De caritate

On Love. The Lord spoke well when he said, "My burden is light." For what weight or what toil is there in letting go of the light and trivial offenses of a brother, and in having one's own faults forgiven, and in being quickly justified? He did not say, "Bring me money, or calves, or goats, or fasting, or vigils," so that you might say, "I do not have it, I cannot," but he commanded what is light and easy and quick, saying: "Forgive your brother his offenses, and I forgive yours." You forgive small faults, perhaps a few obols, or even a hundred denarii; but I grant forgiveness for ten thousand talents. And you merely forgive, without bestowing anything else; but I provide both remission and healing and bestow the kingdom. And I accept your gift then, when you are reconciled with your enemy, when you bear no enmity against anyone, when the sun does not set upon your anger, when you have peace and love toward all. Then your prayer is acceptable, your house is blessed, and you are blessed. But if you are not reconciled with your brother, how do you seek forgiveness from me? Do you trample upon my words and yet command forgiveness? I, the Master, command, and you pay no heed; and you, the servant, how do you dare to offer prayer to God, or sacrifice, or first fruits, while bearing enmity against someone? For just as you turn your face away from your brother, so too does God turn his eyes away from your prayer and your gift, since God is love, and what is done without love finds no favor in him.

How then will God accept the prayer, or gift, or first-fruits, or offerings of a murderer, unless he first repents as is fitting? But you will surely say to me, "I am not a murderer." But I will show that you are a murderer; rather, John the Theologian convicts you, saying, "He who hates his brother is a fratricide." Therefore, my beloved brothers, let us prefer nothing, nor strive to acquire anything, except love. Let no one hold a grudge against another, let no one return evil for evil. Let not the sun set upon your anger, but let us forgive our debtors all their transgressions. For what is the benefit, children, if someone has everything but does not have the love that saves? As if someone were to prepare a great feast to invite a king and rulers, and were to prepare everything richly so that nothing is lacking, but has no salt—can that feast be eaten? Not at all; rather, he has wasted his expense and lost his labors, and has even brought insult upon himself from those he invited. So it is here as well: what is the benefit of laboring in vain? Without love, every work and every deed is unclean, even if one acquires virginity, or fasts, or keeps vigil, or prays, or gives a banquet for the poor, or seems to offer gifts, or first-fruits, or offerings, or builds a church, or does anything else—without love, all those things will be counted as nothing before God. For the Lord does not take pleasure in them. Listen to the Apostle saying, "For he who has enmity against his brother, even if he seems to offer to God, it is as if he were sacrificing a dog, and they will be counted as the wages of a prostitute.

Do not therefore wish to do anything without love, for love covers a multitude of sins. O what good we despise! O of how many goods we deprive ourselves, and of how much joy, by not acquiring love! Judas, not wishing to acquire this, departed from the midst of the choir of the apostles, abandoning the true light, his own teacher, and hating his own brothers, he walked in darkness. For this reason also the chief Peter said: "Judas transgressed to go to his own place." And again John the Theologian says: "He who hates his own brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because darkness has blinded his eyes." But if you say, "Even if I do not love my brother, I love God," John refutes you, saying: "If anyone says, 'I love God, and hates his own brother,' he is a liar. For he who does not love his own brother, whom he has seen, how can he love God, whom he has not seen?" Therefore, he who has love with all his brothers, he who has no enmity against anyone, he who fulfills the word of the Apostle, "Let not the sun set upon your anger," this man loves God, this man is his disciple, of him who said, "By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." It is therefore manifest that the disciples of Christ are known from that place by true love. But he who has hatred against his brother, even if he seems to love Christ, is a liar and deceives himself.

For the apostle John says, "We have this commandment from him, that he who loves God also loves his brother." And again the Lord says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself." And he added, wishing to show the power of love, saying, "On these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets." O extraordinary wonder, that he who has unfeigned love fulfills the whole law. For love is the fulfillment of the law, as the apostle says. O incomparable power of love! O immeasurable power of love! Nothing is more precious than love, neither in heaven nor on earth. For this reason the apostle Paul, having learned that nothing is equal to love, wrote and sent to the ends of the world, saying, "Brothers, you owe nothing except to love one another and to lay down your lives for one another." For this love is the crown of all virtues, the salt of virtues; love is the fulfillment of the law, love is the unerring salvation. This love from the beginning conquered in the heart of Abel, this love became the helmsman of Noah, this love assisted the patriarchs, this love saved Moses, this love made David a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, this love dwelt among the prophets, this love strengthened Job; and why do I not speak of greater things? This love brought down the Son of God from the heavens to us. Through love the bodiless one becomes incarnate, the beginningless one begins, the Son of God becomes a son of man; through love everything pertaining to salvation is ordered.

Death has been abolished, the devil has been cast down, Adam has been recalled, Eve has been set free; through love a single flock of angels and humans has come to be, through love the curse has been dissolved, paradise has been opened, life has been revealed, the kingdom of heaven has been promised. This love, having netted the fishermen of fish, made them fishermen of men; this love trained and strengthened the martyrs; this love made the deserts into cities; this love filled the mountains and caves with psalmody; this love wrought angels and humans into one, and men and women to walk the narrow and afflicted path. But until when must one pursue the incomprehensible?