"A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, as I have loved you," said our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another, as I have loved you," said our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
The precept of love for our neighbour belonging to the natural law, and being as old as the world itself, in what sense does Jesus Christ call it a new commandment?
He means that He Himself has made it new in a most decided manner, because, not content with ordering us to love our neighbour as ourselves, He wishes that we should love our neighbour as He has loved us; because by His death on the cross He gave us the greatest example of love for our neighbour which it was possible even for a God-man to give; and because He wishes that by this sign His true disciples shall be recognised.
In taking upon Himself our human nature, Jesus Christ became our Brother and the Head of the whole human race; He has raised us all, through Him, to the dignity of the Divine adoption, in such a manner that, in a supernatural sense, all Christians compose only one family, of which God is the Father and Jesus Christ the First-born Son. We share His rights to the heavenly inheritance; we all participate in the same graces, in the same sacraments; we are fed at the same table; we live by the same Bread; we are all, in fact, united to each other in Jesus Christ and in His Church in a most special manner. Thus, besides the relationship which we have with all mankind, there is between all the children of the Church a particular bond of union, founded upon their union with Jesus Christ, and cemented by His blood. Therefore it was with good reason that He called the commandment new which He gave to His disciples to love each other as He had loved them.
Now, how did Jesus Christ love us? To such a degree as to make Himself the Victim of the Divine justice for our sins; to give His life and His soul to purchase back for us eternal life; and this even when we were His enemies by original sin, and although He foresaw that we should almost all abuse His graces, grievously offend Him, and even take advantage of His goodness and long-suffering to sin against Him with more audacity. The conscience of every one of us must reproach us with these kind of things, more or less; and, in spite of all, Jesus Christ loved us, He loves us still, and to our last breath He will continue to love us, and will always be ready to apply to us the merits of His Precious Blood, and to reconcile us to His Father through His mediation.
Now, can we understand a little what is the extent of those words: "Love one another, as I have loved you"?
Have we a just idea of our obligations in this respect? I ought to love my brothers, as Jesus Christ has loved me; I ought to share with them, not only my temporal goods, but also all my spiritual gifts; I ought to pray for them as I pray for myself; I ought to have the same zeal for their salvation as I have for my own, and I ought to labour for it with all my strength, by my prayers and good works, by my words and by my example. I ought to be ready to sacrifice everything, even myself, for the salvation of a soul. I ought to pardon everything, forget everything, suffer everything, from my brothers, just as Jesus Christ has suffered so much from me, and has pardoned me everything. In short, I ought to love them with the same love as Jesus Christ has shown to me.
"Oh, my God! What charity would reign among Christians if this precept was observed! and, as a necessary consequence, what sanctity! For it would not be possible for Christians to love one another in this manner without all of them tending, each in his own state, to the highest perfection; without their all trying to induce one another to the practice of perfection, and without their giving one another the example of it.
All disorders, all scandals, all enmities in fact, all sins, would be banished from Christianity. This beautiful spirit of charity did reign formerly amongst the first believers; and even the heathen, when they saw it, could not refrain from admiration. "See" they said, "how these Christians love one another!"
But alas! in these days, far from aspiring to this beautiful charity, the greater part of Christians have not even for their neighbour that natural love which every man ought to have for another man; and the great precepts of the natural law of love are violated more frequently perhaps amongst us, and in a more atrocious manner, than amongst savages and idolaters. Now, what is the cause of this? It is because we have ceased to be Christians, except in name; because we have given up the exterior profession and the essential duties of Christianity, and because, at heart, we are even more wicked than the pagans. This is not an exaggeration, and it stands to reason that it must be so. For a bad Christian must carry his corruption and malice further than a pagan, because he sins against light, he acts against supernatural graces, and he is far more guilty in thus abusing the light of reason and religion.
