Charity
Charity
Faith - Hope - Charity.
Lanspergius
Charity is a great thing, without which man cannot save himself, and instead provided it cannot be damned. Who owns charity owns everything, and those who lack not own anything.
Even humility cannot be accepted and acceptable to God without charity..
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True charity
You cannot be patient, gentle, and chaste without charity. In a word, no virtue is virtue without charity. Therefore charity is essential for everyone.
You need to understand what the true charity is, because not every type of love is charity. Men love as men, or because they are from the same country or born of the same blood, or because they are of the same nature and with the same ideas. From all these various relationships and circumstances are different qualities of love.
Instead, one is the reason by which charity is born: you must love God in God, you must love God for being God, not for any other reason. Then we must love the neighbor for God. God therefore is the cause and the purpose for which we love God and neighbor. Herein is the true charity. This love must move the mouth to speak, hands to work, feet to walk, at last to observe the commandments of God. And if you do not love, you cannot fulfill the commandments of God as they should. The rule of this charity there is prescribed in these words: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul".
This is the purpose and goal of our perfection, beyond which you cannot go but even we are given to achieve in this life, because we always discover we are imperfect, we can always go to the next step in love. There are always free opportunities to practice more charity, because we are told that we must love with all our heart. The God of love, who is infinitely worthy of all praise, "maximum propose", invites us to observe his "maximum" precepts, that is, with great care, in order to make us understand that we are always missing in our duty, then always we deplore our faults, and we always see new space to go.
But God does not demand that we get in this life to the perfection of charity, in the degree that is predestine for us; and not will reach that in the next life. What we have to do is wait for live and take constant desire and effort to progress and grow continually in divine charity.
(Sermones de tempore, Dominica XIII Post SS. Trinitatem, Sermo, Opera omnia, vol. 1, p. 560).
This alone is enough
There is nothing that shows the excellence of charity towards my brothers and I have a great responsibility to live it, as much as the commandment that Jesus Christ himself has left me. First, this precept is a must: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength." This is the first commandment and the greatest of all. The second is like this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself".
Secondly, this precept is very strict, because it gave me pain of death: "He who does not love remains in death." Third, this precept is very expressive, because with singular expressions was given to me by the divine legislator. And they are certainly worthy of special consideration those words of the Redeemer: "This I command you: love one another." But are they not the precepts of Jesus Christ all the other commandments of the Decalogue? Why then he called his commandment only the love of neighbor? The reason is clear, especially because this is close to his heart, and with special solicitude wants it to be put into practice.
Finally, this precept is worthy of being handed down, because it was renewed by my divine Savior the last day of his life, when he was already close to death for my salvation. On that day, making the last speech to his disciples, he left them for another testament that a friendly and sincere charity towards their neighbor. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." He calls the new commandment, although given repeatedly, because renovated in such circumstances must have a new vigor, and greater force to push men to sincere and mutual charity.
So if the precept of charity, that Jesus Christ has given me, is so great, I have to try with all care and with every effort to live it, if you want to be a true disciple and friend of his Heart. St. Jerome relates that St. John the Evangelist relates that, when he was already very old, only preached this thing: "Little children, love one another"; And they always feel tired and bored by repeating the same thing, they said to him once: "Master, why we always say that?". To this he replied: "Because this is the commandment of the Lord, and if he will fulfill, this alone is enough".
