The Theological Virtue of Love
November 30, 2023
Dear Family of Mary!
Here, again, is the message from Our Lady of Medjugorje for November 25, 2023:
Dear children! May this time be interwoven with prayer for peace and good deeds, so that the joy of the expectation of the King of Peace may be felt in your hearts, families and in the world which does not have hope. Thank you for having responded to my call. (November 25, 2023)
Before we examine the Theological Virtue of Hope, I want to examine the Virtue of Love (Charity). Tomorrow we will tackle Hope.
The Catechism tells us about the Theological Virtue of Love (Charity):
Charity
1822 Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.
1823 Jesus makes charity the new commandment. 96 By loving his own “to the end,” 97 he makes manifest the Father’s love which he receives. By loving one another, the disciples imitate the love of Jesus which they themselves receive. Whence Jesus says: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love.” And again: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” 98
1824 Fruit of the Spirit and fullness of the Law, charity keeps the commandments of God and his Christ: “Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.” 99
1825 Christ died out of love for us, while we were still “enemies.” 100 The Lord asks us to love as he does, even our enemies, to make ourselves the neighbor of those farthest away, and to love children and the poor as Christ himself. 101
The Apostle Paul has given an incomparable depiction of charity: “charity is patient and kind, charity is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Charity does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Charity bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 102|
1826 “If I . . . have not charity,” says the Apostle, “I am nothing.” Whatever my privilege, service, or even virtue, “if I . . . have not charity, I gain nothing.” 103 Charity is superior to all the virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues: “So faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But the greatest of these is charity.” 104
1827 The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity, which “binds everything together in perfect harmony”; 105 it is the form of the virtues; it articulates and orders them among themselves; it is the source and the goal of their Christian practice. Charity upholds and purifies our human ability to love, and raises it to the supernatural perfection of divine love.
1828 The practice of the moral life animated by charity gives to the Christian the spiritual freedom of the children of God. He no longer stands before God as a slave, in servile fear, or as a mercenary looking for wages, but as a son responding to the love of him who “first loved us”: 106
If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages, . . . we resemble mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands . . . we are in the position of children. 107
1829 The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity and remains disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion:
Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest. 108
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church (Par. 1822 to 1829)
Remember that Charity is a virtue that we receive from God. Jesus is Himself Love Incarnate. His every act, every word, every prayer to the Father was and is Love. To live the Virtue of Love we must live Jesus. We must receive Him and let Him live in us. The Saints show us this reality. It is a mystery beyond human understanding, but it is real. And we experience it at every Mass. Jesus died for us out of His great Love. We are his beloved children. So we see in this Theological Virtue the culmination of all the Virtues.
Read this over a couple of times, because it is dense!! More tomorrow!!
In Jesus, Mary and Joseph!
Cathy Nolan
(c) Mary TV 2023
