The charity

St. Alphonsus

Charity is patient

In God's Church, St. Augustine says, what distinguishes the straw from the wheat is evidence of pain: who, in tribulations, shall humble themselves, and resigned to the will of God, is grain for heaven; those who get arrogant and angered leaving God has straw to hell. On the day that will be decided our salvation, for the judgment of the predestined happy, our lives will have to be found even to that of Jesus: For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son. For this the eternal Word came to earth: to teach us by his example to take with patience the crosses that God sends us: Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. So Jesus would suffer to infuse courage in suffering. God, how he treated his beloved Son, so is everyone who loves and accepts as his son: The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son he acknowledges (Heb 12.6). This is why Jesus said one day to St. Teresa: "Know that the most beloved souls from My Father are those experienced by greater suffering." But let patience have its perfect work you (James 1.4). This means that there is more pleasing to God of a person suffering with patience and peace in all the crosses that God sends. Those who love Jesus Christ wants to be treated like him, poor, tormented and despised.

St. John in Revelation saw the saints dressed in white and with palms in their hands: They stood before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and holding palm branches in their hands (Rev. 7.9). The palm is a sign of martyrdom; but not all the saints have been martyred. Because then all the saints carry palms in their hands? St. Gregory the Great responds by saying that all the saints were martyrs or sword or patience; and he concludes: "We, too, we can be martyrs without being struck by the sword, though in our hearts we guard the virtue of patience".
The merit of a person who loves Jesus Christ is to love him in suffering. The Lord said to St. Teresa: "My daughter, maybe you think that the merit consists in enjoying? No, it is to suffer and to love. Look at my life full of suffering. Believe me, daughter: one is more loved by my Father, most are tribulations that receive from him; indeed they are a sign of my love. To think that the Father evidence savings to his friends, is wrong".

The Apostle writes: The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us (Rom 8:18). It would be more than fair to suffer all their lives what they have suffered the martyrs, for a moment of paradise. The more we have to embrace our crosses, knowing that the sufferings of our short life will make us buy an eternal bliss! For this slight momentary weight of the affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor 4,17).
But who wants the crown of paradise that you have to fight and suffer: if with him we endure, also reign with him (2 Tim 2:12). There is no reward without merit, nor about no patience: Even in athletic competition is not crowned unless he competes according to those rules (2 Tim 2,5). And those who fight with more patience will have a larger crown.

Charity is Benign
The spirit of gentleness is a characteristic of God: My spirit is sweeter than honey (Sir 24,19 Vg). So who loves God also loves those who are loved by God, that is the next; so willingly he tries to help, console and please everyone, as far as he can. St. Francis de Sales, who was teacher and holy sweetness model, said that the sweetness is the virtue of virtues, so much denial recommended by God; so we must always practice it anywhere.
You should have practiced the gentleness especially with the poor, who, because they are poor, are routinely mistreated by humans. A peculiar sweetness must also have with patients, which according to their infirmities are often poorly attended. In a very special way we have to use sweetness with enemies. Overcome evil with good (Rom 12:21). We must overcome hatred with love and persecution with the sweetness. So did the Saints, who managed to win the affection of their most stubborn enemies. How much you earn with the sweetness, rather than the harshness! As St. Francis de Sales, the walnut is one of the most bitter fruits. So corrections: although displeasing, when they are made with love and sweetness become attractive and perform well. Speaking of his experience, St. Vincent de 'Paoli said that, during the government of his congregation, only three times he had corrected someone harshly, believing to have the reason, but every time it was no regret, because they were not used to anything, while the corrections made with sweetness had always been useful.

We must have kindness with everyone and in every circumstance. As St Bernard remarks, some are meek as long as things go to their genius, but as soon as they are touched by some adversity or contradiction, immediately turn on and start smoking as Vesuvius. These people are like burning coals hidden under the ashes.
Who do you want to become a saint to be rather like a lily among thorns, which, even if it is the point, is always gentle and benign lily. The person who loves God more and keep peace in the heart and also shows in the face, always remaining itself in every event, it is favorable to the contrary. When we happen to have to respond to those who mistreat us, we are always careful to do it gently, because a gentle answer turns away wrath (Pr 15.1). And when we are troubled, it is better to remain silent, because at that moment it seems fair to say that there is on the lips; but then, we calmed the anger, we realize that our words were unfair.

