Of the Manner and Character of the Union Which We Ought to Have with Our Brethren

THE glorious saints and doctors of the Church, Basil and Augustine, declare to us very well what should be the union that we should keep with our brethren by the comparison and metaphor which St. Paul draws from the human body and the conformity and union of its members one with another. See, they say, the union and conformity that obtains between the members of our body and how they help and serve one another, the eye the foot, the foot the hand; how the hand defends the head; and how, when they tread on your foot, the tongue says: “See how you are treading on me!”; how they all rush to the help of the weaker part, as may be seen if you have any wound or any other necessity. Each takes to itself what it needs for its sustenance and gives to another what is over. And what sympathy, as the doctors call it, there is, so that if the stomach is out of order, the head suffers; and when one member recovers its health, the whole body is glad and rejoices. God hath so tempered the body that the members are solicitous for the good estate of one another, says St. Paul, so that if one member is suffering, all the rest suffer with it; and if one is whole, all the rest rejoice (I Cor. xii. 25). St. Augustine reflects on this very well: ‘What is there in the whole body farther from the eyes than the foot? Yet, when the foot treads on a thorn, thrusting it in, at once the eyes look for the thorn, the body stoops down, and the tongue asks, ‘Where is it?’ At once the hand applies itself to draw it out. The eyes are all right, the hand is all right, the body, head, tongue, and even the foot is all right everywhere else except in one little point painful, where the thorn is, and yet all the members are full of compassion, and rush to the rescue with great solicitude;

and when it is put right, all rejoice.” Now in this way we should behave towards our brethren, one looking after another as after himself, and one rejoicing at the good of others and compassionating the troubles of others as his own.

In these two things, says St. Basil, there is chiefly seen the love and charity that we bear to one another—if we are distressed and full of compassion at the afflictions and spiritual and corporal troubles of our neighbor, and rejoice in his good, according to the saying of the Apostle: Rejoice with them that rejoice, weep with them that weep (Rom. xii. 15). And so says St. John Climacus: “If anyone wishes to examine the charity and love he has for his neighbor, let him see if he weeps over his faults and is glad of his graces and spiritual progress.” This is a very good sign of our love of our neighbors. St. Angela of Fuligno used to say: “My soul received more grace of God when I wept and grieved for the sins of my neighbor than when I wept for my own;” not that a man ought not to feel and grieve more for his own sins than for the sins of his neighbor, but to give us to understand by this exaggeration how grateful to God is this exercise of charity towards our neighbor. St. Bernard says that these two exercises are the two breasts of Christ’s spouse between which He rests (Cant. i. 12); both the one and the other has its own milk, sweet and savory as honey, the one of congratulation and exhortation, the other of consolation.

There is further to be considered in this comparison of St. Paul, on the one hand the diversity of members and their differences in condition and quality, since some are eyes, some feet, others hands, each holding his own distinct office; and on the other hand we are to consider the union and brotherhood there is among them in so high a degree, each being content with the same office that he holds, without envy of any other, though higher. So we must behave; each one must be content with the office that he holds and not envy those who have higher offices and ministries.

Further, never did a superior member despise an inferior, but valued it, aided and defended it all in its power. So those who hold higher ministries must not despise those who hold lower ministries and offices, but value them, aid them, and have great consideration for them as for members whereof we have need. The eye cannot say to the hand, nor the head to the foot, I have no need of you: rather God has in such manner tempered and ordered the members of the body that those which seem the lowest and feeblest are the very ones of which we stand in greatest need (I Cor. xii. 21-22). Otherwise, consider the feet, and what a breakdown would be ours if they were to fail us. The Lord has ordained all this, says St. Paul, in His high wisdom and providence, that there be no schism or division between the members of the body—uwt non sit schisma in corpore (I Cor. xii. 25), but great union and conformity. So it is here in this body of religion, that some hold the office of head, others of eyes, others of feet and hands; nor can the head say that it has no need of the hands, nor the eyes that they have no need of the feet; rather it seems that they are just the component that we need most, to be able to live and do anything in religion: so we are wont to say that they are our feet and hands, because without them it seems we can do nothing. And this has been a high providence of God that there should be no schism amongst us, but much union and conformity.

This is the portrait of true union and charity; and hence we must learn how we are to aid and serve one another, which is a thing that goes a long way to the preservation and augmentation of union; and so the Apostle St. Paul much recommends it to us: By charity of spirit serve one another (Gal. v.13). Thus it is great praise in religion to be an obliging person, ready to serve and aid and give satisfaction to all; it shows charity and humility and mortification, and not to be as some are, who for want of mortification and readiness to take a little trouble and go a bit out of their way have no idea of giving pleasure and satisfaction to their brothers. In that so heroic act of Christ our Redeemer in washing the feet of His disciples, no doubt He meant to give us an example of humility, but of humility conjoined with the exercise of charity and brotherly love. If I have served you and washed your feet, I your Lord and Master, it will be reasonable that you should do the same for one another (John xiii. 14). I have given you an example how you are to behave to one another and how you are to serve and aid one another in humility and charity.