Spiritual Life Committee
MISSIONARY SERVANTS OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY
Monthly Reflection: September 2003
CHARITY: A WAY OF LOVE, A WAY TO PERFECTION
By
MARY NELL PECOT, BTMI
Charity is a supernatural virtue that is infused by the grace of God. When charity is infused, the Christian loves God supremely and loves others with the love of God. Love of God is the highest virtue and the source of all other virtues (Summa Theologiae II, II. 184, n.3). Charity flows from the nature of God, and it aims at an unrestricted love of both God and neighbor. It is different from other loves in that it is utterly selfless and seeks only the good of others. Supernatural charity aims at union with God, and it is the basis of love of neighbor, the emotions of good will, compassion and sympathy. Charity makes possible heroic works of self-sacrifice, in addition to the ordinary actions of self-giving. (1)
St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologia describes charity as our friendship with God, citing the words of Jesus recorded in John’s Gospel, “I do not call you servants any longer…but I have called you friends” (Jn 15:15). It is this genuine friendship of charity, which finds its way into our love of God for God’s sake, that Father Judge writes about often as a “particular Fruit of the Holy Spirit.”
I would…call your attention to a particular Fruit of the Holy Spirit, charity. Charity is the love of God, is the love of neighbor. The love of God demands of us that we do much for Him. It exacts, first of all, that we know Him…that we serve him…the surest rule of life, is that we order all things according to the end of our being. We know what this is. Therefore it should be our ceaseless striving, our ceaseless searching to discover that way, to live in that way in which we can better know, love and serve God. (2)
God extends to us through His Son Jesus an eternal happiness that comes from deeper understanding of the needs of our souls for this great virtue. We realize that this is the way of love given to us by the loving advances of the Holy Spirit as we go about our daily duties. As a Cenacle Family we possess a special knowledge and devotion to this truth- to know, love and serve God. It is in the Trinitarian life of God that we are made participants, however imperfectly in our present state, that we strive daily for that union of bonding that is our vocation.
In another meditation of Father Judge we find our blueprint for bringing this special bond to perfection in our lives and the lives of those we serve.
We cannot speak of love of God without speaking of the love of neighbor- charity, the bond of perfection. What holds us to God? It is love. What a wonderful thing is the Catholic church- grouping together all people who love under every part of God’s heaven, every corner of the earth- different nationalities, people with contradictory interests all supermanaged and harmonized in the love of God… The Gospel to us is the Gospel of Love. Love has no limits. The Gospel of Love tells us that we muct love our enemies; we must do good to those who torment us. We must bless those who revile us. We must be patient. We must be forgiving. We must treat that neighbor of ours as we expect God to treat us. That is the rule – to do unto others as we want God to do to us. He tells us that as we treat another, as we deal with another, so he will deal with us. If we want His mercy, we must be merciful to our neighbor. If we want His pity, we must pity our neighbor. If we want His forgiveness, we must forgive our brother. He will not forgive our sins if we do not forgive the sins of others. (3)
We must be known by this prayerful spirit – it must be our family spirit – and we must cherish and support one another as we continue the journey to eternal perfection with our Triune God.
Reflection Questions:
1. Do I put restrictions on my ways of loving and serving God? And neighbor?
2. What needs to change in my life to bring me a new way of loving and serving?
3. Who in my life have been the greatest examples of this great love of God? What was it about them that made them special?
1. Our Sunday Visitor’s Catholic Encylopedia, 1991.
2. Missionary Cenacle Meditations, Love of God and Neighbor, 172.
3. Missionary Cenacle Meditations, Practice: Cenacle Virtue of Charity, 300
Br. Steven Vesely, S.T.
Secretary/Secretario General, Councilor/Consejero General
Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity
9001 New Hampshire Ave., Suite 300
Siler Spring, MD 2090.-3626
T: 301-434-0092 F: 301-434-0255 C: 703-371-5173
E: stvesely@aol.com