The best way of knowing how to treat our neighbor is to put ourselves in his place. However, we are not bound to deprive ourselves of what is necessary in order to help our neighbor. In this case, the assistance we extend to him is not of obligation, but of counsel; this is the charity of the saints, the charity of Jesus Christ Himself, Who gave up His life that men may live: "Greater love than this no one has, that one lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).

    It is not enough, in order to practice love of neighbor, to feel kind and affectionate towards him; our love must be practical, aimed at doing our neighbor good spiritually as well as materially. "Let us not love in word, neither with the tongue, but in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:18). And Saint James said, "If a brother or a sister be naked, and in want of daily food, and one of you say to them, 'Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled', yet you do not give them what is necessary for the body, what shall it profit?" (James 2:15-16).

    To love our neighbor for God's sake means to love him in order to please God. This supernatural love is called charity. If we love a person because we expect from him some favor or advantage in return, we love him for our own sake. Our love is interested; it is not real love. Our Lord says: "If you love those who love you, what merit have you? For even sinners love those who love them" (Luke 6:32). "But when thou givest alms, do not let thy left hand know what thy right hand is doing, so that thy alms may be given in secret; and thy Father, Who sees in secret, will reward thee" (Matthew 6: 3-4).

    If we love a person because he is attractive or kind, without any reference to God, we love him only for his own sake, and not for God's. This is natural affection. True love of God makes us love even disagreeable people, without reference to their love for us. It makes us love the poor, the sick, the unfortunate, the suffering, the repulsive, and even our enemies, just because God loves them, and wishes us to love them. Thus Christians of all ages have sacrificed themselves for charity. Mother Teresa is the greatest example of this.

    Saint Peter Claver, the "Apostle of the Blacks" in Colombia, South America, became a slave of slaves for Christ's sake. In the Philippines, priests and sisters are laboring in the Culion leper colony, in constant danger of exposure to the disease. Others take care of other charitable institutions, with no hope of earthly reward, all for God's love. In Calcutta, the "Saint of the gutters" labored lovingly for so many years before her death in 1997 and today her order - the Missionaries of Charity carry on her work worldwide from Recife to Tijuana, from Uganda to the US.

    The question often arrises, should we give the same degree of love to all men? No, we may, and should, love some more than others. We should love our parents, brothers, sisters, relatives, friends, and benefactors best. Husbands and wives must be devoted to each other. Parents must sacrifice themselves for their children. We must love our country and countrymen in a special manner, because God gave them to us, but we must never hate of dislike people of other nationalities. This is how so many wars have started not just in our most recent century, but throughout all centuries. Hate foments violence.

    Also, we must exercise great care in choosing our companions. We should not be intimate with more than a trusted few. We should be kind to all, but not intimate with all. One rotten apple in a basket will rot all the rest in a short time; so an evil companion easily corrupts his associates.

    Those who unfailingly practice the precept of love of neighbor bring down blessings upon earth, and will obtain Heaven as their eternal reward. Our Lord called the precept of charity towards our neighbor a new commandment: "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; that as I have loved you, you also love one another" (John 13:34).

    This is because before Christ's coming, people did not understand the precept of charity in the same sense that Our Lord gives it. If today men would closely fulfill that precept, what blessings would ensue! No one would wrong his fellowmen; there would be no need of prisons; there would be no extreme poverty; and peace would reign and Mary's Immaculate Heart would triumph so much sooner.

    Love is the fulfilling of the law; and so one who loves his neighbor for the love of God is rewarded with Heaven. One who is good to his fellowmen cannot be a wicked sinner. He who practices charity has other virtues. Love cannot exist alone in the human heart, as the heart cannot exist without other organs.

Next Issue: Enemies and Friends part one

July 19-20, 2000
volume 11, no. 123
APPRECIATION OF THE PRECIOUS GIFT OF OUR FAITH series

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