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Relief of Grace

Gilberto of Tournai

Likewise, "you will love your neighbor", that is, your friend, if you want to strengthen your peace. Thus, in fact, "the beasts of the earth" according to the testimony of Job, "will be at peace with you and you will know peace in your dwelling and visiting your species you will not sin" (5: 23-24). "The beasts of the earth become peaceful for the elect, when men will resist the infernal assaults, and so with God there will arise for us an even stronger peace, the more bitter the battle." Visit his species "who has love towards the other: the species of man is the other man and so is our species called our neighbor, because in him we can see what we represent ourselves, in fact, he visits his species the one who turns, guided by love, to whomever sees his fellow by nature, so that by contemplating his own infirmity in the other, he learns from his own experience how he must succor the weakness of others.When therefore someone will be gathered in the inn of his heart and will experience that his soul is united by the amalgam of charity to the souls of all its neighbors, not touched by any feeling of envy, not lit by the ardor of anger, not corroded by any suspicion, nor restless for the voracious bites of the dissatisfaction, in such a way that it welcomes all its neighbors in some port of its calm soul and embraces everyone with sentiment of tenderness and guards them and considers with them as a single heart and a single soul, the tumult of the passions and the fire of the vices acquires itself and the intimate breathes from every guilt and a festive rest of quiet sabbath ensues. And it is then that one loves one's neighbor, when by many, by blowing the fire of charity, one becomes "one heart and one soul".
(At 4,32).

"Love your neighbor too", that is your enemy. This is in fact commanded by the Lord and whoever respects the precept will live in peace. "Love - says the Lord - your enemies and do good to those who hate you and pray for those who persecute and slander you" (Lk 6: 27-28). This can be done if, embracing with a single feeling of love all kinds of people, do not allow themselves to be provoked by the offense of anyone and as a very patient father to his beloved son mentally ill, so you behave verto this enemies, to be pitied with a feeling of deeper love, the more serious the offense caused. And if you want to fully fulfill this precept not only to the one who offends you, enduring and not reacting with anger, but even if someone had taken you and left something different, not only should not be angry, but spontaneously spread with him according to the council of perfection. And even if he were uncivilized, he will blush for your goodness and will immediately come back from his indignation and as Chrysostom says: "He who has dispossessed your goods, who has offended you, will have damaged you, not only covered with greater gifts, But love him and consider him your friend and with all your love make sure to pray for him and he recommends his soul to the Lord: this is the sign of maximum and perfect love". But we are so far from loving the enemies that we do not even reciprocate the friends of their affection, but, on the contrary, we hate even those who love us: we harbor within us a kind of insanable offense. Christ wants us to forgive those who offend us, to the point of loving them and praying for them. In fact, if you limit yourself only to not offending those who have disrespected you, if you avoid meeting him, if you do not greet him with cordiality, no doubt has remained in your heart a wound and grows the pain of the heart. So do not fulfill the command of Christ.

From this love of self and neighbor, of which we have spoken, We pass to divine love. The reassured mind, purified by this double love, It extends itself with much more devotion as with more security, in joyful embraces of the divinity and ardent of a boundless desire, goes beyond the veil of the flesh and is deeply absorbed in that inexpressible light sweetness and, intervening the silence of temporal things, sensitive and changeable, with the help of grace and of divine Goodness, according to the compatibility of human frailty and according to the degree of perfection achieved, it throws a profound glance into God, and there, between the sweet embraces of love, exalts the Sabbath rest of the Sabbaths, also singing the song of the songs, because, "justified by faith" (Rom 5: 1) working through love, we have peace in God.

Behavior with others

Giacomo from Milan

Consider every man another yourself. If you strongly impress this in your heart, there is no doubt that you will love its good as yours. With solicitude as for yourself, if you can, you will procure what you will see useful to his salvation through prayer, exhortation or other way. When you see him say or do good, you will fill yourself with joy as if you yourself said it or did it. But when you know that he is in sin or some other spiritual defect, you will suffer intensely and as far as he is in you, you will turn him away from evil and spur him to goodness. You will have compassion for the misfortunes of the body as if you had them in your body and you will gladly serve him with every care as if you were doing it to yourself, even more willingly because the prize is greater and because you must hate yourself and love the other. If it offends you with words or deeds, do not worry about it any more than if you yourself had said or done that thing, in fact you will be more welcome because there is more merit. If you do or say something good, you will not raise more than if someone else said or did. If you commit any innocent fault in front of others, do not worry about it more than if you had done it privately without being seen by anyone. It will still be very good for you if, holding anyone else in mind, you will not treat anyone with special attention, because for you each will be singular. You will not love anyone more than the other, except because you will recognize him better, not because he is more familiar or known.

We must not be attached to good things, but only to God in himself or as a giver of the good we see in others. But we can pray more for those to whom we have greater obligations, but not to the point of forgetting others. You will only take possession of your sin and your lack, considering you the most cowardly of all.

You will not consider yours only the sins you have committed, but also those of others and you will also beg forgiveness for them. And do not say: how can I retain every man as myself? The perfect charity teaches you that joining you makes you one. He understands it more clearly and is more easily invited to do so who totally rooted his heart in love and in the honor of God, seeking nothing else in himself and in others.

Therefore, this is an excellent norm who wants to love God and the neighbor longs only for the honor of God and seeks it with great greed, nothing else tending to everything.

We renew the invitation

If your heart is eager to do something for your brothers and sisters who are gripped by suffering or loneliness, you can earnestly plead with the Lord. Prayer is one of the highest forms of charity..

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