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We shall explain the nature of heroic charity by recalling the
definition of this virtue. Charity is the infused theological virtue
which makes us love God for Himself and more than ourselves, because
He is infinitely good in Himself, infinitely better than we are, and
than all His gifts. It also makes us love our neighbor in God and for
God, because God loves him and as God loves him. Charity is thus a
friendship between the soul and God, a communion of our love with His
and a communion of souls in the love of God. We must, therefore,
consider heroic charity first toward God, and secondly toward our
neighbor.
HEROIC CHARITY TOWARD GOD
PERFECT CONFORMITY TO HIS WILL AND LOVE OF THE CROSS
Heroic charity toward God manifests itself in the first place by an
ardent desire to please Him. In fact, to love someone not for oneself
but for himself, is to wish him well, to wish what is suitable for him
and pleasing to him. To love God heroically is, in the midst of even
the greatest difficulties, to wish that His holy will be accomplished
and His reign profoundly established in souls.
This holy desire to please God is a form of affective charity, which
is proved by effective charity, or by conformity to the divine will,
in the practice of all the virtues. The soul thus reaches unswerving
fidelity in little things and in great things, or what is most
difficult.
Heroic love of God is shown, we have seen, in the passive
purification of the spirit, when it is a question of loving God for
Himself, without any consolation, in great and protracted aridity, in
spite of temptations to disgust, acedia, and murmuring, when the Lord
seems to withdraw His gifts and leave the soul in anxiety. God is for
this reason none the less infinitely good in Himself and deserves to
be loved purely for Himself. If then, in spite of such prolonged
dryness, the soul loves to be alone with God, especially before the
Blessed Sacrament, and if it still continues to pray, if in spite of
everything its life remains a perpetual prayer, this is a sign of
heroic love of God.
As St. Francis de Sales (1) shows, heroic conformity to the divine will
appears when the soul receives lovingly every agreeable or painful
occurrence as coming either from the positive will of God, or from a
divine permission directed toward a higher good. It then sees with
ever greater clearness the truth of the words of Ecclesiasticus:
"Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches, are from
God." (2) The soul here becomes deeply convinced that God makes use even
of the malice of men, for example, of persecutors, as an occasion of
merit for those who wish to live only for Him. Thus Job accepted
adversity, and in the same way David bore the insults of Semei. (3)
In the greatest difficulties, the saints, while doing what is in their
power, say: "It will be as God wishes."
To this sign is added a confirmation: namely, one who thus renounces
his own will and adheres heroically to the will of God finds a holy
joy in this adherence. In conforming his will more and more to God's
will, he has all that he wishes. He experiences the truth of the
Psalmist's words: "O Lord, Thou hast crowned us, as with a shield of
Thy good will." (4) This is what the martyrs have particularly
experienced.
In his explanation of the Canticle of Canticles, St. Bernard
describes the ascending degrees of heroic charity as follows: "Divine
love leads to an unceasing search for God, to continual labor for Him;
it bears indefatigably all trials in union with Christ; it gives a
true thirst for God; it makes us run rapidly toward Him; it gives us a
holy boldness and an undaunted audacity; it attaches us inseparably
to God; it burns and consumes us with a very sweet ardor for Him;
finally, in heaven, it likens us completely to Him." (5)
These degrees of perfect charity are explained in a short work
attributed to St. Thomas,(6) and also by St. John of the Cross in The
Dark Night,(7) where he shows that the second last degree is the
transforming union, the prelude of that of heaven. "The Apostles," he
says, "experienced this sweetness of ardent love when the Holy Ghost
descended visibly upon them." (8)
The greatest sign of heroic charity toward God, is love of the cross.
The patience and conformity to the divine will of which we have
spoken, lead to this love.
In The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, the Lord says: "It now
remains to be told thee how it can be seen that souls have arrived at
perfect love. This is seen by the same sign that was given to the holy
disciples after they had received the Holy Spirit, when they came
forth from the house, and fearlessly announced the doctrine of My
Word, My only-begotten Son, not fearing pain, but rather glorying
therein. They did not mind going before the tyrants of the world to
announce to them the truth, for the glory and praise of My name."
(9)
In the same Dialogue we read: "Such as these, . . . as if enamored of
My honor, and famished for the food of souls, run to the table of the
most holy cross." (10) "They slacken not their pace on account of the
persecutions, injuries, or pleasures of the world. They pass by all
these things, . . . their affection clothed in the affection of
charity, and eating the food of souls with true and perfect patience,
which patience is a sign that the soul is in perfect love, loving without any consideration of self."
(11) "Such as these do not feel any
separation from Me. . . . I remain continually both by grace and
feeling in their souls." (12)
In other words, the eminent exercise of charity is accompanied in a
proportionate degree by the act of the gift of wisdom, which enables
us, says St. Thomas,(13) to know God present in us in a quasiexperimental manner. This is truly the mystical life, the summit
of
the normal development of grace and the prelude of the life of heaven. This
summit cannot exist without love of the cross, and love
of the cross does not exist without the contemplation of the mystery
of the redemption, of the mystery of Christ dying for love of us.
Consequently, in The Dialogue, the Lord, speaking to St. Catherine of
Siena for herself and for her spiritual children, says: "It is right
for thee, and My other servants who have learned My truth in this way,
to sustain, even unto death, many tribulations and injuries and
insults in word and deed, for the glory and praise of My name; thus
wilt thou endure and suffer pains"; (14) that is, with patience,
gratitude, and love.