Let us mourn over these frightful disorders, we, whom God has specially called to the love of Himself, and of our neighbour for His sake. Let us recognise that self-love, which is the source of all sin, is the enemy of this love of God and our neighbour; that, as long as there remains in us any vestige of self-love, we can never love our brothers, as Jesus Christ has commanded us to love them. Self-love concentrates us on ourselves, and makes us exclusive; it makes us look upon our neighbour as a stranger, not only with regard to temporal things, but with regard to spiritual things also, in such a manner that the spirit of appropriation, of personal interest, of jealousy and envy, insinuates itself even into our devotion, and we end by thinking that the spiritual good of our neighbour may diminish our own. More than this, this same self-love is the cause of a thousand sins against charity. It makes us touchy, ready to take offence, ill-tempered, suspicious, severe, exacting as to what we think are our rights, easily offended: it keeps alive in our hearts a certain malignity, a secret joy at the little mortifications which happen to our neighbour, through our coldness, our distant behaviour, our indifference, and the injustice of our judgments; it nourishes our readiness to criticise, the unjust partiality of our words and actions, our dislike to certain persons, our ill-feelings, our bitterness against them, and a thousand other imperfections most prejudicial to charity.
I hold it as an impossible thing that any one who is not interior can attain to the perfect accomplishment of this precept of love for our neighbour, because, to do it perfectly, we must die in such a manner to our own spirit and our own will, that we may be guided entirely by the spirit of Jesus Christ and be animated by His charity. Otherwise, the occasions of wounding this charity, at all events slightly, present themselves incessantly; self-love, however little may remain of it, still has power to influence the heart; it still leads away and corrupts our judgment, rules over our affections, and does all this perhaps in a manner that is imperceptible to us. Now, in those persons who are not really interior, although they are supposed to be pious and holy, there is always a depth of self-love, which they know nothing about, which makes them blind and unjust with regard to their neighbour. And I must even add, that in many cases the duties of charity are so delicate and refined, that without a supernatural light it is impossible to distinguish them clearly or appreciate them justly; that these duties are so difficult to fulfill, that we have need, to do so properly, of a virtue far above the common; and finally, that they sometimes require sacrifices, which can only be made by those who are accustomed to die entirely to themselves.
Yes, the love of our neighbour, in a true sense, is much more painful to nature than the love of God, although it is also true that these two loves cannot be separated. Thus our neighbour is the cause of almost all the faults with which devout people have to reproach themselves, and how many of these kind of faults do they commit without perceiving them, without having any idea of having done so, and which they would have a difficulty in acknowledging.
Happy then are those souls who have embraced the interior life, and who have given themselves entirely to God, to accomplish perfectly, under the guidance of His grace, these two precepts of love to God and to our neighbour! They are not exposed to be deceived, as so many are, in this matter of charity, where self-love can so easily delude us, and where the most skillful have often a difficulty in deciding as to what is right. The}'- have nothing to do but to listen for the voice of God, speaking in the depths of their hearts, and in purity of intention and uprightness of soul to beg of Him to guide them in all their ways. God will never fail them if they are resolved once for all to sacrifice their dearest interests to the interests of charity: He will teach them how far they ought to go, and where they ought to stop. He will unveil for them the secret recesses of their hearts, and will show them whatever therein that can wound even the faintest shadow of charity. He will never allow them, without instantly reproving them for it, to speak or act, or even to give way to a gesture or a smile, that is of deliberate ill-nature and unkindness; He will put a stop to all their interior judgments of others, all their suspicions, all their imaginations; He will kill all their natural inclinations and aversions, all their fancies, wounded feelings, and sensitiveness; He will stifle all their resentment, and bitterness, and malicious joy.
And at the same time that He is destroying all their defects that are contrary to charity, He will establish in their hearts those great principles of love for their neighbour which Jesus Christ taught, and of which He gave the example. The God-Man will reveal Himself to them, and will animate them with His own feelings, with His generosity, His zeal for souls, His sweetness, His gentleness, His tenderness, and His mercy. He Himself will love their neighbours, through them, because being the absolute Master of their hearts, He will regulate and produce the very movements and affections of those hearts.
But to attain to this it is clearly to be seen that we must continually renounce ourselves, and keep ourselves always in a state of dependence upon God, always united to Him by prayer, always attentive and faithful to His inspirations. The exact observance of the two great precepts of the law of the Gospel is undoubtedly worth all the trouble we may have to take in subjecting ourselves for that end to those teachings of the interior life which may be hard and painful to human nature.
- taken from Manual for Interior Souls, by Father Jean Nicolas Grou