Chapter 6. The Virtue of Charity

The essential perfection of God and of man is charity. For * God is charity; and he that abideth in charity abideth in God, and God in him.'1 It is a participation of the Divine Nature and the perfection of the saints in time and in eternity. * Hope 1 1 S. John iv. 1C.

confoundeth not, because the charity of God is poured forth into our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us.'2

Now all charity is love, but not all love is charity; nevertheless we may include the love of nature in that name, if we carefully distinguish the degrees of it. There are four degrees of true charity:

1. The first is the natural love of the supreme good or happiness which every man desires for himself and hopes for.

2. The second is an initial charity, or love of God for His own sake.

3. The third is the love of dilection, by which we choose God as the object of love above all things.

4. The fourth is the love of friendship, by which we love God for His own sake with a love neither mercenary nor mixed, but, according to the measure of our imperfection, with the pure love of sons and of friends.

It is in this last and full sense that f Rom. v. 5.

we speak of charity. It may be defined as the love of friendship, by which we desire all bliss and glory to Him because of His supreme perfections.3

Now the first infusion of this charity into our soul was when we were born again by water and the Holy Ghost. And yet this was only the first drop of the fire that fell from heaven, by which we were united to God. in the initial perfection of the soul.

1. Charity is God's greatest gift to man, for it is the gift of Himself. When we received it, we received not only the created grace which dwells in us as a habit or supernatural quality, but the uncreated charity of God, which is the Holy Ghost, the Third Person, coequal with the Father and the Son — the Charity of the Father and of the Son, the Bond of the Ever-blessed Trinity. He came to make us the temple of God by His presence dwelling in us. The will is the proper subject of charity, and in our will it 3 S. Thomae, Sum. Theol. 2. 2, q. 23.

dwells. And by this inhabitation God united us to Himself. The charity whereby we love God and our neighbours is the created grace, which is distinct from Him, the Uncreated Charity, but it Hows from Him: 'The charity of God is poured forth into our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us.' As the sun sheds abroad light, heat, fruitfulness, and ripeness upon all things, and these qualities are distinct from the sun which gives them, so is it with the created and uncreated charity, which are in us so long as we abide in Him. It is by this that we love God above all things, and our neighbour as ourself. There is, then, a rational and lawful love of self. As the love of God is a love of appreciation, whereby we know His perfections and supremacy over all created things, so the rational love of self is a love of appreciation, whereby we know the worth of our own eternal being, made to the image and likeness of God. There is no creature in this world nearer to the perfections of God than the soul in man. It is made only a little lower than the angels, because it is clothed in a body from the slime of the earth. It is above all other creatures, be cause it alone ia the image of the Creator. As, then, we appreciate our own soul because it is like to God, and belongs to Him by the threefold title of creation, redemption, and sanctification, so we are bound in charity to appreciate the soul of our neigh bour, and to be ready, for his salvation, to sacrifice all worldly goods, and even our bodily life — everything indeed except the salvation of our own soul, which is not our own but His who has redeemed us.

2. Now this gift of God is inseparably united with the sanctifying grace whereby we are made holy. Grace is, as we have seen, the divine action of a Divine Person dwelling in us, united to us, and imparting holiness to us.

(1) The graces, therefore, of created charity and created sanctity, though distinct, are indivisible. They flow from the same source; they come and go together. Where the one is, both are; where one is not, neither can be. They are like the light and the heat of the sun. Where the sun is, they are; where he is not, they can not be.

(2) For charity is both a part of sanctity and the perfection of all sanctity. It is the chief of all graces. It perfects the soul. Faith and hope and charity perfect the intellect, the heart, and the will; but charity perfects faith and hope. Faith without charity is dead, and hope without charity is powerless to save; but charity contains both hope and faith, and gives to each its perfection. S. Paul says, * Now there abideth faith, hope, and charity — these three; but the greater of them is charity.'4 For faith will pass away in vision, and hope in possession; but when they are no more, charity will be made perfect. It will be eternal in the beatific union of the soul with God.

