Presence of God

O Lord, make me understand that true charity allows of no exceptions, but embraces with sincere love our neighbor, whoever he may be.

Meditation

I. If charity were based on our neighbor’s qualities, on his merits or his worth, if it were based on the consolation and benefits we receive from him, it would be impossible to extend it to all men. But since it is founded on the neighbor’s relation to God, no one can be legitimately excluded from it, because we all belong to God—we are, in fact, His creatures, and, at least by vocation, His children, redeemed by the Blood of Christ and called to live in “ fellowship ” with God (cf. 1Jo. 1, 3) by grace here on earth and by the beatific vision in heaven. Even if some, by their sins, have become unworthy of God’s grace, as long as they live, they are always capable of being converted and of being readmitted to loving intimacy with their heavenly Father.

In the Old Testament, the great mystery of the commu¬nication of divine life to men was not revealed. BecauseJesus had not yet come to establish these new relationsbetween God and men, the law of fraternal charity didnot demand this universal bond; the ancients would nothave understood it. But since Jesus has come to tell us thatGod is our Father who wishes to communicate His divinelife to us; since Jesus has come to offer us the grace of adoptionas sons of God, the precept of charity has acquired a newbreath. “ You have heard that it hath been said, Thoushalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy. But I say to you :Love your enemies; do good to them that hate you and prayfor them that persecute and calumniate you : that youmay be the children of your Father who is in heaven, whomaketh His sun to rise upon the good and bad, and rainethupon the just and the unjust” (Mt 5,43-45). This is howJesus Himself gave us the motive of universal charity : weshould love all men because they are the children of our heavenly Father; thus, we imitate His universal love for all those who are His creatures, chosen by Him to be His adopted children. Jesus also tells us to love our neighbor “ propter Deum, ” for God’s sake.

II. We very often find it difficult in practice to fulfill the precept of universal charity because our love for our neighbor is almost exclusively personal and subjective, and therefore, egoistic. In other words, instead of basing our love for our neighbor upon his relation to God, we make it depend upon his relation to ourselves. If our neighbor likes and respects us, shows consideration for us, lends us his services, we find no difficulty in loving him; or rather, we enjoy it and seek pleasure in it. But it is a very different thing if our neighbor is hostile toward us, or does not get along with us, if, even involuntarily, he causes us displeasure, if he does not think as we do, or does not approve of our actions. Judging by this conduct, we must admit that we have erred from the beginning, substituting for God, who is the true motive for loving our neighbor, our miserable self with our egoistic exigencies. We must also admit that in regard to fraternal charity, we are, unfortunately, almost always egocentric and very seldom theocentric. If our relations with our neighbor were really centered in God, we should know how to overcome our egocentric point of view, that is, our personal selfish one; and even though suffering from the wrongs, want of delicacy and rebuffs we might have received from our neighbor, we would never claim this as a motive for refusing him our love. Basically, it is always selfishness which leads us astray, and in this case, it closes the way to the practice of theological charity.

We should, therefore, conquer our selfishness and imme¬ diately go beyond the limited horizons of a love based on our own personal interests. Let us look higher; let us look at God, who repeats to us, as He did to St. Catherine of Genoa, “ He who loves Me, loves all that is loved by Me. ” If our charity is arrested by the difficulties encountered in dealing with our neighbor, it is evident that our relations with our brethren are not regulated by our love of God, but by our love of self.

Colloquy

We should, therefore, conquer our selfishness and imme¬ diately go beyond the limited horizons of a love based on our own personal interests. Let us look higher; let us look at God, who repeats to us, as He did to St. Catherine of Genoa, “ He who loves Me, loves all that is loved by Me. ” If our charity is arrested by the difficulties encountered in dealing with our neighbor, it is evident that our relations with our brethren are not regulated by our love of God, but by our love of self.

“ From all this I conclude that I ought to seek the companionship of those sisters for whom I feel a natural aversion and try to be their good Samaritan. It frequently takes only a word or a smile to impart fresh life to a despondent soul. Yet it is not merely in the hope of bringing consolation that I wish to be kind; ifit were, I should soon be discouraged, for often well-intentioned words are totally misunderstood. Consequently, in order that I may lose neither time nor labor, I shall try to act solely to please You, O Jesus, by following this precept of the Gospel : ‘ When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends nor thy brethren, lest perhaps they also invite thee again, and a recompense be made to thee.