XXVIII — THE EXCELLENCE OF CHARITY

Presence of God. — Make me understand, O Lord, the primacy of charity, so that I may commit myself to it with all my heart.

Meditation

1 — All three theological virtues, having God as their direct object, are superior to the moral virtues, whose direct object is the ordering of our conduct; but among the theological virtues themselves, charity has primacy. It has primacy because, being inseparable from grace, it is a constitutive and indispensable element of our supernatural life. Where there is no charity, there is no grace, there is no life, but death: “he who does not love remains in death” and, conversely, “he who abides in charity abides in God and God in him” (1 Jn. 3:14; 4:16). Faith and hope can subsist even in a soul that has lost grace, but charity cannot: it is so vital that it cannot coexist with the death caused by sin. Not only this: it is so vital that it is imperishable and will remain unchanged for all eternity. In heaven, faith and hope will cease, because they involve something imperfect, in the sense that faith makes us know God without giving us vision of Him, and hope makes us hope in Him without giving us possession of Him. Therefore, “when that which is perfect has come,” that is, the beatific vision, these two virtues will no longer have a reason to be. Not so charity, which implies no imperfection, since it makes us love God both in the obscurity of faith and in the clarity of vision; and therefore, says St. Paul, “charity never fails.” Here below, to adhere to God, “only these three remain: faith, hope, and charity, but the greatest of these,” the Apostle concludes, “is charity” (1 Cor. 13:8-13).

Faith and hope are not complete virtues, because without charity they do not have the power to unite us to God or to produce works of eternal life. The faith and hope of the sinner who has lost charity are inactive and inoperative; they remain in him, it is true, but they remain there as dead. “Faith without works is dead” (Jas. 2:26), and only “faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6) has value, to such a point that “if I had all faith so as to move mountains, and had not love, I am nothing” (1 Cor. 13:2). It is charity that gives warmth and the force of eternal life to faith and hope; it is charity that infuses vigor into these virtues, because only one who loves is capable of believing in God and hoping in Him without condition, without measure, and is capable of abandoning himself to Him with eyes closed.

2 — The moral virtues can make a man upright and virtuous; they can regulate his actions according to reason, but they can in no way introduce him into friendship with God, nor even give him the possibility of meriting eternal life. Without the life-giving breath of charity, everything remains dead, sterile, cold. Without charity, man remains confined to the natural plane: he cannot be a child of God, cannot be his friend, cannot live in society with the divine Persons. Charity is the principle, the root, the source, the measure of our supernatural life: the more we love, the more the life of grace grows in us; the more we love, the more we live in God: “we know that we have passed from death to life because we love” (1 Jn. 3:14).

Something truly striking: not even the greatest and most beautiful works, such as apostolate, beneficence, and not even martyrdom, are worth anything without charity: “if I should distribute all I have to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing” (1 Cor. 13:3). But when charity enters, everything changes appearance, as a landscape changes when kissed by the sun, and with appearance value changes as well: even the humblest works, the most hidden acts of virtue done for love of God, acquire value for eternal life. This is the miracle worked by charity, which St. Thomas quite rightly calls the “form and mother” of all virtues. “Only love gives value to works,” says Teresa of Jesus, “and the only thing necessary is that love be so strong that nothing can stifle it” (Ex. 5, 2). All this makes us understand that charity is truly “the first and greatest commandment” on which “the whole law” is founded (Mt. 22:38, 40). The soul that understands this great truth no longer concerns itself in its spiritual life with many practices and exercises more or less marginal, but aims at the heart, the center of this life: it aims at charity. Its only concern is to engage all its strength in the exercise of love, to grow in love, to live as much as possible in continual actuality of love; and therefore in all things it seeks to act with the sole end of pleasing God, delighting Him, and giving Him glory.

Colloquy

“Clothe me, O Lord, with the purple garment of charity, which not only adds grace to faith and hope, but at once raises the soul, making it pleasing and beautiful in your sight. This virtue is what most attracts your love, what defends the soul from self-love, what gives worth to the other virtues, giving them strength and vigor, and grace and beauty, so that the soul may please You; for without charity no virtue is pleasing in your eyes.

“O sweetest love of God, how little known you are! He who discovers your springs finally finds rest. You empty the affections of the will of anything that is not God, and turn them to Him alone; and thus you dispose this power through love and unite it to God.

“O Lord, teach me to engage all my powers in loving You, so that every faculty of soul and body — memory, intellect, external and internal senses, the appetites of the sensitive and spiritual part — everything, in a word, may be moved by love and in love. Grant that in acting I do everything through love, and in suffering I endure everything with the delight of love; and thus, my God, may I keep all my strength for You” (cf. St. John of the Cross, Dark Night II, 21, 10-11; Living Flame 16; Canticle 28, 8).

“I resolve, O my God, in all my actions, interior as well as exterior, to have no other aim than the sole motive of love, always saying and asking myself: what am I doing now in this action? Do I love my God? And, recognizing some obstacle to pure love, I will reproach myself. Yes, O Lord, I must render You love for love. You make me understand well that the more I love You, the more diligent I will be in observing all your holy laws” (cf. T. M. Sp., pp. 324-325).