To My Readers: This week, John Gregory writes about the Passion of Our Lord and the supreme importance of the virtue of charity. Please pray for John and his family; he has been sick. Feel free to comment as usual. If you have a specific comment or question for me, I will respond as always, but it may take me a bit longer to do so this week.
God bless you all, my dear readers---Introibo
The Sufferings of Our Lord and the Virtue of Charity
By John Gregory
Then
Jesus took unto him the twelve, and said to them: Behold we go up to Jerusalem,
and all things shall be accomplished which were written by the prophets concerning
the son of man. For he shall be
delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and scourged, and spit upon:
and after they have scourged him, they will put him to death; the third day he
shall rise again (St. Luke 18: 31,
33).
“SUFFERED
UNDER PONTIUS PILATE, WAS CRUCIFIED, DEAD, AND BURIED”
IMPORTANCE OF THIS ARTICLE
How
necessary is a knowledge of this Article, and how assiduous the pastor should
be in stirring up in the minds of the faithful the frequent recollection of our
Lord’s Passion, we learn from the Apostle when he says that he knows nothing
but Jesus Christ and him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2: 2) The pastor,
therefore, should exercise the greatest care and pains in giving a thorough
explanation of this subject, in order that the faithful, being moved by the
remembrance of so great a benefit, may give themselves entirely to the
contemplation of the goodness and love of God towards us.
First Part of this Article:
“Suffered Under Pontius Pilate, was Crucified”
The
first part of this Article proposes for our belief that when Pontius Pilate
governed the province of Judea, under Tiberius Caesar, Christ the Lord was
nailed to a cross. Having been seized,
mocked, outraged and tortured in various forms, He was finally crucified.
“Suffered”
It
cannot be a matter of doubt that His soul, as to its inferior part, was
sensible of these torments; for as He really assumed human nature, it is a
necessary consequence that He really, and in His soul, experienced a most acute
sense of pain. Hence these words of the
Saviour: My soul is sorrowful even unto death. (Matthew 26: 38; Mark 14:
34) Although human nature was united to the Divine Person, He felt the
bitterness of His Passion as acutely as if no such union had existed, because
in the one Person of Jesus Christ were preserved the properties of both natures,
human and divine; and therefore what was passible and mortal remained passible
and mortal; while what was impassible and immortal, that is, His Divine Nature,
continued impassible and immortal. (COT p. 50 – 51)
Patience and Joy under Continued Affliction
We
must remember that if by prayers and supplications we are not delivered from
evil, we should endure our afflictions with patience, convinced that it is the
will of God that we should so endure them.
If, therefore, God hear not our prayers, we are not to yield to feelings
of peevishness or discontent; we must submit in all things to the divine will
and pleasure, regarding as useful and salutary to us that which happens in
accordance with the will of God, not that which is agreeable to our own wishes.
During
our mortal career we should be prepared to meet every kind of affliction and
calamity, not only with patience, but even with joy. For it is written: All that will live
godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution; (2 Timothy 3: 12) and
again: Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God; (Acts
14: 21) and further: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so enter
into his glory? (Luke 24: 26) A servant should not be greater than his
master; and Saint Bernard says: “Delicate members do not become a head crowned
with thorns.” The glorious example of
Urias challenges our imitation. When
urged by David to remain at home, he replied: The ark of God, and Isreal,
and Juda, dwell in tents; and shall I go into my house? (2 Kings 11: 11)
If
to prayer we bring with us these reflections and these dispositions, although
surrounded by menaces and encompassed by evils on every side, we shall, like
the three children who passed unhurt amidst the flames, be preserved uninjured;
or at least, like the Machabees, we shall bear up against adverse fortune with
firmness and fortitude.
In
the midst of contumelies and tortures we should imitate the blessed Apostles,
who, after they had been scourged, rejoiced exceedingly that they were
accounted worthy to suffer reproach for Christ Jesus. (Acts 5: 4) Filled with
such sentiments, we shall sing in transports of joy: Princes have persecuted
me without cause; and my heart hath been in awe of thy words; I will rejoice at
thy words, as one that hath found great spoil. (Psalm 118: 161)
THE VIRTUE OF CHARITY
Charity
is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely: . . . is not
provoked to anger, thinketh no evil, . . . beareth all things, believeth all
things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. (1 Corinthians 13: 4 – 8)
Who
can behold the riches of God’s goodness and love, which He lavishes on us, and
not love Him? Hence the exordium and the
conclusion used by God in Scripture when giving His commands: I, the Lord.