And when are we to commit a mistake, we use gentle also with ourselves. Angry with ourselves after a power failure, but the end is not humility pride, as if we were not the weak and miserable that in fact we are. Angry with ourselves after a failure, it is a more serious lack of that already committed, leading to the consequence of many other defects: will we neglect our devotions, prayer, and communion. And even if we do, we do not do well. San Luigi Gonzaga said that the devil murky water fishing, where you cannot see well. And when you have the soul troubled, no one can see God or what is to be done. So when we fall into a lack, let us turn to God with humility and trust and ask Him for forgiveness, saying, like St. Catherine of Genoa, "Lord, this is the grass of my garden." I love you with all my heart and I regret having given you this sorrow. I do not want to do it again, give me your help.

Charity is not envious.
St. Gregory the Great, commenting on these words of the Apostle, says that charity is not jealous because he cannot envy the successes and earthly greatness, for the simple reason that nothing want in this world".
So we have to distinguish two kinds of emulation: a bad and a holy. The bad emulation and envy grieves for worldly goods owned by others on this earth. The holy emulation, however, is one that does not envy, but pity the great of this world who live among the honors and earthly pleasures. It does not seek or want nothing but God, and wants nothing more than to love him as much as possible in this life. For this holy way envy those who love him more, because in loving it would also exceed the seraphim.
This is the only order they have on earth the holy souls, the end that falls and hurts so loving heart of God that makes him say: Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my bride, you have ravished my heart at a glance (Ct 4,9). That single look means the only order that the bride soul in every action and thought of pleasing God. The men of the world in their actions look at things with more looks, that is, with different purposes messy: please men, be honored, enrich and, if anything, to please themselves. The Saints, however, in everything they do seek only what is pleasing to God.

So let us remember that it is not enough to do good works: we must also do them well. Because our works to be good and perfect, it is necessary that we make with the sole purpose of pleasing God. Many actions can be commendable; But if carried out for a purpose other than that of the divine glory, little or nothing worth before God.
Self-love, that makes us lose all or most of the fruit of our good deeds! Those who, in their work, even in the most sacred of preachers, confessors, missionaries, struggling, but we earn little or nothing, because not only seek God, but the worldly glory, or self-interest, or vanity to appear, or they do it just to follow their own inclination!
Says the Lord: Try not to take your good works before men, to be seen of them, otherwise there is no reward for you with your Father who is in heaven (Mt 6,1). Those who are struggling to satisfy their own genius, they have received their reward (Mt 6,5); a reward, though, it comes down to a little 'smoke or an ephemeral satisfaction that soon passes without any profit for the soul.
The prophet Haggai says that who does not work to please God is like one who lays its gain in a laundry bag, and when he goes to open it there is nothing left: Who has amassed savings, put them into a bag with holes (Ag 1.6 Vg). And when these people, after their labors, do not achieve their goal, they got disappointed. This is a sign that they did not aim only at the glory of God. For he that does one thing only for the glory of God, even if it fails, it does not disturb at all, because he has already reached the end of doing the will of God, having acted with good intentions.

The signs to see if one works in the spiritual field only for the glory of God, are as follows.

1. He is troubled when it does not get the desired result; if God does not want it, even he wants.
2. It enjoys the good done by others as if he had done him.
3. Do not want one more than another job, but likes what he wants obedience to his superiors.
4. At the end of a job does not seek from others or thanks or approvals and, if criticized or disapproved, not plagues, only content with having satisfied God. If instead of receiving praise, does not puff itself.
   
   

Charity does not features.
Explaining these words of Saint Paul, Saint Gregory the Great says that charity, working more and more only in divine love, eschews all that is not right and holy: "Love does not brag because, growing up only in the love of God and neighbor, ignores everything that is contrary to righteousness".
Already the Apostle had said that charity is a bond that binds together the most perfect virtue: And above all these put on love, which is the bond of perfection (Col. 3:14). And since charity tends to perfection, consequently rejects lukewarm, with which some serve God with grave danger of losing the love, the grace of God, the soul, everything. But it should be specified that there are two species of Luke warmness: one is inevitable, the other avoidable. The first are not exempt even the saints. It includes the faults we commit no full will, but only because of human frailty. These are distractions in prayer, the feelings of annoyance, unnecessary speeches, vain curiosity, wishes to appear, the pleasure in eating and drinking, the impulses of lust not readily repressed, and the like.

