Conference on the fundamental orientation of Catholicism

“Let us be Christians, that is to say, let us love our brothers.” In this elegant and precise thought Bossuet summarizes his conception of Christian morality. Shortly before he wrote: “He who renounces fraternal charity, renounces his faith, abjures Christianity, separates himself from the school of Jesus Christ, that is to say from his Church.”

This is the message of Christ: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Lk 10,27). The message of Jesus was understood in all its power by his closest collaborators, the apostles: “He who does not love his brother is not born of God” (1 Jn 2,1). “If you say you love God and do not love your brother, you lie” (1 Jn 4,20). “How can the love of God be in him, who being rich in the goods of this world and seeing his brother in need closes his heart to him” (1 Jn 3,17).With great emphasis John insists that pretending to please God while turning one’s back on one’s neighbor, is purely egoism.

After running rapidly through a few texts chosen at random we cannot do less than conclude that no one can pretend to be a Christian and close his heart to his neighbor. One only dupes oneself if one goes frequently to Church but not to the slums to alleviate the misery of the poor. The person who thinks frequently of heaven but forgets the miseries of the earth where he lives is simply hoodwinking himself. Youth and adults who consider themselves to be good because they refuse impure thoughts but are incapable of sacrificing themselves for their neighbors are simply duping themselves. A Christian heart must close itself off from bad thoughts but it must also open itself to thoughts of charity.

The first encyclical written by St. Peter and directed to the world contains such praise for charity that it places it above all the virtues, including prayer: “Be persevering in prayer, but above all things continually practice charity among yourselves” (1 Pt 4,8-9).

Charity must be observed with greater care than the pupil of the eye. The least coldness or voluntary deviation regarding a brother, deliberately allowed, will be a more or less serious obstacle in our union with Christ. When we communicate we receive the physical Body of Christ, our Lord, and for this reason we cannot reject his Mystical Body in our thanksgiving. It is impossible that Christ would come down to us with his grace and be the principle of union if we retain resentment for one of his members.

This love of neighbor is the source of the greatest merit attainable by us, because it offers the greatest obstacles. To love God in Himself is more perfect but also easier; on the other hand loving a neighbor who is harsh of character, disagreeable, stubborn, egocentric, demands great generosity of soul in order to avoid discouragement.

Since we all form one Body, this love must be universal, not excluding anyone, because Christ died for all and all are called to form part of the his Kingdom. For this reason even sinners must be an object of our love because they can once again be members of the Mystical Body of Christ: for this reason our love and tenderness and our desire to do good must be extended to them as well. We hate the sin but not the sinner.

Love for our neighbor must be above all supernatural, that is to say, love them with our eyes fixed on God, to obtain and conserve for them the grace that will lead them to true happiness. To love is to love well, as St. Thomas tells us, and all good is subordinated to the supreme good. For this reason the consecration of a life to gaining for others supernatural good, the supreme values of life, is so noble. But there are also other needs to be helped: a poor man who needs bread, a sick person in need of medicine, the sad who need consolation, an injustice that demands reparation… and above all the positive goods that must be shared, because although there is no suffering that afflicts others, there is always a capacity to receive what is good.

The law of charity is not a dead law for us; there is a live model that has given us examples from the first act of his existence until his death and he continues to give us proofs of that love in his life of glory: Jesus Christ. St. Peter who lived with Jesus for three years summarizes his life for us in a very few words: “He passed through this world doing good.”

Together with these great signs of love he shows us his charity with the lepers he healed, with the suffering whose pain he alleviated. He consoles Martha and Mary after the death of their brother, even to weeping openly; he takes pity on the embarrassment of the young couple and to dispel it he changes water into wine. We can conclude that whatever pain and suffering he met with, it was never left unalleviated. For us the precept of love means to remember the words of Jesus: “Love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 13,34). And how Jesus has loved us!

True Christians, from the very beginning, have well understood the precept of the Lord. We can find the strength to reinforce our commitment to love in the hope of these wonderful Christians, despite the massive hatred that surrounds us on all sides like high mountains.

Looking at this land that is ours, which has been allotted to us by the Redeemer and considering the evils of the moment, the precept of Christ takes on an imperious necessity. Let us mutually love one another. The sign of the Christian is not the sword, the symbol of force; nor is it the balance, nor the symbol of justice; but the cross, symbol of love. To be a Christian means to love our brothers as Christ has loved them.