(Catechism Of Trent [COT] p. 368)
PRAYER INCREASES CHARITY
In
recognizing God as the author of every blessing and of every good, we are led
to cling to Him with the most devoted love.
And as those who cherish a mutual affection become more ardently
attached by frequent interviews and conversations, so the oftener the soul
prays devoutly and implores the divine mercy, thus holding converse with God,
the more exquisite is the sense of delight which she experiences in each
prayer, and the more ardently is she inflamed to love and adore him. (COT p.
482)
ENEMIES AND THOSE OUTSIDE THE CHURCH
The
Lord has also commanded us, to pray for those that persecute and calumniate
us. (Matthew 5: 44) The practice of praying for those who are not within
the pale of the Church, is, as we know on the authority of Saint Augustine, of
Apostolic origin. We pray that the faith
may be made known to infidels; that idolaters may be rescued from the error of
their impiety; that the Jews, emerging from the darkness with which they are
encompassed, may arrive at the light of truth; that heretics, returning to
soundness of mind, may be instructed in the Catholic faith; and that
schismatics may be united in the bond of true charity and may return to the
communion of their holy mother, the Church, from which they have
separated.
Many examples prove that prayers for such as these are very efficacious when offered from the heart. Instances occur every day in which God rescues individuals of e every condition of life from the powers of darkness, and transfers them into the kingdom of His Beloved Son, from vessels of wrath making them vessels of mercy. That the prayers of the pious have very great influence in bringing about this result no one can reasonably doubt. (COT p. 389 – 390)
FRATERNAL CHARITY
In
order, however, that our prayers may have this power of obtaining all things
from God, we must forget injuries, cherish sentiments of good will, and
practice kindness towards our neighbor. (COT p. 496)
“God
listens willingly to the Christian who prays not only for himself but for
others; because to pray for ourselves is an inspiration of nature; but to pray
for others is an inspiration of grace; necessity compels us to pray for
ourselves, whereas fraternal charity calls on us to pray for others. That prayer which is inspired by fraternal
charity is more agreeable to God than that which is dictated by necessity.”
(Saint Chrysostom)
In
connection with the important subject of salutary prayer, the pastor should be
careful to remind and exhort all the faithful of every age, condition and rank,
never to forget the bonds of universal brotherhood that bind them, and
consequently ever to treat each other as friends and brothers, and never to seek
arrogantly to raise themselves above their neighbors.
Though
there are in the Church of God various gradations of office, yet this diversity
of dignity and position in no way destroys the bond of fraternal union; just as
in the human body the various uses and different functions of our organs in no
way cause this or that part of the body to lose the name or office of an organ
of the body. (COT p. 509)
FROM A
COMPANION TO THE SUMMA
Sharing the Divine Life
The
unquestionably accepted axion, “friendship is rare,” would be a terrible
indictment of the human race, if it were true.
But of course it is not.
Friendship is not nearly so rare as is appreciation of it. These gloomy axioms furnish us with fine excuses
when we run short of material for self pity, especially at times when our mouth
is watering for a dreary session with ourselves. Friendship is not rare among human beings because
unselfishness is not rare among them; and unselfish love is the one fundamental
for true friendship that might be come at with difficulty.
The nature of friendship
Surely
the amateur burglar, striking up an acquaintance with an expert in his line,
cannot be said to have true friendship.
He hopes to get something out of it, at least some expertness in
burglary. The girl who is an official
fascinator, looking out for material comfort for the future, is certainly not a
true friend of her men friends. Neither
of these is true friendship because neither of them is based on unselfish love.