These deficiencies must try to avoid them as much as possible, but, because of the weakness of human nature infected with sin, it is impossible to avoid them all. After they have been committed, we must apart them because displeasing to God, but we must not disturb us for them: to erase just an act of grief and love. They are canceled especially with the Eucharist. According to the Council of Trent it is "the antidote whereby we are freed from daily faults." These faults are faults, but not obstruct our path to perfection, since in this life no one comes to perfection before arriving in paradise.
And instead of the lukewarm avoidable obstacle to perfection, which is when someone commits deliberate venial sins. These crimes, committed with open eyes, with the grace of God can be avoided. These are, for example, voluntary lies, small grumbling, cursing, the resentful words, the derision of others, the sharp words, the speeches of exaltation of self, grudges nurtured in the heart. "These sins are like certain worms, writes St. Teresa, that you do not learn until they have corroded the virtues". Elsewhere the Holy warns: "With small things the devil makes holes, from which then come great things.".
We must therefore fear these voluntary omissions, because they diminish the light and the help of God, and rob us of the spiritual joys. Consequently they lead to boredom and fatigue in the spiritual life: he begins to neglect prayer, communion, the visit to the Blessed Sacrament, novenas; and eventually it will leave everything easily, as happened to so many unhappy souls.

Therefore the Lord threatens the lukewarm: I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. I would thou be cold or hot! But because you are lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth (Rev 3,15-16). It's strange. The Lord says: I would thou be cold! Maybe it's better to be cold, that is, devoid of grace that warm? In a way yes, because who is cold is easier to correct them, shaken by the guilty conscience. The lukewarm, however, you get used to living with his faults, without taking it for them and without thinking mend. So his care becomes almost desperate. Some are ruined because they make peace with their flaws, especially if the defect was caused by a passion, as the search for esteem, the desire to appear, the love of money, resentment for someone or inordinate affection for a person of ' opposite sex. Then there is the danger that, as St. Francis of Assisi, become chains that drag the soul to hell.

Charity does not swell.
The proud man is like a stuffed shirt: he believes to be big, but all his magnitude is reduced to a little air, open a hole in a moment vanishes. He who loves God is truly humble and, at being provided with some merit, is not puffed up, because he knows that all he has is a gift from God, and that he has only nothingness and sin. Therefore he, recognizing themselves unworthy of divine favor, the more you get the more you humble.
A house, to be stable and secure, above all needs two things: the foundations and the roof. For us, the foundations must be humility, which is to recognize that we are worth and we can do nothing; the roof is the protection of God, in whom alone we must trust.
Santa Teresa said: "I do not believe that he had made progress in perfection if you do not believe the worst of all and if you do not want the last place". So did the Holy, as well as all the saints. St. John of Avila, who as a young man had made a holy life, being close to death, was witnessed by a priest, telling him sublime things, treating him as a saint and as a great scholar, which indeed he was. Then the father Avila said, "Father, I implore you to recommend me the soul to God as it is recommended to a criminal sentenced to death, because that's me." This is the concept that the Saints have of themselves in life and in death.

So we must, if we want to save us and keep us in God's grace to the death, putting all our trust in God alone. The superbly confident in their own strength, and therefore falls. The humble, on the other hand, trust in God alone, and even when it is attacked by the most vehement temptations, resist and do not fall. We must be wary of ourselves and trust in God to the end of life, always praying to the Lord to grant us holy humility.
However, to be humble, not enough to have a low self-concept and consider ourselves of wretched beings, as we are. The truly humble, says the Imitation of Christ, despises himself and wants to be despised by others. This is the humility of heart, that Jesus taught us by his example: Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart (Mt 11:29). Who says he is the greatest sinner in the world, but then is indignant when someone despises him, shows to be humble in your mouth, not in heart.

Writes St. Francis de Sales: "To endure the insults is a sign of humility and true virtue." If a person lives a spiritual life, doing meditation, you communicate often, fasts and mortify, but then is not able to bear an affront, but a harsh word, means that it is as a hollow reed, without humility and without virtue. A person who says he loves Jesus Christ, what he can do any good if it is not capable of suffering a disdain for the love of Jesus, who has suffered a lot for us? When one communicates often, and then resents every word of contempt, surprise and shocked. On the contrary it is uplifting those who, in receiving the scorn, respond with sweet words to appease those who have offended, or not responding at all, and no vents with others, but remains calm without showing bitterness!

