Of Two Other Conditions of Charity and Union

HARITY, says the Apostle, is not envious (I Cor. xiii.

4. ; rather he who really loves another desires his good and his prosperity as much as if it were his own. The glorious St. Augustine declares this by the example of Jonathan and the great love that he bore to David. Holy Writ says: The soul of Jonathan was joined and united with the soul of David: one heart and one soul was made of both, because Jonathan loved David as his own soul (I Kings xviii. 1). And the consequence thereat was that, though he was the son of the king, he sought the kingdom rather for David than for himself. Thou shalt be King of Israel, and after thee I will be second (I Kings xxiii. 17). Jonathan rejoiced in the good of David as though it were his own. The saints allege another example, which shows more the property and effect of charity, the example of the blessed in heaven. There in heaven there is no envy of others’ being greater than oneself; rather, if so it might be, each would wish his neighbor greater glory and would share his own with him, and that his inferior should be his equal or greater than he, because each one rejoices in the glory of another as though it were his own. And this is not so very difficult to understand; for if here on earth the natural love of mothers makes them rejoice as much in the good of their children as if it were their own, how much more will that heavenly love do, being so much more excellent and perfect? Let us, then, rejoice in the good of another as much as if it were our own, for that is the proper effect of charity.

To invite and animate us thereto, St. Augustine observes that charity and love make their own the good of others, not by despoiling anyone of it, but simply by being glad and rejoicing over it. And there is not much to wonder at in what he says; for if by loving another’s sin and rejoicing therein a man makes that sin his own, because God sees the heart (I Kings xvi. 7), what wonder is it that by loving another’s goodness and rejoicing therein he also makes that his own, especially as God is more ready to reward than to punish? Let us, then, consider and weigh this truth—on the one hand what an excellent thing charity is and what great gain and profit we make thereby, since in that way we can make our own all the good works of our brethren by merely rejoicing and taking complacency therein, and that even with greater security than in the case of our own good works, since no vainglory can arise from them as from our own; and on the other hand let us consider what an evil thing envy is and how pernicious, since it turns a neighbor’s good to our own evil. Thus we are led to make it our effort to shun the one and embrace the other.

Hence follows the second particular, which the Apostle adds at once: Charity is not ambitious, nor seeketh her own interests (I Cor. xiii. 13). Anyone must be far removed from that who takes his neighbor’s good for his own and rejoices therein as though it were his own. One of the things that make the greatest war on charity and most hinder this union is self-love, or self-seeking, the looking after one’s own conveniences and interests. For this reason our Father calls self-love a most grievous and deadly enemy of all order and union. Humbert in the Rule of St. Augustine calls it the bane of common and religious life, infecting and ruining everything. And although it is true that this selflove is the general enemy of all the virtues, yet it is particularly the enemy of this. Indeed, the very name tells us this; for if it is the love of self, it is not the love of the community, which is the love of charity. Self-love is division; it is something private and particular; it wants everything for itself; it seeks itself in all, which is directly contrary to charity and union.

Upon what the Scripture tells us of Abraham and Lot, that the land could not hold them living together (Gen. Xiii. 6)—each owning so many head of cattle that the land was too narrow to afford them pasture, and so the shepherds of the one quarreled with the shepherds of the other and it was necessary for peace sake for the two to go apart—st. Chrysostom observes: “Where there is mine and thine, at once there are lawsuits and occasions of contention and discord even among kinsmen and brothers; but where this is not the case, peace and concord are safe” —Ubi est meum et tuum, ibi omnium litium genus et contentionis occasio; ubi autem haec non sunt, ibi secura versatur pax et concordia. So we see, says the saint, that in the primitive Church there was great union and concord among the faithful; they had all one soul and one heart because there was no mine and thine amongst them, but all things were in common (Acts iv. 32). That is the reason why there was among them so much harmony and union. And therefore all religious orders, inspired by God and founded on Scripture, have laid down poverty for their first and principal foundation. Of this we make our first vow, that there being no mine or thine, and self-love finding nothing to settle upon, we may all have one heart and one soul.

No doubt it is a great help to preservation of charity and union amongst us to have divested and despoiled ourselves of all the goods of the world. But it is not enough to have no mine and thine in these temporal things; it is necessary that we should not have them in other things either, for if we have them, that will make war on us and be an obstacle to this union and charity. If you seek honor and reputation for yourself; if you desire the higher post; if you go about in quest of your own gratifications and conveniences, thereby you will come to disunite yourself from and disagree with your brethren: that is what commonly makes war on charity. Thence it comes that you are smitten with a sort of envy at seeing your brother display talent, shine and receive praise, be looked up to and made much of, because you will want that honor and estimation for yourself and think that the other robs you of it. Hence also arises joy, or at least an indescribable feeling of satisfaction, when another does not succeed in some affair, because you fancy that thereby he is being humbled and marked as inferior to you. Hence it befalls you at times to seek to throw your brother into the shade directly or indirectly, sometimes in an argument, sometimes by sundry little words that slip out unbidden and spring from the abundance of what you have in your heart. All this sort of thing is disorderly self-love, ambition, pride, and envy, which are the maggots apt to destroy union and mutual charity. Charity, says the Apostle, rejoiceth not in evil, but rejoiceth in truth (I Cor. xiii. 6). Charity takes no delight in the depreciation of others, but wishes them to rise and win and advance to greater things, and the greater the better. You are our brother; may you go on with a blessing upon you a thousand and a thousand times; that shall be my joy and my contentment (Gen. xxiv. 60). A merchant trading for a company is nowise distressed at the gains that his partners make, nor at the good industry wherewith they make them; rather he rejoices greatly thereat because it all turns to his own profit and to that of the whole company. So we should rejoice at any good done, or talent displayed, or forward step taken by our brothers, since it all comes to turn and redound to the good and profit of the whole of that body of the Society, a member and part whereof I am and the good things whereof I enjoy.