Mutual benevolent love, on a common ground
Unselfish
love means no more than the constant, effective desire to do good to
another. Briefly, it means that we have
identified ourselves with another; his will is our will so that his good is our
good, his happiness our happiness. But
unselfish love is not necessarily a guarantee of friendship, it is not the
whole story. The charming girl student
may feel ever so kindly towards her professor of Ancient History and still fail
resoundingly whenever he has anything to do with her examinations. For friendship there must also be a common
ground upon which two can walk; a requirement not at all difficult to
meet. We have common ground enough with
men and women about us: we also worry about bills at the first of the month, we
too are thrilled at football games; we have our secret, unrealized hopes, our
sorrows, sacrifices, little triumphs. In
any one of these fields we can meet countless other men and women. The difficulty is, can we meet them
unselfishly? Can we see in them our
other selves? Can we attain to that
mutual, benevolent, unselfish love on this common ground and so be assured of
real friendship?
The friendship of men: Its strength
Friendship
would certainly seem to be worth having.
It means, at the very least, that through it we live, not one narrow
life, rather we live two lives. A door is thrown open and we are admitted to
regions that are proper to God alone, for by friendship we stroll into the soul
of another. It offers us completion for
our incomplete, lonely human hearts, a fulfillment that is sought by every man
from the beginning of his existence. If
friendship brought no more than this to a man, it might quite reasonably be
foregone. An unlimited amount of cosmetics will not beautify an ugly face; it
will merely hide its ugliness; nor will a football suit change the puny
physique of a man. These additions are extrinsic to the face and the physique;
and it is always true that only the intrinsic additions to man really perfect
him. In other words, the important thing
about friendship is what it does to the individuals involved. It brings out the best in every man, rather paradoxically
it is true, by making him forget himself.
It opens up to him possibilities of sacrifice that he has formerly
associated with heroism, with the sublime in the efforts of man. Understand, now, by friendship is meant all human
love: whether between man and man, woman and woman, man and woman—indeed all
human love that escapes the taint of selfishness.
While
friendship is a great comfort, it is not to be pictured in terms of dim lights,
quiet corners and intimate whispers.
Rather it scans wide horizons with deep wisdom and is a source of
enormous strength. It shows us, for
example, the stupidity of gloomy sacrifice; it tears away the veil of mystery
from the cheerfulness, even eagerness, of love’s embrace of hardships. Perhaps when we say that friendship is rare,
we are really apologizing for ourselves, explaining that we are not
strong. At least, as soon as we make
self basic, we have begun to corrupt sacrifice and coddle cowardice; we have
begun to tear out something from the depths
of the human heart; for men have always looked, perhaps at times only
wistfully, to sacrifice as the fullest expression of a generous heart.
Its frailty
For
all its strength, comfort, sublimity, human friendship has about it the frail
delicacy of old lace. It is frail
because its truth can never be clearly seen but must always be taken on faith,
and because its task of surrender can never be fully accomplished. In a word,
human friendship is never a rugged thing because of our inability to share our
inner self. The closest we come to
sharing the truth of friendship is in our clumsy symbols of it; perhaps the
closest we come to accomplishing its task is in the physical generation of
children. In neither case can we give
ourselves utterly to another.
Fundamentally, the reason is obvious: we cannot give ourselves away
utterly because we do not belong completely to ourselves. (A Companion of the
Summa, p. 55 – 57)
FROM A
TOUR OF THE SUMMA
The Virtue of Charity
1.
Charity as a supernatural virtue is the friendship of man and God. On God’s part, it is love, benevolence, and
communication of benefits and graces; on man’s part charity involves devotion
and service to God. It was in charity
that our Lord said to his apostles (John 15: 15): “I will not now call you
servants . . . but friends.”
2.
Charity is in a person as a determinate, supernatural, habitual power, added to
the natural power of the soul, which inclines the will to act with ease and
delight in the exercise of loving friendship with God.
3.
Saint Augustine says: “Charity is a virtue which, when our affections are
perfectly ordered, unites us to God; for it is by charity that we love him.”
4.
Charity is not a general virtue, nor an overlapping of virtues; it is a special
virtue in its own nature; it is on a level with the other theological virtues
(faith and hope), and is distinct from these virtues.
5.
And charity is one virtue, it is not divided into different species or
essential kinds.
6.
Charity is the most excellent of all virtues.
Faith knows truth about God; hope aspires to good in God; charity
attains God himself simply, and not as having something to gain from him.
