"And I beheld, and heard the voice of one eagle flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice: Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth.... [Apocalypse (Revelation) 8:13]
Friday, June 12, 2015
A Saint Speaks: CHARITY
CHARITY
By St. John Mary
Vianney, the Curé of Ars
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
thy whole heart." —Matt. xxii. 37.
SYNOPSIS.—Charity a most necessary virtue. It is a virtue
by reason of which we love God and our neighbor. The love of
God necessary for our salvation; we must be ready to abandon
everything for the love of God. Examples: the Saints, the
Martyrs. The love of our neighbor. Who is our neighbor? All
men, even our enemies. How do we know if we have true
charity? The qualities of charity. When charity enters our
hearts it brings all other virtues with it. St. Paul: the
greatest virtues without charity are of no avail.
To serve God perfectly, it is not sufficient only to believe
in Him. Of course, we must believe all the truths which the
Church teaches us, and without faith all our works are without
merit in the sight of God. Faith is absolutely necessary for us
that we may be saved. At the same time this precious faith,
which reveals to us beforehand the beauties of heaven, will one
day leave us, and be transformed into knowledge, because in the
next life there will be no more mysteries.
Hope, which is a gift of heaven, is necessary for us to have
upright and pure motives, to please God in all our
actions, to gain heaven and avoid hell. But Charity urges us on
to love God because He is infinitely good, infinitely
amiable, and deserves to be loved.
But, you will ask, how can we perceive whether we have this
beautiful virtue so agreeable to God, which urges us to love
God, not from fear of the punishments of hell, or the hope of
heaven, but solely on account of His infinite perfections? It is
Charity which will form our whole happiness, for the bliss of
the blessed consists in love. Let us, therefore, see, my dear
friends, whether we have this beautiful virtue, which is capable
of rendering us so happy, and if we should be so unfortunate as
not to possess it, let us seek to acquire it with all our
strength.
I.
If I should ask, what is Charity? the answer is, it is a
virtue that comes to us from heaven, by which we love God with
our whole heart, and our neighbor as ourselves, for the love of
God. But now you will ask, what does it mean to love God above
all things and more than ourselves. I tell you that it means to
prefer Him to all created things. It means to rather lose
fortune, good name, parents, friends, children, husband, or
wife, and even our own life, than to lose God by committing a
mortal sin. St. Augustine tells us, that to love God perfectly
means to love Him without measure, even if there were no heaven
to hope for, or hell to fear. It means to love Him with the
whole capacity of our heart. If you ask for the reason, it is,
because God is infinitely amiable, and worthy of being loved.
When we really love him, then neither sufferings, nor
persecutions, nor contempt, nor life, nor death are capable of
taking this love away from us, which we owe to God.
We must feel ourselves, dear brethren, that if we do not love
God we shall be unhappy, very unhappy. If man was created to
love God, he can only find his happiness in God alone. If you
wish to be firmly convinced of this, look at the people, and ask
those who live without loving God. Observe those persons who
neglect prayer and the Sacraments. See in what a state of
trouble and loss they are. They curse themselves, sometimes kill
themselves, or die of worry. An avaricious man is never
satisfied, whether he have much or little. Is the drunkard
happy? The proud man is never at rest; he is always afraid of
losing his wealth or position. The revengeful man, thirsting for
revenge, can not sleep by night or day. Look at the shameful
unchaste man, who seeks his happiness in the sins of the flesh.
He goes so far that he not only loses his good name, but his
fortune, health, and soul, without finding anything to satisfy
him. And why can not we be happy in these things which appear to
satisfy us? It is because, as we were only created for God, He
alone is capable of satisfying us, of making us truly
happy. Blind as we are, we cling to life, to the world with its
goods and pleasures. Yes, we may as well say that we cling to
everything which is calculated to make us unhappy. The Saints
were wiser than we are. They despised all things, to seek God
only. How insignificant is everything upon this earth to those
who really love God! How many great ones of the world, how many
princes even, and kings and emperors were there not, who forsook
all things that they might be more at liberty to serve God in
the desert or in the cloister! How many others, to give proof of
their love of God, have mounted the scaffold? O my dear friends,
how happy are they who have the privilege of detaching
themselves from the things of this world, that they may remain
united to God alone ! Alas, how many are there not among you,
who are twenty, thirty, or more years of age, and have not yet
asked God for that Charity which the catechism tells us is a
gift of heaven? We ought not, then, be astonished that we are so
worldly, and so little spiritual. This way of conducting
ourselves can only lead us to a miserable goal, to an eternal
separation from God! Is it possible, my friends, that we are not
striving for our real blessedness, which is God alone?
If I, then, were to ask, What is it to love our neighbor? the
answer would be, The love of God causes us to love Him more than
our wealth, our health, our good name, and even our life, and
the love which we should have for our neighbor should enable us
to love him as ourselves, so that all the good that we should
wish for ourselves, we should wish for him. We must have this
charity without which there is no heaven to hope for, and no
friendship with God. Now, what do we understand by the word, our
neighbor? Nothing is easier of comprehension. Every one of our
brother men, even those who have wronged us, who have injured
our good name, and calumniated us, or who have even sought to
take our life. We ought to love them as we love ourselves, and
wish them all the good that we wish ourselves. It is not only
forbidden for us to wish them ill, but we must also render them
service if they require it of us, and we are able to do so. We
ought to rejoice when our enemies are successful in business,
and we should feel sorry when they meet with reverses or losses,
and we must take their part when others speak bad of them. We
should tell others the good we know of them, and not avoid their
society. Behold, my dear friends, this is how God wills that we
should love our neighbor. If we do not believe this, then we
must admit that we neither love our neighbor nor do we love God.
