Summary of the Morrow's Meditation
We will meditate tomorrow upon a sixth characteristic of charity, which is, to be tender and compassionate. We shall see: 1st, how essential to charity is this characteristic; 2nd, how contrary to it is the opposite vice of harshness. We will then make the resolution: 1st, to pity all the afflicted, and to console or solace them to the utmost of our power; 2nd, to avoid hard words, a severe or haughty demeanor, and to be, on the contrary, frank and kind towards all, and to be pleasant and cordial in our behavior. Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of the Apostle: "Put ye on the bowels of mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, and patience" (Col. iii. 12).
Meditation for the Morning
Let us admire the tenderness with which Jesus Christ loved men and pitied all their woes; how He wept over the death of Lazarus, and mingled His tears with those of Martha and Mary; how He wept over the ruins of faithless Jerusalem; how tender He was towards John His apostle, who delights to call himself the disciple whom Jesus loved (John xxi. 20). Oh, how well these beautiful examples teach us always to be tender and compassionate toward our neighbor! Let us thank our amiable Saviour for so useful a lesson.
FIRST POINT
We ought to have a Heart full of Tenderness and Compassion for our Neighbor.
True charity is sensitive respecting everything our neighbor feels, whether it be good or evil; it weeps with those who weep, and rejoices with those who rejoice. It suffers with all who suffer, whether they be present or absent, known or unknown, friends or enemies, neighbors or persons who are far distant, because in all it sees the members of the same body of which it forms a portion; and as in the human body no member suffers without all the other members being filled with compassion for it (I. Cor. xii. 26), as the foot cannot be wounded without the arm being immediately stretched out, the knee bending, the eye opening wide, and, in a word, the whole body setting to work to be of use to it, so true charity gives a tender and compassionate heart towards all who suffer. A pagan philosopher has said: "I am a man, and all that interests men cannot be foreign to me" (Terence). The Christian, with much stronger reason, ought always to be tender towards his neighbor, even as Jesus Christ was, and to have for all bowels of mercy and kindness; it is the text of the law (John xiii. 34; xv. 12; Coloss. iii. 12). He ought always to receive with kindness, with an open expression of face, and with evidence of sincere affection, whoever confides to him his troubles. Every individual will be treated by God in the same way as he has himself treated others (Luke vi. 38). Now we all of us stand in immense need of God treating us with compassion and not with harshness. This is why, even if our brother were our enemy, if he were a great criminal, although the law would have the right to condemn him, we never have the right to rejoice over his misfortunes, or to look at him with an air of triumph. As soon as he has become unfortunate he has a right to our interest, to our consideration, to our affectionate compassion. If he is in need, we ought to feel how hard it is to suffer cold and hunger when our equals are beside us and perfectly fed and clad; we ought, consequently, to forgive him for looking at us with envy. If he has vices, we ought, instead of judging him with inflexible severity, to gain him over to religion by being indulgent and amiable toward him. It is so beautiful, the tender pity which looks with affectionate compassion on all who suffer, all who are sick, in trouble, or in a state of inferiority. It is what has been admirably understood by the Christians of all centuries. St. Paul collects alms, and travels more than three hundred leagues to take the money to the poor at Jerusalem. In 261 the Christians of Alexandria devoted themselves to those stricken by pestilence who had been their persecutors; every house was a hospital, every Christian a sick-nurse. In 379 St. Basil at Cesarea; in 400 St. Fabiola at Rome; in 407 St. Chrysostom at Constantinople, founded hospitals. In the sixth century, St. Remi forms the first establishment of Penitents at Rheims; in 650 St. Landry establishes the Hotel-Dieu at Paris, and the Nuns die there in 1348, through nursing those who are a prey to the pestilence, and the extinct community is immediately renewed. In 850 Robert, Archbishop of Mayence, feeds more than three hundred poor; and in the seventeenth century what did not St. Vincent de Paul do? What have not numerous souls filled with tender and compassionate charity done since then, and what do they not do every day? It is in the presence of such spectacles that unfortunate men, consoled at finding themselves treated with such tender respect by those who are above them, feel their hearts to be filled with gratitude, and they understand why the rich is rich, why the man who occupies a place of dignity is great. Instead of following these rules, do we not imitate the hard men of whom the prophet Amos speaks, who are indifferent to the sufferings of their brethren? (Amos vi. 6.)
SECOND POINT
Harshness is wholly Contrary to Charity.
To be wanting in consideration to a man stricken by misfortune is of all kinds of baseness the most unworthy. "Laugh no man to scorn in the bitterness of his soul," says the Holy Ghost, "for there is one that humbleth and exalteth, God who seeth all" (Ecclus. vii. 12). To sadden any one who is afflicted by harsh words, by an unkind manner; to look down on an inferior, upon some one we do not know from the height of our grandeur; to speak to him in a haughty and austere way, and to be curt and cross in our behavior, is cruelty unworthy of a Christian who is speaking to his brother. Even if he had been wanting to us in some respect or other, it is ignoble vengeance to refuse to do him a service, not to wish to speak to him or recognize him or; if we are obliged to do so, to address him rudely, with a sharp tone of voice and a cold expression of countenance, to rejoice when he does not succeed in his projects or falls into affliction. True charity behaves in a very different manner; it is indulgent to those who are in the wrong, it is tender to those who suffer or who are in affliction, it makes itself all things to all men (I. Cor. ix. 22): poor with those who are poor, infirm with those who are infirm, ignorant with those who are ignorant.
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.