7.
All true virtue directs a man to God, his ultimate good, his last end. Hence, charity, which embraces the ultimate
good simply, must be in the soul that has any true and living virtue. No true supernatural virtue is possible
without charity.
8.
Charity therefore directs the acts of all the other virtues, making these serve
to get man onward to his last end. And
thus charity gives to these virtues their determinate being as effective
instruments. Thus charity is said to be
the “form” of the other virtues.
The Subject of Charity
1.
Charity as a supernatural virtue resides in man’s soul, specifically, it
resides in the appetitive part of man’s soul, that is, in man’s will. For the object towards which the will tends
is the good, and charity is the virtue which, above all others, tends to
and actually embraces the ultimate good of man.
Charity lays hold on God himself.
2.
This charity is not in us by our nature; it is supernatural. Hence, we
cannot acquire charity by our natural powers.
Charity is in us by divine infusion, by in-pouring. Saint Paul (Romans 5: 5) says: “The charity
of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us.”
3.
Our natural gifts and capacities have no part in determining the quantity, so
to speak, of charity in us. For (John 3:
8), “the Spirit breatheth where he will”; and (1 Corinthians 12: 11), “all
these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to everyone according as
he will.” Thus the measure of charity is not our capacity, but the will of God.
4.
Charity can increase in us while we are in this life, on the way to God; that
is, while we are wayfarers. If charity did not increase, we could make
no progress along the way to God.
5.
Charity increases not by having new elements added to it, but by growing more
intense.
6.
Not every act of charity increases the virtue of charity. It is possible that an act of charity, done
imperfectly, should mean no increase at all in the person who performs the
act. But each act of charity, rightly
performed, leads to another, and ultimately to a favor of action which
increases charity.
7.
Charity may go on increasing and increasing; it is not possible to fix limits
to this increase while earthly life endures.
8.
A perfection of charity (which in no way marks a stay of limit to its increase)
is found in those who give their whole hearts habitually to God, not thinking
or desiring anything contrary to his love.
9.
We may distinguish three steps or degrees in charity; it has its beginning, its
progress, and its (nonlimiting) perfection.
10.
Charity cannot decrease. It is
altogether lost by mortal sin, but it cannot be merely lessened in the
soul. Human friendship may grow weak and
be diminished through the negligence of friends and their forgetfulness. But charity is divine friendship; it depends
on God, the infinitely perfect friend, who never grows negligent or forgetful;
hence, charity does not decrease.
However, to neglect acts of charity and to commit venial sins, may be to
dispose ourselves to lose charity entirely through mortal sin; only in this
extrinsic way may charity be said to suffer decrease.
11.
Once we have charity, we have with it no guarantee that, during this life, we
shall not lose it. The charity of the
blessed in heaven (comprehensors) cannot be lost; the charity of men on earth
(wayfarers) can be lost.
12.
Charity is lost by mortal sin. For
whoever has charity is deserving of eternal life; a man who commits mortal sin
is deserving of eternal death, that is, of everlasting punishment. It is therefore impossible for a person to
have charity and, at the same time, to be in the state of mortal sin. One mortal sin drives out charity.
The Object of Charity
1.
The object of charity, that towards which the act of charity is directed, is God,
and our fellowmen in God. Says Saint John (1 John 4: 21): “This
commandment we have from God, that he who loveth God love also his brother.”
2.
Charity is love and friendship. We have
charity when we love God and neighbor, and wish for our neighbor the good of
God’s friendship. Thus, out of charity,
we love charity itself.
3.
We cannot wish to creatures less than man, that is, to irrational creatures,
the “fellowship of everlasting happiness.” There we cannot love such creatures
out of charity.
4.
We are to love ourselves out of true charity.
For our love of ourselves is the standard of the sort of love we must
have for others. Says Holy Scripture
(Leviticus 19: 18): “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
5.
Even our body is to be loved out of charity, for it is God’s creature to be
used by reason in man’s service of God.
“Saint Paul says (Romans 6: 13): “Present . . . your members as
instruments of justice unto God.” We are
not, however, to love the disorder of bodily tendencies which are the result in
us of the primal fall.
6.
