Summary of the Morrow's Meditation
We will meditate tomorrow: 1st, upon the excellence of the supernatural love which we owe to our neighbor; 2nd, on the marks by which we may recognize it. Our resolution shall be: 1st, never to speak of the absent except to say what is good respecting them; 2nd, always to treat both those who are present and those who are absent with the same consideration which we should show to Jesus Christ Himself. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of St. Peter: "Before all things have a constant mutual charity among yourselves" (I. Pet. iv. 8).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore Our Lord Jesus Christ several times reiterating the precept of charity towards our neighbor. He gives it us often Himself; He repeats it to us by His beloved disciple, by His apostles and evangelists, and there is nothing in the whole of the Holy Scriptures which is more recommended to us; it is a proof of the ardent desire He has to see all of us filled with the spirit of charity. Let us thank Him for having given us by this sole precept the means of satisfying all the others, since it is written: "He that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law" (Rom. xiii. 8).
FIRST POINT
The Excellence of Supernatural Charity.
"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I should have all faith so that I could remove mountains; and if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing" (I. Cor. xiii. 1–3). This charity, which dominates all, is a virtue so high that it is modelled upon the Blessed Trinity itself. Holy Father, said Jesus Christ, in His discourse after the Last Supper, I pray Thee that all My disciples may be one through charity, even as we are one by nature (John xvii. 22); that all their hearts may be one, as Thou, My Father, art in Me and I in Thee (Ibid. 21). Holy Father, I conjure Thee once more, grant that they may be all one, and that the love which unites me to Thee may pass into their hearts to unite them to one another (Ibid. 23, 26). How beautiful these words are! how well suited to exalt the excellence of charity! Jesus Christ, by conforming Himself to this sublime teaching, is so identified and made one with us, that He declares that He looks upon what we do and say to the least of His children as done and said to Himself. O marvellous invention of a God to force men to love Him! He covers in a manner with His sacred person every Christian, to receive the good or the evil done to him, and thereby He elevates, ennobles, and renders charity divine, because, in accordance with this saying, to love, to oblige, and be kind to our neighbor is to love, to oblige, and to be kind to Jesus Christ Himself. What a consolation for a heart which loves so amiable a Saviour, and at the same time what a beautiful recompense does not Jesus Christ give to him by whom He considers Himself to be obliged! This it is which explains how a glass of water given to a poor man is worth an eternal recompense to him who bestows it. On the other hand, to be wanting in charity towards our neighbor is to be wanting towards Jesus Christ; to treat our neighbor harshly, to wound or to mock at him, is to treat Jesus Christ harshly, to wound and to mock at Him; to be cold and disagreeable to our neighbor is to be cold and disagreeable to Jesus Christ (Matt. xxv. 40). How dreadful! Let us here examine ourselves and see if Jesus Christ has reason to be content with the manner in which we have treated Him in the person of our neighbor.
SECOND POINT
The Marks by which we shall be Able to Recognize whether our Love is Supernatural.
Supernatural love embraces all men without exception or distinction, because by loving Jesus Christ in our neighbor it finds Jesus Christ to be equally amiable in all men. Consequently it acts towards all with the same benevolence, without permitting itself to have too much complaisance and affection for some and aversion and coldness for others; it is respectful towards all without giving a preference to any one, without ever giving any one cause to complain or conceiving bitterness against any.
Supernatural love is disinterested; it loves, it obliges, it testifies esteem and friendship, even when it does not receive any advantage by it in that respect; it is very different from egotistical love, which obliges a person only in so far as it feels it to be its interest to do so; it is cordial even towards those who have been disobliging and have treated it ill.
Supernatural love looks before anything else to what has regard to the salvation of its neighbor, desiring nothing so much as to gain him over to piety, and seizing every opportunity in its power to disgust him with the world and to lead his thoughts to eternity, his mind towards Christian truths, and his heart towards the practice of the gospel.
Supernatural love loves purely for God, without any thought of talents, of cleverness, of birth, of good breeding, of a sympathetic disposition, of conformity of inclinations, and it is even a pleasure for it to love those who have nothing amiable about them, because it is then all the more sure to love purely for God and to have a real supernatural and meritorious charity; whilst this assurance is wanting when it is natural inclination alone which leads us to love. Do we recognize in ourselves these marks of supernatural love?
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.