« 1 Cor. xiii. 8.

(3) Therefore even in this life it is the essential perfection of the soul. S. Paul calls it 'the bond of perfectness/ It is to the soul what the uncreated charity is to the Ever-blessed Trinity. In us the grace of charity is as the thread which runs through a string of precious stones, or the clasp which holds them together. For charity is the motive without which all our actions are nothing before God. It is the mode or manner in which all we do must be done; it is the measure by which our service of God and man ought to be regulated; it is the maturity which perfects and sanctifies all our life. Therefore S. Paul says, ' If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as a sounding brass or a tink ling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy, and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to "be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.*5

3. Lastly, charity is the beginning of eternal bliss. It is the essence and it is the measure of eternal joys. For the bliss of heaven is charity made perfect, and according to the measure of charity in this life will be the glory in eternity. The Council of Florence teaches that the bliss of the Saints is according to their merits; but the essence of all merit is charity.

(1) Therefore our share in the Beatific Vision will be according to our merit, and our merit will be according to our charity. No act of charity will go without its re ward; and the least acts perhaps may have the greatest merits because of the greater charity from which they sprung. The widow's cake, and the widow's mite, and the cup of cold water, and the spices that were bought, but never needed, for Jesus was already risen: and every kind word. » 1 Cor xiii. 1-3.

and gentle tone, and loving watchfulness in little things, by which the humblest and most homely life is turned to gold, and transfigured in secret before God and the Guardian Angels — all these shall have a measure of bliss and glory which the world cannot conceive, because it seeth not the Holy Ghost, neither knoweth Him. These are the daily miracles of the Sanctifier, secret as the ministries which ripen the corn and make the wild-flowers perfect in form and hue, when no eye of man shall ever see them.

(2) It is, above all, this tissue of little things with great motives which weaves the * fine linen, glittering and white' — that is, *the justifications of the Saints.'6 In these things especially consists the conforming of the heart to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and to the spotless heart of His Blessed Mother. And they who are most conformed to Him are most like to God, for their whole being is transformed into charity, and God is " Apcc. xix. 8.

charity; and it is by conformity to Him that ' we shall see Him as He is.'7

(3) And this vision of God will be in the measure of our capacity, and our capacity will be in the measure of our conformity to Him: * In Thy light we shall see light.'8 As S. Irenaeus says, 'They that see the light are in the light, and they that see God shall be in God.' They will not all be of equal capacity, but they will be all full. ' One is the glory of the sun, another the glory of the moon, and another the glory of the stars; for star differeth from star in glory.'9 The many measures there will be according to the many mea sures here of charity to God and man. As the vision of faith has been, so will be the vision of glory; and as the heart has here been dilated with the love of God, so there •will be its capacity of bliss.

1. Now the grace of charity may be in creased all our life long if we live in,

» 1 S. John iii. 2. • 1 Cor. xv. 41.

• Ps. xxxv. 1« charity, and are faithful to its inspirations. It may grow from the last gleam of the smoking flax to the fire of the Seraphim, and that in two ways.

(1) By acquisition; for every act of charity, even every internal act which from want of power cannot be put into effect, receives a proportionate increase of the grace of charity. All the day long we may turn our thoughts, words, and actions into gold; and even the least and -most unnoticed and most transient acts of loving hearts are like the filing of the gold. The very dust of gold is gold. Every several act of charity towards God, towards the Sacred Heart, towards the Holy Ghost, brings a proportionate increase of charity.

(2) The other way of increase is by the infusion of grace which comes from the charity of God. In every confession and Communion, besides the grace of the Sacrament, which is the same in all who arc worthy, there is a sacramental grace in proportion to the capacity and devotion 01 each. What must have been the increase of love in every Communion of the spot less heart of the Mother of God, of the beloved disciple, and, to come nearer to ourselves, of S. Francis of Sales. What may have been the continual growth of charity in every Communion of S. Mary of Magdala and of every penitent soul in all the world. God gives His charity as a sovereign gift, especially in prayer, to those who pray, to all who love His law, to all who hunger and thirst after justice. As the showers that water the earth, and as the sun that kindles its multiplying life, so the charity of God is always descending upon those whose hearts are open before Him to receive it.

