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_Ave Maria!_ This morning's sermon is a little different. It
arose from something I wrote on an Internet discussion list about the difficulty
traditional Catholics seem to have in working together for our common
goal. I opined that the problem usually centered around a lack of honesty,
humility, or charity. One or two others proposed similar answers, which,
in turn, prompted a discussion of "charity."
From: "Rev Fr Charles T Brusca" <webmonk@bellsouth.net> --- In message #11004 OurRomanCatholicFaith@y..., a lady wrote> wrote:
<< Fr. Brusca wrote: "But given a reasonable level of knowledge,
by far the most important remedy is to
demand charity, honesty and humility, from
ourselves, from our bishops and priests, and from all with whom deal
in religious matters."
<< Dear List members,
<< Both Fr. Brusca and Bishop C___ have stuck a similar theme here....
Could we please begin a discussion on the
virtue of Charity as it relates to the interaction of fellow soldiers
of Christ? I would be interested in recommended readings from
the clergy on our list. St. Francis de Salles perhaps? Which Saints
come to mind that would be prime examples of perfect charity?
--- End forwarded message ---
Dear Listmembers:
The modern emphasis on physical love -- _eros_ -- often
makes it difficult for modern people to
understand the more disinterested and altruistic
love that is _caritas,_ or Charity. Perhaps even the love of married
couples could stand a little re-emphasis on Charity, rather than on
the _eros_ of the movie screen.
Apart from a few mystics -- St. Gertrude, for example --
very few people seem to possess Charity
(the love of God or the love of fellow man
for the sake of God) in a way that raises their blood pressure or elevates
their pulse. That is not necessarily bad, or a sign of deficient
Faith -- it seems to be the way God made most of us. For most of
us, the outward manifestation of charity is keeping the Commandments and
looking out for one another.
The best reading on Charity for the average person is, in
my estimation, to be found in the New
Testament. Particularly in the context
of this discussion, I would suggest beginning with our Lord's discourse
at the Last Supper as it is narrated in Saint John's Gospel, say
chapters 12-18 to be complete.
If Jesus -- the ultimate
mystic -- displayed any emotion about the love
of God it is in chapter 12. Perhaps it is more of a concern for Faith
than for Charity. A concern that people must go to the Father by believing
in His Son -- a concern strong enough for Jesus to "cry out, 'he
who believes in Me [believes in Him who sent Me ...'"(44). Really, His
emotion is the love of God for His people.
Chapter 13 begins with the God-man washing the feet of His
Apostles -- Humility will clearly be part of
Christian Charity. It works up to
"a new commandment, that you love one another ..." (34-35).
Chapter 14: "I am the way and the _truth_ and the
life"(6). Just as Humility is part
of Jesus' follower's path to eternal life with the Father,
so is truth. "If you love Me, keep My commandments" (15) -- it takes
no "rocket science" to know that love includes a desire to please.
"Greater love than this no one has than he lay down
his life for his friends" (Ch. 15:
12). Clearly, this is not the stuff of petty bickering
and invented differences -- our Lord is talking about Himself, but
about us and our relationship with each other as well. "If the world
hates you, know that it hated me before you. If you were of the world,
the world would love you ..." (18-19).
"I have spoken to
you that you may not be scandalized.
They will expel you from the synagogues
... because they do not know the Father or Me" (Ch. 16:1, 2, 3).
"You have sorrow now, but I shall see you again ... and your joy shall
not be taken from you" (Ch. 16: 23). **Repeat these phrases daily!**
"I do not pray that Thou take them out of the world,
but that Thou keep them from evil. They are not of this world ... sanctify them
in truth. Thy word is truth" (17:
15-17). "Yet not for these only do I pray,
but for those also who through their word are to believe in me, that
all may be one, even as Thou, Father, in Me and I in Thee ... that they
may be perfected in unity" (17: 20-22).
"Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice"
(Ch. 18: 37).
And
regularly throughout the epistles we hear the exhortation to a "constant
mutual charity among yourselves" or similar words to that effect.
Noteworthy among Saint Paul's writings is his beautiful discourse
on Charity in 1 Corinthians 13, for it gives us an idea of what
Charity is _not_ -- that it is quite independent of prophecy and tongues,
and ostentatious penance, and a host of other motivations -- that
it is patient, kind, altruistic, and enduring.
Saint John -- significantly, the disciple whom Jesus loved
-- left three epistles in addition to
his gospel. Each of them treats of the virtue
of Charity. The first is very significant for it speaks to the relationship
of Faith and Charity. (We heard a little from it in the Masses
of the first and second Sundays after Pentecost.) "In this has the
love of God been shown in our case, that God has sent His only-begotten
Son into the world that we may believe in Him" (1 John 4:9). "God is
love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him"
(4: 16).
No doubt there are other chapters to consider. Very
little, if any, of this is emotional in
the sense that we often think of love.
Underlying most of it is an extremely practical motive
toward cooperation. Something that
would go a long way among "traditionalists."
"God so loved the
world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that those
who believe in Him may not perish, but may have life everlasting" (John 3:16).
Let us pray for one another that we may love one another,
and thereby love God.
in _Xto,_
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