We are to love our neighbor out of charity, even if he be a sinner. We must hate sin, yet we must love the person
who sins, wishing him repentance, pardon, and eternal life, for God’s sake.
7.
Sinners do not love themselves truly.
They love only an apparent good in themselves, and they love external
and creatural goods as things worth having for their own sake. And thus sinners
miss the goal of charity which is endless happiness in God. Sinners, therefore, do not love themselves,
for, as Holy Writ tells us (Psalm 10): “He that loveth iniquity, hateth his own
soul.”
8.
We have the direct command of our Lord that we are to love our enemies. In Saint Matthew (5: 44) we read: “Love your
enemies do good to them that hate you: pray for them that persecute and
calumniate you.”
9.
We must, therefore, love our enemies in general, and we must also be ready, if
God wills to put opportunity in our way, to show them, as individuals, the
signs and offices of love.
10.
We are to love God’s angels out of charity, for we hope to share with them “the
fellowship of everlasting happiness”; this expectation is an element in the
friendship called charity.
11.
The fallen angels, that is, the demons in hell, cannot share the “fellowship of
everlasting happiness,” and therefore they are outside the scope of charity.
12.
Saint Augustine says: “There are four things to be loved: one is above us, God;
another is ourselves; a third is near us, our neighbor, a fourth is below us,
our body.
The Order of Charity
1.
There is an order in charity, and God is the principle of that order. God is to be loved out of charity, before all
others. The other beings that are to be
loved out of charity are, so to speak, lined up in their proper places,
subordinate to God.
2.
Charity is active friendship and love.
It is therefore something more than good will, which is the condition
and the beginning of friendship.
3.
God is loved out of charity for his own sake, not on account of anything other
than himself. Yet in one way we can love
God out of charity, and still have something else in view, as when we love God
for the favors we receive or expect, but in such a way that these very favors
are loved because they dispose us to love God the more.
4.
Even in this life, in which we are wayfarers, we can have an immediate
love of God, that is, love without a medium between lover and beloved. We know God through the medium of created
things; love moves the other way, for we love God first and then love created things
for the love of God.
5.
We can love God wholly according to our own creatural wholeness, but not
according to the infinite wholeness of God.
For we are finite, and cannot compass infinity.
6.
We need no test or mode or measure in our love for God. Saint Augustine says we need only go on
measurelessly loving God.
7.
It is, in itself, more meritorious to love a friend than to love an enemy, just
as it is worse to hate a friend than to hate an enemy. But, considering that the love of a friend is
likely to be less purely the effect of love of God, and also considering the
distaste and difficulty that one must overcome to love an enemy, we see that it
can be more meritorious to love an enemy than to love a friend.
8.
To love God is more meritorious than to love one’s neighbor. Indeed, to love one’s neighbor is a
meritorious act only when we live him for the sake of God. (A Tour of the Summa,
p. 201- 206)
Hopefully we have gained some idea on what the theological virtue of charity it. It is a virtue which we receive from God and is directed towards Him. The theological virtue of charity is absolutely necessary for salvation. Charity is linked with, and impossible to obtain, apart from the theological virtues of faith and hope. It is the love of friendship with God and must follow from or be infused with the theological virtues of faith and hope. Selflessness is a quality of charity. The loving of God above all things, and your neighbor as yourself for love of God. True love seeks the good of the other, ahead of one’s own worldly needs. It wills the genuine and especially the eternal good of the other. Charity denies oneself for the salvation of the other when the opportunity arises. It seeks not “what can I get out of this friendship” but “how can I help my friend”. It is not a “me first”, but rather an “after you”. It is also the love of one’s soul above the love of the body. That is the stuff martyrs are made of.
Faith, in part, is the knowing of God, hope is hoping for the eternal reward. Most Protestants, if pressed on the issue, will nod their heads in agreement, that we must love God for salvation to be possible, but immediately thereafter teach faith alone. Please pray for Protestants of good will that they seek and find the Truth; and pray for the Protestants of bad will that they become good willed before they die, so in eternity we may rejoice with them forever as authentic Christians that will be filled with love for the true God, the true Faith, themselves, and the Catholics and the Catholic Faith they formerly despised, forever.
