"Charity shall cover a multitude of sins."
One of the characteristics of charity is that it always looks to the bright side of things. It seeks to bring out all that is good in others while concealing their sins. It does not notice their sins. It does not allude to their sins unnecessarily, whether they are committed directly against man or against God. It has a happy knack of forgetting their sins or seeming to forget them. It covers their sins from the eyes of men and even seeks to obliterate them before God by the prayers it offers for the offender. Is this my spirit? Do I not rather cover the virtues of others, and disclose their faults?
In this respect, it is especially true that we shall be treated as we treat others. "With what judgment you judge, you shall be judged," says our Lord. If we pass the severe sentence of harsh criticism onto others, our sentence will be severe. If we make little of their faults and much of their virtues, God will do the same to us. What utter folly to prepare for ourselves a harsh verdict at the tribunal of Christ by our condemnation of others.
On the other hand, Charity shall cover a multitude of sins. If we have been always men of charity, it is wonderful how God will seem to have forgotten our many sins. The poor whom we have helped will pray for us, those whom we have comforted in sorrow will say kind things in our behalf, and our charitable judgment of others will find its counterpart in God's judgment of us. Our sins will be concealed and disappear under the mantle of our charity. Is my charity such as thus to cover my sins?
- text from Charity, Meditations for a Month by Father Richard Frederick Clarke, SJ