The bond of perfection

PRESENCE OF GOD - O my God, grant that I may desire and seek above all else the perfection of love.

MEDITATION

1. The Epistle for this Sunday (Col 3,12-17) recalls to our mind the fundamental duty of a Christian: charity. All programs and resolutions of the spiritual life are of little value if they are not animated by love and directed to the perfection of love. Detachment, mortification, humility, and all the other virtues are of little worth if they do not incline the heart to a wider, more complete and more expansive charity. “ But above all these things,” St. Paul recommends, “ have charity, which is the bond of perfection ”; not only love for God, but also for our neighbor. It is under this aspect that the Apostle speaks of charity in today’s Epistle, carefully pointing out that all our relations with our neighbor should be inspired by love. “Put ye on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, the bowels of mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, patience : bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if any have a complaint against another.”

Fraternal charity is the mark of God’s elect. If we do not have this distinctive mark, Jesus does not recognize us as His disciples; our heavenly Father does not love us as His children, nor will He take us into His Kingdom. The spiritual life requires the use of so many means, calls for the exercise of so many virtues that care must be taken lest we become lost in details, forgetting the love which should be the foundation and end of all. Of what value is the spiritual life, consecration to God, or even the vows of religion, if they do not help the soul to tend to the perfection of love?

Consider the perfect love which the Apostle asks us to have for our neighbor : mercy, compassion, mutual forgiveness, and that love which leaves no room for divisions or dissensions, which overcomes strife and forgets offenses. This is long-suffering charity which makes every sacrifice and overcomes all difficulties in order to be in harmony with all, because we all form “ one body” in Christ, because we are all children of the same heavenly Father. Fraternal charity of this kind is the surest guarantee of a spiritual life that is advancing toward sanctity.

2. The Epistle has presented us with the ideal of the Christian life, an ideal of love which should unite all the faithful in singleness of heart; the Gospel (Mt 13,24-30) shows us the practical way to live this ideal.

“The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seed in his field. But...his enemy came and oversowed cockle among the wheat.” God has sown the good seed generously in His field, the world; He has sown grace and love, and the desire for total oblation, the ideals of an apostolic, religious, saintly life. But, in the midst of all this good, the enemy comes to sow evil. Why does God permit this? To sift His servants as we sift grain, to test them.

Sometimes we are scandalized, seeing evil working its way even into the best places, seeing that even among God’s friends, among those who should be a source of edification to others, there are some who behave unworthily. Then we are filled with zeal, like the servants in the parable. We want to remedy this evil and root up the cockle. “ Wilt Thou that we go and gather it up?” But God answers, “ No, lest perhaps gathering up the cockle, you root up the wheat also together with it.” The cockle is spared, not because it is good, but in order to save the wheat. In the same way God spares the wicked and does not destroy them, for the sake of the elect. When God asks us to endure with patience certain situations, as inevitable as they are deplorable, He asks for one of the greatest exercises of charity, compassion, and mercy. He does not tell us to fraternize with evil, to make a league with the cockle, but He tells us to endure it with the longanimity with which He Himself endured it. Was there not a traitor among the Apostles? Yet Jesus wanted him among His intimates — and with how much love He treated him! Indeed one of the greatest opportunities for the practice of charity is offered us by those who by their evil conduct give us so many occasions for forgiving them, for returning good for evil, and for suffering injustice for the love of God. Moreover, we should consider that, whereas cockle cannot be changed into wheat, it is always possible for the wicked to be converted and become good. Were not Magdalen, the good thief, and Peter, who had denied Jesus, converted? ‘This is one of the strongest motives to incite us to do good to all. When our love is perfect, we are able to live among the wicked without being harsh or contentious, without being influenced by them, but rather doing them good.

COLLOQUY

“O most noble, most beautiful, most innocent Lord Jesus, You have loved me, a vile, ugly creature, deformed by sin; teach me to imitate Your great charity, so that I will love my neighbor with sincere, brotherly love, however imperfect and sinful he may be.

“Teach me to love all men for love of You, and then I shall never lack motives for benevolence, even if I have to deal with those who are coarse, ill-mannered, and full of imperfections. Only by keeping my eyes fixed on You, my God, who are infinite love, shall I be able to surmount all the annoyances and difficulties I meet in my contacts with my neighbor.

“O Jesus, who took on my wretchedness in becoming man and in clothing Yourself with my weak nature, teach me how to accommodate myself to my neighbor and to bear with his faults patiently; help me to do my best to correct my own faults and to eliminate from my conduct everything that might be displeasing to others” (Ven. John of Jesus Mary).

“See, Lord, how far I still am from true charity and humility!’ You show me that there is nothing wonderful about living in peace with kind, good people; nothing is more natural. We all love peace and prefer those who love peace also. But it takes great virtue to live in peace with obstinate, perverse, intractable people whose ideas are not like our own.

“I beseech You, Lord, grant me that grace without which I shall never be at peace with my neighbor, but will ever be prompt to take offense. It would be far better for me to correct my own faults than to criticize the actions of others! If I expect others to bear with my defects, I must likewise bear with theirs” (cf. Imit. IT, 3,2).