Those who behave like this are called blessed by Jesus. There are those blessed are estimated men, honored and praised by the world because noble, learned and powerful, but those whom the world curses, prosecuted and critics. They, if endure everything with patience, will have a great reward in heaven: Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and say, lying, all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven (Mt 5,11-12).

Charity is not ambitious.
Who loves God does not seek the esteem and love of the people: her only desire is to be well-liked by God, the only object of his love. St. Hilary writes: "All honors that we receive from the world is a bargain for the devil." And just like that: the enemy works to hell by putting in a soul the desire to be estimated, and she, losing humility, puts in danger of falling into evil.
Many people profess to spiritual life, but they are idolatrous of his estimate. Outside show virtues that do not really have and aspire to be praised in everything they do; and when there are those who praise them, they praise themselves. In short, try to appear better than others, and if by chance they are pointed in the estimate, they lose peace, leave out the communion, they abandon all their devotions and not calm down until they believe they have regained the lost esteem. Those who truly love God will not do so. They not only avoid all praise and complacency, but more will scoff in the face of praise they receive from others, and are glad to be held down by the people concept.

It's true what St. Francis of Assisi said: "A man is worth as long as he is seen in God's eyes, nothing more." What good is it to be considered great from the world, before God if we are wretched and contemptible? Conversely, that it cares if the world despises us, if we are loved and welcomed in God's eyes? St Augustine wrote: "Who will praise certainly not save us from our bad conscience; and those who despise us, of course we cannot take away the merit of our good works".

Whoever therefore wants to progress in the love of Jesus Christ must be absolutely to die in himself the love for their estimate. How to kill your estimate? Teaches Saint Mary Magdalene de 'Pazzi: "When everyone has a good concept say, the desire to be esteemed remains alive. To kill him you have to hide and not make yourself known by anyone. As long as one does not come to die this way, not It will never be a true servant of God".
To be pleasing in God's eyes we must guard by the ambition to appear and to please men. The more we must guard by the ambition to rule over others. The only ambition of a person who loves God must be to surpass others in humility, as St. Paul teaches: Each of you, with humility consider others better than himself (Phil 2,3). In short, those who love God must not aspire nothing but God.

Charity does not seek its own interests.
Who do you love Jesus Christ with all his heart must banish from the heart of everything that smacks of self-love. "Do not look for his own interest" means precisely not to seek himself, but only what is pleasing to God. This God asks each of us, when he says: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. (Mt 22,37).
Now, to love God with all your heart must be emptied of affected land and fill it of God's holy love. So if the heart is filled by some earthly affection, can never be all of God. And as it frees the heart from the earth? Mortification and detachment from created things. Some people complain because they seek God and I are not. They listen to what he says to Saint Teresa: "It is notable the heart from creatures and seeks God, and you will find".

The deception lies in the fact that some want to become saints, but in their own way. They want to love Jesus, but according to their genius, without giving up the fun, that vanity in dress, those delicacies. They love God, but if you cannot reach to get that place, living restless; if we are touched in the estimation, they are become fire; if they do not heal from that lose patience disease. Love God, but do not let the love of riches, the honors of the world and the vanity of being considered noble, wise and better than others. Such people go to pray, to take communion, but having a heart full of earth, do not derive profit. To these people the Lord does not speak their own, because his words would be wasted. For who is full of earthly affections it is unable even to hear the voice of God that speaks.

Like David, we should pray to God for us purify their hearts from every earthly affection: Create in me, O God, a pure heart (Psalm 51.12), otherwise we will never be entirely his.
In a completely detached heart from all earthly affection, immediately enters and fills himself divine love. St. Teresa said: "When he removed his eyes from external things, just the soul turns to love God." Since the soul cannot live without love, "or the Creator loves or loves the creatures".
Our only thought and intention in this life must be to seek God to love him, and his will to fulfill it, moving away from the heart of every creature affection. What are all the dignity and greatness of this world, if you do not smoke, mud and vanity that, in death, disappear? Blessed is he who can say: "My Jesus, I left everything for love. You are my only love, I just suffice you".

In truth when God's love takes possession of a soul, it alone - always understood with the help of divine grace - power of attorney to undress from every earthly thing that can prevent you to be completely of God. Said St. Francis Sales that when a house is on fire, you throw everything out the window; that is, when a person gives all to God, no exhortation of preachers or confessors, from itself trying to break free from all earthly affection.
Said the bride of the Song: He brought me to the wine cell, and ordered me love (Ct 2,4 Vg). This vineyard place, writes St. Teresa, is the divine love. When it takes possession of a heart, so he intoxicates himself, which makes him forget all creation. The drunk is like one devoid of sense: do not see, not hear, not speak. So it becomes a soul inebriated of divine love: hardly has more sense for the things of the world, does not want to think of anything but God, do not want to talk about nothing but God, and does not want to do anything but to love and please God.

