Caritatem secundum deum rem esse deo digna

That love according to God is a work worthy of God. No speech can hymn love, the heavenly ladder, according to its worth. Love is the co-throned one of the Father; love joins earthly things to heavenly things. Concerning it, neither tongue will suffice, nor mind discover how to glorify it worthily. But the work itself shows that love is the guide of the best polity. For it casts perfect comeliness upon the creation of God; it is the teacher of the many into unity, portraying the multitudes of men into the likeness of the one and holy beauty, both angels and men. For being one form, it forms every rational nature into the likeness of God. It does not rest upon those alienated from him, but upon those who are to be born by him and blended with him. Though many, all inclining into one harmony, they display upon themselves something most beautiful and delightful, a harmony. Thus the many and various energies through the Holy Spirit, when gathered into one good concord, display a beauty most godlike and most worthy of God, most precious to God and worthy of the holy joy that is with the Creator.

Because of love for humanity, God descended to earth and lived among people, not in a hidden and secluded sanctuary, as before, being worshipped, but dwelling in the same tent with people, coming down to our likeness and association, in order to draw all into the intimacy of one Spirit, and to fashion them as one body and one spirit. Divine love, being the servant of the Lord and the minister of the Spirit, brings together what is divided, and makes familiar what is estranged. O the marvelous work of Christ, love! O the mystery of the world's salvation! Through love the Father and God sends his only-begotten Son into the world; for Christ, it is said, loved the Church, and gave himself for her; love bears gladly the labors for one's neighbor; through love we are commanded to be slaves to one another; for through love you serve one another; love makes the private possessions of each individual common to all; love shows you your neighbor as yourself, and bears his faults as your own. You will be angry a little, but you will be patient much. Through love the flock of Christ increases; love soothes murderous rages, blunts the weapons of enemies, and instills forgetfulness of all enemies, and introduces the peaceful polity of Christ to the world. For no nation will take up a sword against another nation, and they will no longer learn to wage war. Therefore, it is said, in his days righteousness and an abundance of peace will arise, until the moon is destroyed. Bright also is the pattern of the peaceful polity. O love, the founder of blessed peace!

driving out the enemy and hostile demon among people, through which the devil groans over peaceful people, while angels rejoice seeing an image of their own peace in people, we are cheerful towards each other, and greater than any good cheer is a brother appearing to a brother. Paul says, then, that he is comforted in his afflictions by the presence of Titus; but when he is not present, he has no relief for his spirit. Love of God and love of brothers are inseparable. And this commandment, John says, we have from God, that he who loves God should also love his brother. For he said this also to Peter: If you love me, feed my sheep. That is, Show love for the shepherd by caring diligently for the sheep. What wall is so unbreakable, fortified by the joining of huge stones and repelling enemy attacks, as a company of saints bound together by the bonds of love and resisting the temptations of the devil? And what beauty of plants planted in a row, or well-ordered formation of an army advancing in seemly order and array, is like this? For these things provide delight; but more delightful and sweeter than all is the seemliness of those joined together in love according to natural harmony; for this appears solemn and honorable in the eyes of the Lord. Listen to David, or rather to the grace of the Holy Spirit: Behold, he says, what is beautiful, or what is delightful? Nothing else, nothing other of the things on earth, but brothers dwelling together; like ointment poured out on the head.

Angels dance around our choirs and rejoice over us, because we imitate their way of life. For if over a single repentant sinner there is joy in heaven, according to the Lord's word, much more so over such a multitude being saved. For the joy of the coming age is manifest from here, grief for the devil, a winnowing-fan of demons, when we form choirs with one another, with one soul and one mind for the hymnody of God, imitating the all-harmonious and most-glorious melody of the Cherubim. For just as they, receiving one from the other in succession, sing the thrice-holy hymn, so also we, having formed two choirs in their pattern and answering one another antiphonally, sing the spiritual melody. A marvel to outsiders, desirable to those who see, and longing arises in those who hear, and a divine active perception is found in us, through which we perceive all causes of wickedness and division being uprooted from us.

All will glorify God because of us, seeing a heavenly way of life on earth. For this reason Paul taught us all to think as one and to say the same thing; for this reason Christ, when sending out the apostles, sends them in pairs; he even introduces unanimity among women, so that he may not leave the company of virgins without a share in this angelic imitation. For this reason he says, "I exhort Euodia and Syntyche to think the same thing in the Lord." He commands them to consider one another as superiors, so that they may not be dissolved by ambition, or rather by vainglory, but by yielding honor to the neighbor they may be united and joined together. Our matters are therefore dignified and truly world-adorning, those of sacred and divine love. But let us also consider the teachings in the law. For these also teach advantageously. "Do not overlook the needy," it says, "but share with the afflicted; the poor man shall enjoy the fruits from you, and the poor man shall have the remnants of the harvest and the vintage for food; in the seventh year the slave shall be released to freedom, in the fiftieth year every debt shall be dissolved; and those who have sold their possessions shall take them back without returning the price. You shall not demand interest, you shall not take a mill or an upper millstone as a pledge, nor shall you take the poor man's garment as a pledge, nor shall you forcibly enter to take a pledge. You shall not abandon your neighbor's beast of burden, even if he happens to be an enemy; you shall return to him even a wandering animal, becoming a servant as to a friend, and dissolving the enmity when an occasion arises.

All these precepts are for no other reason than for the sake of the sacred and greatly desired love for God; for even the evangelical precepts run to this end. For after saying many things that fulfill the law, he added: "You do well to those who hate you, and pray for those who abuse you." In all things dissolving enmity and planting love. Let the duty of loving one another be never fulfilled among you; for Paul says, "Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another." For just as we seek food each day, and the previous satiety does not prevent us from seeking food each day, but we owe this as a debt demanded by nature; so also let us keep the same pattern with regard to love. The eye will not be filled with seeing, he says, nor the ear with hearing. Light is sweet to the eyes, and no one grows weary of seeing with the eye, and no one grows weary of hearing with the ears; so also we ought to perform the lovely work of love without hesitation, and never be sated. For much water will not be able to quench love; for these three remain, he says: faith, hope, love. For just as it was from the beginning, so it will be preserved for eternity; may we, following it, attain the eternal goods in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom are glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.