Chapter 2 - Our Father, part 2

We have dwelt upon the name of Father in considering God in his relations to each individual Christian only. Now let us consider this title as it relates to the whole body of Christians, composing one single family of which God is the Father, and therefore, bound together in mutual love. Observe that in the prayer which our Lord has taught us, we do not say my Father, but our Father; that we do not address God in our own individual name, but in the name of all Christians; demanding nothing for ourselves that we do not demand at the same time for them, with the same ardor, the same desire of obtaining it for them as for ourselves from our common Father. This implies that we wish for them the same spiritual and temporal blessings that we wish for ourselves, that we love them as brethren, and that we are united to them by a pure and sincere charity. This fraternal love is then a duty which has its source in the Divine paternity, and in our common adoption in Jesus Christ. By baptism every Christian is a child of God, the same as myself. He has also like myself, Jesus Christ for his Brother. He has the same right that I have to the celestial heritage. I ought then to love Him because he belongs, like myself, to God the Father and to Jesus Christ, and is beloved by Them as I am.

We are separated on earth by time and space; we are for the most part, unknown to each other: but we have the same faith, the same worship, the same motives to love God; we have the same destiny; and if we fulfill it, we shall be united forever in the celestial country where all will know and love each other, and will be happy not only each in his own personal happiness, but also in that of all others; where there will be no more mine and thine, no more of self, because "God will be all in all." This is the expression of Saint Paul; the full meaning of which is incomprehensible to us, it is so sublime: so intimate will be the union of the elect. God wishes that we should serve here below the apprenticeship of this love, and that the charity which must reign in our hearts in heaven should spring up on earth, and make here an anticipated heaven; and that it should increase in us even to our latest breath.

Have I rightly understood, do I now understand, what that love is which I owe to my neighbor, especially my Christian brethren; upon what foundation it rests, and unto what it should lead? Have I understood that although I do not hate him, yet if I have no affection for him, if I do not interest myself in him as in myself, if his salvation is indifferent to me, and if I do not contribute to him of my means, I cannot with truth say, "Our Father," nor recite the Lord's Prayer without finding in it my condemnation? I owe it to all men because they are my equals, and made like myself in the image of God, to put myself in their place, and to put them in mine; to treat them according to the circumstances, as I would like in similar case that they should treat me; not to do to them what I would think wrong if done to me, but on the contrary, to do them all the good which I should desire for myself. This is the natural law graven on every heart, which justice and humanity require us to observe, and which we cannot violate without a secret reproach from conscience.

This law extends farther still. It is very seldom even among Christians, that it is faithfully practised; that it is not infringed, if not in externals, at least by the disposition of the heart. This is not yet however Christian charity, which embraces all the obligations of the natural law, but is not limited to that. It must be supernatural in its principle, which is no other than habitual grace infused into us by the Holy Spirit, and by which we are placed in a state of loving God for Himself, and our neighbor for the love of God; but if I lose this habitual grace, I am incapable of exercising this love towards God and my neighbor until I recover it again. It must be supernatural in its motive. If I love my neighbor only because of his good qualities, because of the congeniality of his character, because of the services I have received or expect from him, this love has nothing in common with Christian charity. It is not meritorious in me. I must love him from the motives God has laid down; because he is or may be, the child of God, and my brother in Jesus Christ; because God and Jesus Christ love him, and have commanded me to love him. Charity must be supernatural in its exercise; that is to say, grace must excite and accompany its acts, so that my will may concur with the divine will. The foundation of Christian charity is the fatherhood of God. Because he is the Father and loves his Son, and loves us in his Son through whom He has adopted us, He desires that we should love each other reciprocally as He loves us; hence if we do not love our brethren, God does not love us, and we do not love Him. Judge from this how the love of God for us, and our love for Him, are inseparable from our love for our brethren. To speak truly, it is one and the same love, appearing different according to the subject in which it resides, and the object to which it is applied. In like manner the Son of God, since He has united Himself to human nature, loves us all in the individual nature that He has taken, and by which He condescended to become like us. Therefore He commands us to love each other as He loves us; and He wishes that we should love Him, not only inasmuch as He is God, but inasmuch as He is man. If we do not love our brethren, it is impossible for us to love Him, either in His humanity or His divinity, either as the Son of God or as our Brother. Thus the love of Christ for man, and our love for Him, are equally inseparable from our love for our neighbor; rather it is one and the same love.

I find a third foundation of brotherly love in the Holy Spirit, who is the love of the Father and the Son eternally subsisting. It is by His dwelling in our hearts that we are truly the children of our heavenly Father, and the brethren of Jesus Christ. Oh, how we should love each other, if we were all animated by the same spirit, that is by the same love! It is by the Holy Spirit that God is love, and that the Father and the Son are one in the love which they mutually bear each other. It is by Him also, that all Christians ought to be of one heart and one mind; and they would indeed be so if He possessed them all The love of our neighbor is then, no less than the love of God, the necessary result of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; and we banish Him from our hearts when we do not love our brethren. Unto what should this love lead us? Even to the imitation and the expression, as nearly as possible, of the love of the eternal Father. When we were yet sinners and his enemies, He gave for us his only Son; a gift which includes and surpasses every thing that an infinitely rich and powerful God could give. He sacrificed Him to procure our salvation. He desired that His death should be the pledge and the price of our reconciliation. He assured our happiness at the expense of what was most dear to Him. This is one example of the way we should love our neighbor. Now let us give another.

Our love for our neighbor should bear the closest resemblance to that which Christ has manifested for us. It is my command, He said expressly, that "ye should love one another, even as I have loved you." "A new commandment I give unto you." The example of love I present to you to imitate did not exist before I came. My law is the law of love carried to excess, if there can be excess in the love which God commands, after having giving you the example. Saint John hesitates not to conclude that this command requires us to give our life for our neighbor. "We know," said he, "the love of God in that He has given His life for us. So ought we to give our lives for the brethren." Pay attention to these words "we ought." It is not counsel, but in certain circumstances a duty, especially when it concerns his eternal salvation. Indeed, this brotherly love should be the faithful expression of the reciprocal love of God the Father and the Son. Christ has declared His intention in this matter in His last prayer before His passion, which may be regarded as His last will. He said, "I pray for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us." And again He says, "that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; . . . that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them." (John 17:21-23,26) Consider these words, and implore divine light that you may be able to comprehend them; for any explanation that we may attempt to give will only enfeeble them.

My conclusion from all this is, that the love of our neighbor, as well as the love of God, is comprised in these two words, "Our Father;" that they contain the most pressing motive and the most perfect model of both; that we can never carry them too far; that we always live below what the Father and the Son expect and command in this respect; and that the perfect consummation of this love, one in principle, and double in object, is reserved for heaven, after we have made every endeavor here to attain to it. How is it with me? Can I reply, with any semblance of truth, that I wish to love, I try to love, and I do indeed love God my Father and my neighbor as I ought, always desiring to love them more?

Finally, it is not by words nor by feeling that I must judge; but by deeds, which are the true indication of the disposition of the heart. No self-examination is more important for me than that upon this point; and it should be made with the greatest carefulness and honesty, since the whole Christian law is contained in these two precepts.

In order that I may recite the Lord's Prayer then with more confidence, I will examine my heart from time to time on these two points. I will pray God to put it, and by His grace I will try myself to put it, in the disposition in which it ought to be. Without this care, it will often happen that the sentiment of my soul will not be conformed to that which my lips express, and I shall be in danger of being rejected by my Father in heaven.

- from The Christian Sanctified by the Lord's Prayer, by Father Jean Nicolas Grou