Charity does not get angry.
How they are dear to Jesus the people, in receiving affronts, ridicule, slander, persecution, and even beatings and injuries, do not get angry with those who insult or strikes! God always like their prayers that is always said yes. To them, in a special way, Jesus promised heaven: Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth (Mt 5,4). The father Alvarez said that paradise is the home of the despised, persecuted and downtrodden, because to them, and not the proud, honored and respected by the world, is for the possession of the eternal kingdom.
In the Psalms it is said that the meek will not only get eternal bliss, but in this life will enjoy great peace: The meek shall inherit the land and enjoy great peace (Ps 36,11). In fact, the saints do not keep a grudge against those who wronged them, but love them more than before; and the Lord, as a reward for their patience, increases their inner peace. But only those with great humility and a low self-concept, so believes he will deserve every contempt, he possesses meekness. For this reason the proud are always irascible and vindictive, because they are full of themselves and think themselves worthy of all honors.

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord (Rev. 14:13). We must die in the Lord to be blessed and begin to enjoy the bliss since this life. Of course, the bliss that you can have on earth is not comparable to that of the sky, but is such that it exceeds all sensible pleasures of this life (Phil 4,7). But to enjoy this peace must be dead in the Lord.
One dead, as being ill-treated and insulted, not affected at all. So gentle, like a dead man who cannot see and cannot hear, suffers all the contempt he receives. About Heart he loves Jesus Christ come to this because, conforming to his will, accept with the same peace be favorable things that those contrary, both the consolations that afflictions, both the ravages that the courtesies. So did the Apostle who could say: I am filled with encouragement, overflowing with joy in all our affliction. (2 Cor 7,4).

Happy is he who reaches this degree of virtue! He enjoys continuous peace, which is a good thing that surpasses all other goods of this world. St. Francis de Sales said: "That is true all over the world, in comparison with the peace of heart" In fact, what good are the riches and honors of the world, then if you live restless and do not have your heart at rest.

Charity suffers all.
Be convinced that in this valley of tears reaches the true peace of the heart alone who bears the sufferings and love to please God. He who does not find peace, because suffering is a consequence of original sin. The state of the saints on earth loves; that of the saints in heaven is to enjoy loved.
The surest sign that a person loves Jesus Christ is not the suffering itself, but to suffer for his love. This is the best proof of our love for him. Yet most men get scared at the mere mention of the cross, of humiliation, of suffering! However, there are many people who suffer with joy, indeed would almost inconsolable if they had no suffering. "When I look at the crucifix, said a holy person, the cross I become so lovable that I feel I cannot be happy without suffering. The love of Jesus Christ makes everything easy to me!" Who wants to follow him, Jesus says to take up their cross and follow him. But you have to pick her up and take her by force, and not reluctantly, but with humility, patience and love.

The suffering and physical illnesses, if patiently borne, they provide a large crown of merit in heaven. San Vincenzo de 'Paoli said: "If we knew the value of infirmities, we would receive with the same joy with which we would receive the best gifts." And when the Saint was tested by illness that tormented him day and night, the bore with such peace and serenity, without the slightest complaint, which appeared to have no harm. What a beautiful building gives a patient who bears the disease with serene face!
A holy woman, tried by many sorrows, she was in bed, and her maid gave her the crucifix and told her to pray to him to get free her from those sufferings. "But how can he, said the sick woman, who asked him to take off from the cross, while I hold in my hands a crucified God? God forbid! I want to suffer for those who suffered great pain for me much more than mine." This is exactly what Jesus said to St. Teresa, when he was very sick and tormented. By appearing covered with sores, he said: "Look, my daughter, the cruelty of my pains, and see if you can be compared to mine!" Therefore the Holy in diseases used to say: "When I think of the pain of any kind suffered by the Lord, although he was innocent, I do not know where I have the brains to complain about my".

How many merits you can buy with only endure patiently diseases! His father Balthasar Alvarez was shown the glory that God had prepared a good religious for her illness borne with great patience; and said that she, in eight months of illness he had earned more than some other religious in many years of health. Patiently enduring the pains of our diseases are largely complete, and perhaps most, of the crown of glory that God prepares us to heaven!

