Love of Charity

Supernatural charity in action is the love of God, extended to our neighbor… When one loves God with this love of charity, one will also want other persons to share in his life. A person with charity loves all persons, wanting them to “live with God”. The love of charity for neighbor is the desire for the neighbor to share in God’s life, to live with him in friendship.

From “True Friendship” by John Cuddeback

The virtue of charity is far deeper than someone simply doing a good deed or giving money to the poor. Charity as virtue is fueled by the love of God, which motivates and propels us into action to love our neighbor. I would argue that anyone can do a good deed or give money to the poor, but are they practicing the virtue of charity? Supernatural charity is described in the above quote as love of God that is extended to our neighbor. So it is that we must first love God before we can practice the virtue of charity.

What does it mean to love God? Loving God cannot actually happen unless we love and accept ourselves. Even in all of our faults and imperfections, we are loved by God; we are accepted by him. But this does not mean that we are to remain in our faults or to believe we are merely imperfect beings who don’t need to do anything more to grow closer to the Lord in holiness. To love and accept ourselves is vital to allowing ourselves to receive God’s love. To deny our identity as a beloved son or daughter of our Heavenly Father is to deny God himself. In doing this we leave no room for the Holy Spirit to live and move within us.

Accepting ourselves is much more difficult than it might seem. Pride, fear of not being loved, the conviction of how little we are worth, are all too deeply rooted in us. Think how badly we react to our falls, mistakes, and failures, how demoralized and upset we become, how guilty they make us feel. Only under the gaze of God can we fully and truly accept ourselves. We need to be looked upon by someone who says, as God did through the prophet Isaiah: “You are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you.”

From “Interior Freedom” by Jacque Philippe

It is only through the eyes of God that we are able to truly know our worth. When you look out upon the world today, it becomes clear that our culture is suffering from an identity crisis. So many people do not know who they are and what they were created for. Not that it is ever possible to fully see ourselves as God does, but all we really need is just a glimmer of how he sees us. That will be enough to transform our lives from a life lived outward searching for meaning to a life lived inward learning to love.

So often we get stuck searching for solutions, fulfillment and acceptance out in the world. We try to identify our deepest personhood with something out in the world, some group, niche or community that fits us best. But God did not create us to fit in with the world, for the ruler of the world is Satan. God created each one of us perfectly for himself. He rejoices in the very thought of you. He has knit you in your mother’s womb and he calls you by name. God’s purpose for your life is so much bigger than you could ever imagine for yourself. In order to live out that purpose, we must learn to accept ourselves as we are and allow the Lord to love us right where we are. All that God desires of us is that we continue to turn to him, instead of to the world, for love. He desires that we seek his guidance in all things so that he can lead us to the best solution, to the highest fulfillment, to the fullness of acceptance and love. Only God can fill the deepest desires of our hearts.

It takes a tremendous act of courage to open up to the Lord and show him all of our wounds. Even though the Lord already knows them, we must present them to him as an offering in order for him to heal us. So often we think we have forgiven. So often we think we are free from our past, but in reality we carry so many of our burdens on our backs and it gets really tiring after a while. By taking the time to get to know ourselves, to understand our faults, to find out what our gifts are, we will be able to give the Lord our yoke of slavery, so that he can give us a share in his yoke of freedom.

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30

True freedom is found in accepting ourselves and receiving the love of God into our hearts. This is how we learn the virtue of charity. Once we have more fully received the gift of charity from God, we will then know how to truly love God and thus truly love our neighbor. Authentic love of neighbor starts with our being grateful for the gift of love we have received from God. It is from that source of Divine Love received into our own hearts that we desire to love our neighbor. It is when we have received love from God in our nothingness, recognizing that we will never really deserve his love, that we are then able to desire that all people, even our enemies, receive love. This is our participation in the love of God, which is freely given away in perfect charity to our neighbor.

So it is that if the virtue of charity stems from our love of God, then this must be our focus. Far too often we see Christians trying to replicate God’s love through charitable acts, some do them only to pump up their own pride, some to fill the void within, but God’s love cannot be replicated by man. When we love, we love in and through Divine Love that freely flows through us. Man does love of his own accord. Truly loving acts are done as an overflow of the richness of God’s love that has been received by us and in gratitude given freely away to others. Without our drawing from the wellspring of God’s Divine Charity through prayer and Sacrament, we are unprepared to serve our neighbor, we are unable to truly practice the virtue of charity.

Mother Teresa knew this well and it is why she had the Sisters of Charity spend an Holy Hour in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament each morning before they went out into the streets. Mother Teresa knew that the sisters would only be able to love to the degree in which they received that love from the Lord. Likewise, Venerable Fulton Sheen practiced and promoted a Holy Hour every day for priests before they set out to serve their parish. We too must be sure we are receiving from the Lord through prayer, Sacred Scripture, and the Sacraments so that we can truly love our neighbor. Being in relationship with the Lord, allowing him to fill us with his love, is necessary for us to be able to go out and bear fruit in the world.

Love transfigures everything and touches the most banal realities with a note of infinity… People who have not learned how to love will always feel like victims; they will feel restricted wherever they are. But people who love never feel restricted.

From “Interior Freedom” by Jacque Philippe