevolence, humility, meekness, and discretion, as indicated in the
Gospel of St. Matthew,(23) and as St. Thomas (24) explains it. We
should see whether correction is possible and if there is hope for
amendment, or whether it is necessary to have recourse to the superior
that he may warn the guilty person.(24)
Finally, as St. Catherine of Siena says, when the evil is evident,
perfection, instead of murmuring, has compassion on the guilty party;
we take on ourselves, in part at least, his sin before God, following
the example of our Lord who took all our sins upon Himself on the
cross. Did He not say to us: "Love one another, as I have loved you"?
(26)
We must, therefore, repress rash judgment that we may become
accustomed to see our neighbor in the light of faith and to discover
in him the life of grace, or at least his nature so far as it is an
image of God that grace should ennoble.
It is not sufficient to look upon our neighbor benevolently; we
must love him effectively. We can do this by bearing with his defects,
returning him good for evil, avoiding jealousy, and praying for union
of hearts.
We bear with another's defects more easily if we observe that often
what arouses our impatience is not a serious sin in the eyes of God,
but rather a defect of temperament: nervousness or, on the contrary,
apathy, a certain narrowness of judgment, a frequent lack of tact, a
certain way of putting himself forward, and other defects of this
kind. Even if the defect is grave, we should not allow ourselves to go
so far as to become irritated over evil that is permitted by God; and
we should not allow our zeal to become bitterness. While complaining
of others, let us not go so far as to persuade ourselves that we have
realized the ideal. Without suspecting it, we would be uttering the
prayer of the Pharisee.
To put up with the defects of another, we must remember that God
permits evil only for a higher good. It has been said that God's
business consists in drawing good from evil, whereas we can do good
only with good. The scandal of evil, producing a bitter and indiscreet
zeal, is responsible for the fruitlessness of many reforms. The truth
should be told with measure and goodness and not spoken with contempt.
We should also avoid indiscretion that leads to speaking without
sufficient reason about the faults of one's neighbor, which is slander
and may lead to calumny.
The Gospel tells us that not only must we bear with the defects of
our neighbor, but also return good for evil by prayer, edification,
and mutual assistance. It is related that one of the ways of winning
the good graces of St. Teresa was to cause her pain. She really
practiced the counsel of Christ: "If a man will contend with thee in
judgment and take away thy coat, let go thy cloak also unto him." (27)
Why should we do this? Because it is much less important to defend our
temporal rights than to win the soul of our brother for eternity, than
to lead him to the true life which has no end. In particular, prayer
for our neighbor, when we have to suffer from him, is especially
efficacious, as was that of Jesus for His executioners and that of St.
Stephen, the first martyr, when he was being stoned.
We must also avoid jealousy, telling ourselves that we ought to
enjoy in a holy manner the natural and supernatural qualities that the
Lord has given to others and not to us. As St. Paul says: "If the foot
should say: Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it
therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say: Because I am not
the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the
whole body were the eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were
hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God hath set the
members, everyone of them, in the body as it hath pleased Him. And if
they all were one member, where would be the body? But now there are
many members indeed, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand:
I need not thy help; nor again the head to the feet: I have no need of
you. . . . But God hath tempered the body together. . . that there
might be no schism in the body; but the members might be mutually
careful one for another. And if one member suffer anything, all the
members suffer with it; or if one member glory, all the members
rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and members of
member." (28) The hand benefits by what the eye sees; similarly we
benefit by the merits of others. We should therefore rejoice in the
good qualities of another instead of allowing ourselves to become
jealous. We must exercise charity particularly toward inferiors who
are weaker, and toward superiors who have greater burdens to bear. We
must not emphasize their defects; were we in their place, we would
perhaps do less well than they. But we must help them as much as
possible in a discreet and, so to speak, unperceived manner.
Lastly, we must pray for union of minds and hearts. Praying for His
disciples, Christ said: "The glory which Thou hast given Me, I have
given to them; that they may be one, as We also are one." (29) In the
primitive Church, the Acts tell us: "The multitude of believers had
but one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that aught of the
things which he possessed was his own; but all things were common unto
them." (30) As it spread over the world, the Church could not preserve
such great intimacy among its members, but religious communities and
Christian fraternities should remember the union of hearts in the
early Church. In communities where there is common observance of life
and prayers, this interior union must exist, otherwise observances and
common prayer would be a lie to God, to men, and to ourselves. Union
of hearts contributes to giving the Church the luster of the mark of
sanctity, which presupposes unity of faith, worship, hierarchy, hope,
and charity.
The radiating charity that unites the different members of the
Savior's mystical body, in spite of diversity of ages, countries,
temperaments, and characters, is a sign that the Word became flesh,
that He came among us to unite us and to give us life. He Himself
declares it in His sacerdotal prayer: "The glory which Thou hast given
Me, I have given to them; that they may be one, as We also are one. .
. , and the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved
them, as Thou hast also loved Me." (31)
|