Such are the great signs of heroic love of God: perfect conformity to
His will in trials and love of the cross. There is also another sign,
perfect charity toward one's neighbor, which we shall now discuss.
HEROIC CHARITY TOWARD ONE'S NEIGHBOR: THE ARDENT DESIRE FOR HIS
SALVATION AND RADIATING GOODNESS TOWARD ALL
Charity leads us to love our neighbor in God and for Him; that
is, because God loves him and as God loves him. It makes us desire
that our neighbor may belong entirely to God and glorify Him
eternally.
Heroic love of neighbor already exists when one promptly dominates
strong temptations to envy, discord, isolation, so different from
solitude; likewise when one quickly surmounts temptations to
presumption, which incline one, in the wake of certain insults, to
wish to get along without the help of others - of friends, director, superiors.
Perfect charity appears when, in the midst of great difficulties, one
loves one's neighbor, mente, ore, et opere, that is, judging him with
benevolence, speaking well of him, helping him in his necessity,
perfectly pardoning offenses, and making oneself all to all. This
charity is still more obvious if by preference one seeks out, as St.
Vincent de Paul did, friendless and fallen souls, poor, strayed, and
gravely guilty creatures, in order to lift them up, rehabilitate them,
and set them back on the road to heaven.
A chief characteristic of heroic love of neighbor is an ardent
desire for the salvation of souls, a thirst for souls, which recalls
Christ's words on the cross: "I thirst." St. John used to say: "My
little children, let us not love in word nor in tongue, but in deed
and in truth." (15)
Heroic love of neighbor led some saints to the point of wishing to
sell themselves as slaves that they might deliver captives and thus
rescue families from wretched poverty. This zeal inspired St.
Paul to write: "I wished myself to be an anathema from Christ, (16) for
my brethren, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are
Israelites." (17)
This zeal inspired the apostolic activity of great missionaries, of
St. Francis Xavier, St. Louis Bertrand, Las Casas, St. Peter Claver.
Nearer our own day, it is the inspiration of apostles, like St. John
Bosco, who are completely engrossed in bringing back to God the
misguided masses in our Christian countries who no longer know the
Gospel.
Another sign of heroic love of neighbor is radiating goodness toward
all amid the greatest difficulties, according to the evangelical
beatitude: "Blessed are the peacemakers," that is, those who not only
preserve peace in most difficult moments, but who give it to others
and hearten the most troubled. This eminent sign appears in Mary, the
Consoler of the Afflicted, and in all those who resemble her. Our Lord
says: "Love one another as I have loved you." (18) "By this shall all
men know that you are My disciples." (19)
Communicative goodness, love of neighbor carried even to daily and
hidden sacrifice, is the indisputable mark of the presence of God in a
soul. This goodness, which is as strong as it is gentle, sometimes
leads one to correct others, but without bitterness, sharpness, or
impatience. And that the correction may be effective, it points out
the good, the salutary seed which should be developed in the one who
deserves the reprimand. Then the person receiving the reproof feels
that he is loved and understood; he takes courage. If the Blessed
Virgin were to appear and tell us our defects, she would do so with
such goodness that we would immediately accept her corrections and
draw from them the strength to make progress.(20)
Perfect charity toward one's neighbor springs from close union
with God, and it leads one's neighbor to this same union, according
to our Savior's words: "I pray. . . for them also who through their
word shall believe in Me; that they all may be one, as Thou, Father
in Me, and I in Thee." (21) The more united the soul is to God, the
more it draws others to Him, never to itself. In the soul united to
God, shines forth the divine goodness, which radiates, attracts
powerfully and sweetly, and ends by triumphing over all obstacles.(22)
An incident from the life of St. Catherine of Siena will serve to
illustrate this teaching. One day Peter Ventura, a Sienese involved in
the affairs of the government, was brought to Catherine with his heart
full of implacable hatred. "Peter," Catherine said to him, "I take all
your sins on myself, I shall do penance in your place. But grant me a
favor; go to confession." "I have just been to confession recently,"
said the Sienese. "That is not true," replied the saint, "it is seven
years since you went to confession," and, one by one, she enumerated
all the sins of his life. Stupefied, Peter admitted his guilt,
repented of his sins, and pardoned his enemies. By promising Peter
Ventura that she would take his sins on herself and expiate them, the
saint had truly offered herself as a victim, and the Lord required of
His servant, or rather His spouse, expiation through suffering. She
interpreted literally Christ's words: "Love one another, as I have
loved you."
In the same heroic manner St. Catherine obtained the conversion of
Andrea Mei, a Sienese invalid, who had grievously calumniated her. The
saint with consummate devotion nursed this woman, who was being eaten
by a cancer. The unfortunate creature had the sorry courage to impugn
the virginal honor of her devoted nurse, and
these evil remarks spread abroad. Catherine, however, did not cease to
tend her with the same zeal. Her patience and humility triumphed over
Andrea Mei. One day the saint, as she approached the sick woman's bed,
was surrounded by light, as if resplendent in glory; "Pardon!" cried
the guilty woman. Catherine threw her arms around her neck, and their
tears mingled. It was like the radiation of the divine goodness and
the realization of our Savior's words: "The glory which Thou hast
given Me, I have given to them; that they may be one, as We also are
one." (23)
Two souls united in God by charity are like two candles whose flames
unite and fuse.
Charity, which thus triumphs over wickedness, makes the saints share
in the victory of Christ over sin and the devil. It is one of the
glories of His mystical body; through it shine forth the grandeur of
the life of the Church, its fruitfulness in every kind of good and of
works of mercy. It is the confirmation of the divine origin of the
Church.
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