2. It is certain that charity may be in creased, but it has been questioned whether charity can be diminished. As to its essence, it is like life, which cannot be and not be. Charity is the life of the soul; and the soul is either living or dead, as charity is or is not in it So far charity cannot be diminished. But as life may be vigorous or declining, and as its operations and powers and functions may be strong or feeble, so with charity. Charity may be weakened, and that with a dangerous facility. By every uncharitable act or thought, howsoever venial, it loses somewhat of its delicacy and fervour: by the mixture of its motives with the world, with pleasure, with interest, with self-seeking, with re flections upon self. Charity is fervent in the measure in which it is pure. God loves our love in the measure in which we love Him for His own sake, and serve Him purely for love. The least act of pure love is more precious in His sight than a whole ocean of charitable works and contributions which are mixed up and debased by worldly fashion, excitement, and self in its thou sand forms. Such charity may be likened to the troubled sea, which cannot rest, casting up, too often, mire and dirt.

3. But though charity cannot be diminished it is certain that it may be lost, and,

F that utterly; and in a moment. One mortal sin will quench it. S. Jerome says of a certain soul, 'In the morning thou wast as a star in its radiance, and before evening thou art changed into the blackness of a coal.' One mortal sin of the flesh or of the spirit, and the friendship with God is broken, sanctifying grace is lost, and the soul is dead. This explains the deadliness of heresy and schism. The Church is the visible presence of God the Holy Ghost, that is, of the Spirit of truth and of charity. Heresy is a resistance of the known truth, and a sin against the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth. Schism is a sin against the unity of charity, and therefore against the love of God and of our brethren. So, again, fraudulent acts which rob our neighbour, false witness which murders his fair name, detraction by speaking and by listening, which is the work of ' the accuser of the brethren'10 — all these quench the Spirit, and the Spirit is w Apoc. xii. 10.

Charity. In like manner evil thoughts, rash judgments, cold hearts, ill-wills, smouldering resentments, cherished dis likes, secret and indulged aversions — all these extinguish the charity of God in us. * We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.'11 Therefore, if we do not love them we have not passed that gulf; or, perhaps, we have passed back again from life unto death be cause we love them not, for ' He that loveth not abideth in death.'12

4. One more truth remains. Charity is God's gift, and when lost can never be re gained except by a new sovereign gift of God. The will of man cannot regain it. It is as much out of our reach as the throne on which God reigns. (1) The soul without charity is spiritually dead, and the dead cannot raise themselves. The voice that said to Lazarus, * Come forth,' must say to us, ' I absolve thee,' or we shall lie in the grave. (2) All acts that we do when out

11 1 S. John iii. 14. » Ibid.

of charity are works of the dead. We are like the * trees of autumn,' as S. Jude says. The summer is over. We are ' without fruit,' for the life is gone, * plucked up by the roots.' Once we were planted in the river of life; but our root is dead. Such is the world in which the charity of God has ceased to reign. It is twice dead, by original and by actual sin, and spreads as the valley of dry bones; they are many of all nations, and they are very dry, for they are very dead. And because iniquity abounds, the charity of many who yet live is growing cold.

0 God the Holy Ghost, who art the charity of the Father and the Son, cast out of me, by Thy presence, all that offends Thy purity and Thy fervour. Thine ' eyes are as a flame of fire,' and Thy fervour as the sun in its strength. Dilate my heart by the expansion of Thy love in me, that I may now, in this evil world, love Thee with all my strength, and my neighbour as myself; and that in Thy eternal king dom I may see Thee by the light of glory, and be united to Thee in the Vision of Peace.

Jesus, have mercy on me.

Holy Mary, pray for me.