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I. Charity is the third and final one of the virtues that regard God directly and in Himself. As the natural man cannot know God in the supernatural order, neither can he so love God, except by means of a special infused facility which is the habit of charity. Love is the impulsion and affection of the rational creature towards that which is first in the order of being, viz. Life. The primary cravings of all beings are towards life and the means of sustaining it. For the maintenance of life there are implanted in all organic beings certain automatic impulses, or sense emotions, or instincts, or rational motives, whose object is the life of the individual or of the species. The sum of these forces in the rational creature is Love. It manifests itself as self-love, conjugal love, parental and filial love, patriotism, philanthropy; and in a secondary sense, with reference to the means of life, we speak of the love of food, wealth, action, etc. God is the supreme Life in Himself, and the source of all life, the support of life, the fulfilment of life. He is the first necessity of every being. The tendency of all being is then towards Him, either directly in Himself or indirectly through His creatures. Irrational creatures serve Him, rational creatures love Him, all require Him. "The eyes of all hope in Thee, O Lord, and Thou givest them meat in due season" (Ps. cxliv. 15). Great is the virtue of Charity, which enables you to cleave consciously to the Supreme Life, especially in its unveiled manifestation of Itself on the supernatural plane hereafter.
II. In his natural life, man is capable of knowing God, not in Himself but inferentially, and of loving Him only in the measure of His manifestation of Himself through creatures. But the supernatural life is a closer relation to God by knowledge, desire, and delight. Faith gives us the facility for knowing, Charity for loving Him; and by these we apprehend God as the Supreme Life which is also our life. As life is the primary force in creation, the (Page 177) preservation of life is the first law of nature: so, in the supernature, the first law of life, considered both as a primary impulse and as a statute law of revelation, is "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God." In the present state, where supernatural vital action is voluntary and not spontaneous, and where the sense of the natural predominates, men do not feel the direct force of the attraction of the Supreme Life, but only know of it by revelation, and become sensible to it by grace. But when corporeal impediments are removed, the impulsion towards Supreme Life will be overwhelming, every faculty will crave for It, the possession of It will be satisfaction and joy ineffable. Such God will be to you, if in this life you have renounced natural for supernatural love.
III. The natural impulsion towards life (i.e., love), if narrowed to the individual, becomes injurious to the larger life beyond, and, therefore, to the highest love. Love, to attain its fulness, must be diffusive. Hence, in the lower creation we find that the forces which tend to the advancement of the species prevail over those which benefit the individual Among rational and supernatural beings the same effect is wrought out by charity and voluntary self-sacrifice. The highest form of love is to give one's life for the brethren. The subordination of the impulse of individual life to the general life is the great unitive and preservative force in all human society. "If he shall lay down his life. . . He shall see a long-lived seed" (Isa. liii. 10). Supernatural faith and grace are necessary in order to effect this among men. The wisdom of God has found a way of giving us an example of this wonderful love. Though Himself immortal, and although necessarily unable to make the impulsion towards his own Supreme Life subordinate to an inferior object created life, yet He has manifested a divine self-sacrifice. Jesus Christ laid down a divine life for the sake of the life of His creatures. Learn to subordinate the impulses of natural vitality to the claims of the higher life in God and the general life in your brethren.