Charity always trusts.
Who likes to believe everything youloved one says; therefore greater as is the love of one person for Jesus Christ, the more firm and lively the faith.
Charity is founded on faith and makes perfect: those who love God more perfectly, the more perfectly believes. Charity makes you believe that man not only with the intellect, but also with the will. Those who believe only with the intellect, have a very weak faith. So they do sinners, who know all too well the truth of faith, but do not want to live according to the divine precepts. If they had a living faith, they believe that God's grace is the greatest good and that sin is the greatest of all evils, because it deprives us of divine grace, and certainly would change lives. If, therefore, prefer to God goods wretched of this earth is because they do not believe or believe very weakly. Those who believe not only with the intellect, but also with the will, that is, with love believes in God who reveals himself and has to believe, he believes fully and seeks to conform his life to the truths he believes.

The lack of faith in those who live in sin does not depend on the darkness of faith. God willed that the things of faith were for us obscure and hidden because faith was meritorious. But the signs that make credible the truths of faith are so evident, that they do not believe in them would be not only imprudent, but wickedness and insanity.
The weakness of the faith of many born thus from their misconduct. Who does not want to deprive yourself of forbidden pleasures, scorns the divine friendship and cannot stand any prohibition and punishment for sin. Therefore escapes the thought of eternal truths, death, judgment, hell, of divine justice; and since these truths frighten him and embitter its pleasures, then you deep thinking brain to find the least plausible reasons which may persuade or flatter himself that the soul does not exist, neither God nor hell, to live and die without law or reason, like animals.

The source of this is the laxity of morals: from it the various species of materialism, of indifference and of naturalism, those who are spreading these days.
O ingratitude and wickedness of men! God created them with infinite goodness ... and redeemed them with so much pain and so much love, and they strive not to believe, to live in vices following their cravings! If they leave the vices and were applied to love Jesus Christ, no longer would put in doubt the truth of faith revealed by God, but I firmly believe in them!

There are other Christians who believe, but have a weak faith. They believe in the holy mysteries, the truths revealed in the Gospels, in the Trinity, redemption, sacraments and in other truths, but they do not believe in all. In the Gospels Jesus says: Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are those who hunger, blessed are the persecuted, and blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and falsely say evil against you (Mt 5.5 to 10). Now, how can you say to those who believe in the Gospel says: "Blessed are the rich, blessed is he who does not suffer, blessed is he who enjoys the poor and those who are persecuted and mistreated by others"? These people either do not believe in the Gospels, or you believe only in part. Whoever believes entirely considers a grace and divine favor in this world being poor, sick, humiliated, scorned and abused by men. So he believes and this is what those who believe in all that is said in the Gospels, and has a true love for Jesus Christ.

Charity hopes all things.
Hope grows charity, and charity is hope grow. First, the hope in God's goodness increases the love of Jesus Christ. St. Thomas writes that, when we hope some good by one person, we begin to love it also. Therefore the Lord does not want us to trust in creatures (Ps 145.3), even curses the man who trusts in man (cf. Jer 17.5). God wants us to trust in the creatures because they do not want us to put in them our love.
I will run the way of your commandments because you opened my heart (Ps 118,32). Who has the heart dilated by trust in God runs the way of perfection, or rather fly because, having placed all his hope in the Lord, what was weak become strong, the strength that God communicates to all who rely on him. Those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they put out wings like eagles, run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40,31). The a-eagle, soaring, approaching the sun; so the person animated by the trust becomes detached from the earth and joins closer to God with love.

As hope increases the love, so love increases hope. Charity makes us adopted children of God. In the natural order we are the work of his hands, but in the supernatural, through the merits of Jesus, we have become sons of God and sharers in the divine nature, as Saint Peter writes:. ..so that be partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1.4). Making us children of God, so the charity also makes us heirs of heaven, as St Paul says: If we are children, then heirs (Rom 8:17). Now it is up to the children living in the house of his father, it is up to the heirs the inheritance. For this charity is raising the hope of paradise. Therefore, those who love God do not cease to ask him: Come, Thy kingdom come.
Primary object of Christian hope is God, the soul delight in paradise. The hope of heaven is not an obstacle to charity, but it is closely linked to the charity, which in paradise reach its perfection and fullness.

