Meditation III Fraternal Charity
1st Prelude. Imagine you hear Christ saying: “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another” (St. John xiii, 35).
2nd Prelude. Ask grace to realize fully the importance of practising fraternal charity.
POINT I. Consider our strict obligation to observe fraternal charity.
1. Without it there is no sanctifying grace in the soul. St. John writes: “We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not abideth in death. He that hateth his brother is a murderer” (St. John iii, 14-15).
2. Christ has chosen this commandment as distinctly His own: “A new commandment I give unto you. Love one another as I have loved you” (St. John xiii, 34), and again: “This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you” (ib. xv, 12).
3. He makes its observance the distinctive mark of His disciples: “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another” (ib. xiii, 34).
4. Without a delicate fraternal charity many religious communities would contain some very unhappy members. And our Society in particular has always shown the greatest solicitude to protect and foster this virtue.
POINT II. How may fraternal charity be violated?
Among religious, violations of charity are not so often committed by actions as they are among seculars, but they are not seldom committed by word or thought. St. James writes: “In many things we all offend. If any man offendeth not in word, the same is a perfect man” (iii, 2), and again: “The tongue no man can tame, an unquiet evil, a deadly poison” (ib. 8). By calling it a deadly poison, he clearly indicates that the tongue is often the cause of grievous wrong. Now wilfully to inflict a grievous wrong on a neighbor is a grievous sin. But even when the wrong done is of less moment, it is always sinful to some extent. Charity is violated in many ways.
1. By needlessly saying in the hearing of another words that give him pain; and that whether he be our equal or our inferior, and still more if he be our superior.
2. By needlessly making known another’s secret faults.
3. By imputing to another a fault he has not committed; this is called calumny, or slander, and is a twofold sin, adding the violation of truth to that of charity.
4. By putting an unfavorable interpretation on a neighbor’s conduct, expressing it in words.
5. By condemning him in our minds only, beyond the evidence of the facts; such a judgment is rash, even if it be not false.
6. By needlessly suspecting evil of which there is no good proof.
POINT III. How we should practise fraternal Charity.
We must earnestly make up our minds, and act on the conviction all our lives, that the practice of charity is not a mere devotion, highly recommended but not essential for the attainment of solid virtue. St. Peter writes: “Before all things have a constant mutual charity among yourselves” (I Pet. iv, 8). Our Divine Lord in His vivid description of the Last Judgment lays the chief stress on the duty of charity, and says: “As long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me” (St. Matth. xxv, 40). Again He says: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them that calumniate you.... As you would that men should do to you, do you also to them in like manner” (St. Luke vi, 27-31). And He has made our generous disposition to forgive others the condition of our own pardon, teaching us to pray in the Our Father: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them who trespass against us.” Through St. Peter He tells us that: “Charity covers a multitude of sins.” And what is better still, charity prevents us from committing a multitude of sins. If you can accustom yourself never to say an unkind word of or to another, nor think evil of any one, you are on the highroad to sanctity.
Colloquy. Beg of our dear Lord the grace of a generous, delicate and universal charity.