IV — THE MEASURE OF FRATERNAL CHARITY

Presence of God. — O Lord, make me understand all the value of Your words: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22, 39).

Meditation

1 — In proclaiming the precept of fraternal charity, Jesus Himself has given us its measure: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22, 39) — a measure truly ample and difficult to surpass, if one bears in mind how greatly every man is inclined to love himself. So great is the good that each of us wishes upon his own person that, were we to wish as much for our neighbor — any neighbor whatsoever — our charity would be truly magnanimous. Jesus said: “Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them” (Lk. 6, 31) — which in practice means precisely treating others as we ourselves wish to be treated: showing toward our neighbor, for example, that same delicacy of thoughts, words, and actions that we desire for ourselves; serving, pleasing, and adapting ourselves to the tastes of others, just as we wish to be served, pleased, and accommodated ourselves. Unhappily, however, our self-love drives us to use two measures: one very broad — indeed exaggerated — for ourselves, and one very scant — indeed miserly — for our neighbor. The attentions others show us always seem to us little, and how readily we complain of being treated without delicacy! Yet we are far from doing as much for our neighbor; on the contrary, even while neglected, we feel that we are doing far too much. Similarly, we are most sensitive to the wrongs we receive, and even when they are in reality small, they appear to us almost insupportable; while we consider as nothing those which, perhaps with great ease, we inflict upon others. The greatest enemy of fraternal charity is self-love, which renders us too sensitive and demanding in what concerns ourselves, and very little so in what concerns others. We must try to possess by virtue that sensitivity which we have instinctively for our own person, and to direct it toward our neighbor — not so much for the neighbor’s own sake as for the sake of God, who so wills it, for the sake of God whom we must see in our neighbor. If we were convinced that God is there, in our brothers, and that in them He awaits the delicacies of our love, how could it ever seem too much to love them at least as much as we love ourselves?

2 — The love each of us bears toward himself is not theoretical or abstract, but well-determined and concrete, embracing our person with all its particularities, needs, sensibilities, and tastes. Thus we are ingenious in finding our own way of thinking good and just, in upholding our rights, in defending our causes, in excusing our faults — how much understanding and compassion we show in this domain! Well, such ought to be our bearing toward our neighbor as well. To love our neighbor for God’s sake does not mean limiting ourselves to a general, platonic love that embraces all in the mass without taking account of individual persons. No, we must love each one in particular, in the concrete reality of his personality — adapting ourselves to his sensibility, his tastes, his mentality, bearing with and covering his faults as we are careful to cover our own; desiring and procuring his good not only with words but with deeds, as we are careful to procure our own. And as we do not cease to love ourselves on account of our defects, so our love for our neighbor must be such as not to be stopped by the shortcomings we find in him.

The first and greatest good we must wish for our neighbor is the same as what we must wish for ourselves: that is, eternal salvation, sanctification, grace, and the ineffable joy of being children of God, of sharing in His divine life, of enjoying Him in heaven for all eternity. This good too we must desire concretely, not contenting ourselves with mere sighs, but striving to procure it with all our strength — and far more by prayer, by hidden sacrifice, and by good example than by words alone.

But the duty to procure first of all the spiritual good of our neighbor must not become a convenient excuse for dispensing ourselves from caring to help him in his material needs as well. How often, alas, in the face of others’ necessities, our charity limits itself to empty words and sterile compassion! To fulfil Jesus’s precept, it is necessary that it translate into practical help, just as we should wish to be helped in our own needs. “Do to others whatever you wish that others should do to you; for this is the law and the prophets” (Mt. 7, 12). How much we need to penetrate the deep meaning of these words in order to apply them in all our relations with our neighbor, none excepted!

Colloquy

“O most clement Lord Jesus, love of neighbor is rightly ordered when the neighbor is loved for Your sake, because You created him and have commanded that he be justly and rightly loved. If parents and relatives are loved more than You, such love is not rightly ordered, nor is he who so loves worthy of You. Two are the precepts given to us: to love God and to love the neighbor; and though these precepts are two, the love they command is one, since the love with which one loves You does not differ from that with which one loves the neighbor for Your sake; nor can he who errs in the manner of loving his neighbor truly love You.

“O Lord Jesus Christ, if I wish to order charity within me, I must love: You with my whole heart, my whole soul, and my whole mind; my neighbor as myself, in such wise that I do not do to others what I would not wish done to me, and that I bestow upon others those benefits I desire for myself.

“Teach me, O most benign Lord, to meditate on these truths, to retain them, to practice them with all my strength. From the love I bear my neighbor I shall know, O Lord, whether I love You; for he who neglects to love You does not know how to love his neighbor either. O most merciful Lord Jesus Christ, what shall I say and what shall I do before You, for the hardness of my heart, whereby I do not love my neighbor for Your sake, but have often sinned in pursuit of what appeared to be my own advantage, or to avoid some loss? Thus true love is not in me. Deign to help me, O most pious Lord Jesus Christ, orderer of charity and of true love, forgiving me who am a sinner and mercifully making me a sharer in Your immense clemency. Grant, I beseech You, that I turn wholly toward You, so that I may live with You in ordered charity, for eternity!” (Ven. R. Giordano).