We are bad Christians, and we shall be lost!
Now, you will ask me, how may we know whether we have this
beautiful and precious virtue, without which our religion is
only a pretension? A person, dear brethren, who has brotherly
love, in the first place, is not proud; he does not care to rule
others. You will never hear him censure other people's behavior,
and he does not care to speak of what he does. A person who has
brotherly love does not inquire into the motive of other
persons' actions. He never thinks that he behaves better than
they do. He does not exalt himself above his neighbor. On the
contrary, he thinks that every one else is better than he. He is
not cast down when people have a poor opinion of him. He is even
contented, because he thinks that he deserves to be still more
disesteemed.
A person who is charitable, avoids as much as possible
hurting the feelings of others, because Charity is a mantle used
to conceal our brother's faults. Those who have charity accept
with patience and resignation to the will of God everything that
happens to them, sickness and adversity, because they believe
that all these things remind them that they are sinners, and
that their life here below is not the eternal one.
Those, also, have charity who are not avaricious, and think
not of accumulating the goods of this world. They work because
it is the will of God, but they do not rely only upon their
labor, and are without eagerness to accumulate treasures. They
put their trust in Providence, which never abandons those who
love it. As charity reigns in their heart, all the things of
earth are as nothing to them. They observe that all those who
run after this world's goods are the most unhappy. They employ
their means, as far as they possibly can, in good works, to
atone for their sins, and to gain heaven. They are kind toward
everybody. All the good that they do is done in God's name. They
assist the poor, whether they be friend or foe. The charitable
man does as St. Francis de Sales did, who, when he gave an alms,
rather bestowed it upon those who had in some way injured him,
than upon those who had done him good. The reason why he did
this was because such conduct is more agreeable to God. If you
are charitable, you must never inquire whether those to whom you
give have done wrong, or whether they have seriously offended
any one, or whether they are good or not. They ask you in God's
name, then give it to them thus. This is all you have to do that
your alms may be deserving of reward.
It is unnecessary to point out to you that a person who has
love for his neighbor is free from the shameful vice of
impurity, because a person who is so fortunate as to have this
precious virtue in the soul is so united to God, and performs
all his actions according to the divine will, that the evil
spirit of impurity can not find room in his heart. The fire of
divine charity so inflames his heart, his soul, and all his
senses that he is invulnerable against the assaults of the evil
one. Yes, dear friends, we may say that Christian charity
purifies our senses.
Charity is not envious. It is not sad when others have
spiritual or temporal advantages. You will never see persons who
have charity angry because another is more fortunate than they
are, or because another is more praised, or more thought of. Far
from this being the case, they thank God for it.
He who has charity is not subject to anger, for St. Paul
tells us that charity is patient, blind, and meek toward every
one. How often do we not get angry at trifles. We complain, we
get excited, we speak haughtily, and for several days we remain
in this condition. But you will say, I am accustomed to speak
thus, and then my anger is soon over. You ought rather to say
that you have not charity, which is patient and meek, and that
you do not behave yourself as beseems a good Christian. Tell me,
if you had charity, would you not bear patiently, and even
cheerfully, a word that was said against you, an insult, or some
trifling wrong? But he attacked my good name. Ah, my friend,
what good opinion do you want people to have of you-you, who
ought to know your faults better than they?
Charity is the noblest and most active of all the virtues. It
moves men to disesteem everything which is base and
contemptible, and of short duration, that they may be united to
God and those goods which will never pass away. Charity may be
compared to gold, the most precious of all metals, which adorns
and beautifies everything that is richest upon earth. Charity is
the ornament and adornment of all other virtues. The least
little action accompanied with meekness and humility and charity
of heart, is of more value and far surpasses anything that we
can imagine.
Yes, dear friends, charity supports and animates faith.
Without charity, faith is dead. Hope, the same as faith, can not
exist without charity.
II.
Let us recognize, then, the value of this virtue, and the
necessity of possessing it that we may be saved. Let us, at
least, determine to pray to God for it every day, for without it
we can not work out our salvation. We can say that when charity
enters our heart it brings all the other virtues with it.
Charity purifies and sanctifies all our actions. Charity
perfects the soul. Charity renders all our actions worthy
of heaven. St. Augustine tells us that charity contains all the
other virtues, and that charity is found in all the other
virtues. Charity, he tells us, leads. all our actions to their
final aim, and gives them admission to God. St. Paul tells us it
surpasses the gifts of heaven. In his Epistle to the
Corinthians, he exclaims: " If I had the tongues of angels, but
had not charity, I should resemble a cymbal which vibrates and
only produces one sound. If I had the gift of prophecy, and such
great faith that I could remove a mountain from one place to
another, but had not charity, I should be nothing. If I gave all
my fortune to the poor, and my body to be tortured, it would all
avail me nothing if I had not charity in my heart, and did not
love my neighbor as myself." You see here, dear brethren, the
necessity for us of praying to God with our whole heart for this
incomparable virtue, for without it all the other virtues are of
no avail.
Let us take Jesus Christ as our model. Let us consider what
He did for all men, even for His executioners. Behold how He
prayed for mercy and forgiveness for them. He loves them. He
offers up the merits and the sufferings of His death for them.
He promises them pardon. If we have not this charity, then. we
have nothing. We are only mock Christians. We must love
everybody, even our greatest enemies, or we shall be lost. As
this beautiful virtue, my dear friends, comes from heaven, we
must, then, direct our prayers to heaven to obtain it, and we
are certain of being heard. If we possess charity, then God will
be pleased at everything that we do, and we shall thereby be
sure of Paradise. This is the happiness which I wish you all.
Amen.
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