Saint Thomas of Aquino, writes that friendship, being founded on mutual love involves a mutual communication of goods, so that "if there was no communication, there would be no friendship." This is why Jesus said to his disciples: I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you (Jn 15:15). He had told them all his secrets because they had become her friends.
Therefore Angelico teaches that charity does not exclude the desire of reward that God prepares us to heaven, or rather do it want more, since the reward will be God himself, the main object of our love, that in heaven we can finally see and be happy. In fact, the friendship means that friends enjoy each other mutually.

This is the mutual exchange of gifts mentioned by the bride of the Song: My beloved is mine and I am his (Ct 2:16). In heaven the soul gives herself totally to God, and God gives everything to the soul according to the extent of its capabilities and its merits. But it acknowledges its nothing compared to the infinite kindness of God and know that God has a merit of being loved infinitely greater than about his being loved by God. You, therefore, prefer the joy of God to their own; He rejoices more in giving oneself entirely to God to please him, to catch fire of love.

Charity endures all things.
The punishments in this life afflict more people who love God are not poverty, disease, contempt and persecution, but the temptations and spirit desolation. When a believer experiences the loving presence of God, then the pains, ignominy and ill-treatment of men, rather than afflict him, console him, giving him reason to give God some proof of his love for him suffering is wood that keeps alive the fire of his love.
But see they pushed to lose the grace of God because of the temptations, or the fear of having lost it when they are in desolation, penalties are too bitter for those who nourishes a sincere love for Jesus Christ. However, this love gives them the strength to suffer them with patience and continue on the path of perfection.

Temptations
God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one (James 1:13). The temptations that lead to sin never come from God but from the devil or from our own evil inclinations. However sometimes the Lord allows that his friends are strongly tempted. Why allow it? Firstly because with the temptations recognize their weakness and the necessity of God not to fall. When a person is favored by God with divine consolation, the impression of being able to overcome any onslaught of enemies, and to make every enterprise for the glory of God. When it is strongly tempted and you see the edge of the precipice and nearby to fall, then it experiences its misery and its inability to survive without the help of God.

And what happened to St Paul, who writes that he was much harassed by temptation because of the revelations that God had given him: Why not elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger Satan instructed to slap me. (2 Cor 12,7).
Secondly, God allows temptations because we detach from this land, and we yearn earnestly to go to see him in heaven.
In fact, the good souls, at being fought day and night by so many enemies, have in tedium life and exclaim: Alas, for my pilgrimage was prolonged (Ps 119.5 Vg). They long for the time when they will say: The snare is broken and we are escaped (Ps 123,7). They would fly to God, but a snare holds them on this earth, where they constantly fought temptation. This snare is broken only by death. Why the good souls sigh death: because it frees them from the danger of losing God.
Third, God allows us to be tempted to make us rich in merits, as was said to Tobias: Because you were acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation you tried (Tb 12,13 Vg). We must not be afraid of being out of favor of God for being tempted; even then we have to convince us to be more loved by God. Some pusillanimous spirits believe that the temptations are sins that blur the soul. This is a trick of the devil, because they are not the bad thoughts that make us lose God, but the bad acclaim. As vehement are the suggestions of the devil, no matter how shameless are the images that go through your mind, if we do not want them, do not stain at all the soul, and indeed make it purer, stronger and dearer to God.

The Apostle writes: God is faithful and will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation also make a way out and the strength to endure it (1 Cor 10,13). Therefore whoever resists the temptation, not only does not lose, but earn a lot. The Lord often allows people to him favorite because most are tempted to acquire more merits on earth and glory in heaven.
Standing water and still rots. So the person without temptations and without fighting is likely to get lost in a vain complacency of their own merits or believed already arrived to perfection; and, not fearing no danger, little is recommended to God and not very committed to earn eternal salvation. But when it is agitated by temptations and it shows in danger of falling into sin, then pleads with God, he resorts to the Mother of God, renewing the intention to die rather than to sin, he humbles himself and abandons himself in the arms of divine mercy. So it becomes strong in spirit and pressed closer to God, as experience shows.

What we have said it does not mean that we must desire temptations, and we must always pray to God to deliver us from them, especially from the most dangerous for us, as Jesus teaches us to do in the "Our Father". However, when God allows it, no disturb us or be intimidated, we must trust in Jesus and ask him for help, and he will give us the strength to resist. St Augustine wrote: "Left to God and not to fear because, if he makes you fight, certainly will not leave you alone to make you fall".