Volume I, Treatise IV, Chapter V

What Fraternal Charity Particularly Requires of Us, and the Most Proper Means of Preserving T

“CHARITY is patient,” says the apostle St. Paul, “it is benign, it envies not, it deals not perversely, it is not puffed up with pride, it is not ambitious, nor seeks its own particular profit.” (1 Corinthians 13:4) As it is certain that all vices are an obstacle to fraternal charity, and that pride, envy, ambition, impatience, self-love, stubbornness, and the like, are so many enemies which continually fight against it, so it is very true that the practice of all the virtues is necessary for its preservation. And this is what St. Paul teaches us in those words I just now cited; “Charity is patient, charity is benign.” Behold two things very essential; and in effect nothing can be of greater importance, and more necessary ‘ to preserve this union with one another, than to suffer patiently from every one, and to do good to all the world. We are all of us men, and consequently full of faults and imperfections, so that we all afford our neighbour sufficient matter of patience. But as we are in like manner very weak and infirm, we have also need of their assistance to do us good, according to St. Paul’s precept: “Carry one another’s burdens, and by this means you will fulfil the law of Jesus Christ.’ (Galatians 6:2) St. Austin, explaining these words, adduces an excellent comparison on this subject: he says, naturalists report that when stags would pass over an arm of the sea to seek fresh pastures in any island, they observe this order. Their horns being very heavy, with which their heads are charged, they put themselves all in a line one after another, and each one, to help the other, rests his head,upon that which goes before him, and so they all swim after this manner without any fatigue at all, except the first, which carries its head in the air, and willingly bears the burden for the ease of its companions. But that this one alone may not feel all the difficulty, as soon as it begins to be weary, it passes from being the first and becomes the last of all, and then that which followed it conducts all the rest; and thus they change place by turns, till they get to the other side. We ought, in like manner, reciprocally assist and solace each other; and as charity requires this of each of us, so it is deeply wounded when we avoid labour, and suffer the whole burden to lie heavy upon our neighbour. Let us consider that the more pains we take the greater will be our merit, and consequently that we labour for ourselves no less than for our neighbonr.

St. Austin says also in the same place, that one of the things which imparts the greatest beauty and splendour to charity is to know how to support the ill-humour and imperfections of our neighbour:—“Bear with one another,” says St. Paul to the Ephesians, “‘ and be careful to conserve a perfect union of spirit in the bond of peace.” (Ephesians 4:2) Because “charity,” says he in another place, “suffers all, charity bears all.” (1 Corinthians 13:7) But if you are able to suffer nothing from your brethren, and have not sufficient sweetness of disposition to support patiently their defects, be assured that what reflection soever you may make, what means soever that you may use, and what remedies soever you may apply, you can never be able to preserve charity. If a love that has no other source than flesh and blood is able to accommodate itself without any pain, to whatsoever it suffers in assisting a sick person, as we daily learn from what mothers continually undergo in bringing up their children, or in assisting a sick husband; without doubt spiritual love, which has its origin in God himself, should prompt us to undergo the infirmities and weaknesses of our brethren, with all patience and sweetness possible. But you say it is a very difficult task so to accommodate ourselves, as continually to support their defects; but remember, says St. Austin, that it is an employment that cannot last always, and that we shall have nothing to suffer in the other life. Wherefore, let us suffer at present in this, to be happy in the other life; let us not lose the good opportunity offered us; the pain we undergo will not be long, and the recompense we merit will never have an end. It is of so great importance, says the same saint, to bear with our neighbour, and to assist him as far as we are able, that the whole of a Christian life is contained in these two points. And he advances this proposition not without great reason; because a Christian life being founded upon charity, and the perfection of charity being the fulfilling of the law, by consequence the consummation or perfection of charity is the consummation or perfection of a Christian life.

“Charity,” says the apostle, “is not puffed up with pride;” and St. Ambrose says, “that friendship knows not what pride is.” (B. iii. c. 16.) And it is for this reason that the Wise Man tells us, “We ought not to be ashamed to salute a friend.” (Ecclesiasticus 22:31) For amongst friends there is no standing upon ceremony; and without studying who should be first to salute, each should endeavour to anticipate the other. Friendship is a stranger to these sorts of ceremonies—it has more frankness, simplicity, and equality, in its manner; and it is for this reason that Aristotle will have “friendship to be amongst equals;” and a Latin poet says that “love and majesty agree not well together, nor live under the same roof.” The elevation of a throne does not very easily stoop or accommodate itself to friendship; and whoever wishes to maintain true friendship must stoop and put himself on an equality with his friend—he must make him another self. It is after this manner that the love which God has borne to men wrought so much upon him, that it made him debase himself so far, as to render himself like them, “he became in some manner inferior to the angels” (Psalms 8:6), and made himself man like unto us. For which reason he says, “He calls us not servants, but friends” (John 15:15); to signify, as it were, an equality between himself.and us, in which we cannot too much admire the great excess of his love.

For in fine, let a subject be ever so high in favour with his prince, let his rank be ever so elevated, yet they never say of him, that he is the prince’s friend—No! they call him nothing more than favourite; because the word friend imports an equality. Notwithstanding, God, whose majesty is infinite, renders himself so familiar with us, and loves us with so great a tenderness, that instead of treating us as his servants, he openly gives us the title of his friends. It is therefore necessary, in imitation of his, that our charity in religion should be so remote from any sort of pride, that in all things it should introduce an extreme equality; and this same equality, being an effect of charity and love, will contribute very much to augment charity and union; for the one ordinarily maintains itself by the other. Hence it is, that when the spirit of humility and equality reigns in any place, it isa sign that the spirit of union and fraternal charity reigns there also. Wherefore as we see that, by the mercy of God, charity shines forth in a particular manner in our society; so we perceive also that the spirit of equality and simplicity is carefully preserved in it; each one following what is prescribed in our rule, “In preferring others before himself, and esteeming them as if they were his superiors.” (Reg. xxix. Sum. Con.) He, who was a man of rank and consequence in the world, says St. Austin, glories more in the alliance with his brethren in religion, though poor, than he does in being born of rich parents;

for, persuaded that in religion no account ought to be made of anything but virtue, he easily contemns all things else. But the better to confirm what I have said, and to shew more clearly how conducive equality is to the preservation of charity, we shall conclude by repeating the words of St. Ambrose:—“We never,” says he, “strengthen charity more, than when, in obedience to the doctrine of the apostle, we yield one to the other—when every man esteems his neighbour better than himself—when inferiors feel pleasure in serving, and superiors abstain from domineering—when the poor are not angry that the rich be preferred to them, and the rich are content that the poor be made equal to them—when nobility renders not the higher orders proud, and equality renders not the lower orders vain. In fine, when we attach not more consideration to riches than to morals; and set not greater value on the power and pomp of the wicked, than on the equity and simplicity of the virtuous.” (Ep. lxxxiv. ad Demet.)

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