CHARITY, LOVE AND THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:34-35). So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love (I Corinthians 13:13).
Charity is the epitome of perfection in the Christian life. It is the greatest of the three abiding virtues. It is the bond of perfectness and the end of the commandment. Charity is the love we have towards other men. By charity, we love God above all and our neighbor as ourselves. Christian charity is modeled on the love of Jesus and strengthens us to keep the commandments. Charity, the greatest of the virtues, makes us God’s children and helps us relate to others in joy, mercy, and peace (C 1812- 1829). The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign of the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is a domestic church—a community of faith, hope, and charity (C 2201- 2206).
Here consider that the divine Father, in sending his Son to be our Redeemer and mediator between himself and man, has in a certain sense bound himself to forgive us and love us, on account of the covenant He made to receive us into His favor, providing his Son satisfied for us His divine justice. On the other hand, the Divine Word, having accepted the decree of his Father (who, by sending him to redeem us, has given Him to us), has also bound himself to love us; not, indeed, for our own merits, but in order to fulfil the merciful will of his Father.
God is love and he who dwells in God, dwells in love. God is the source of love; we are able to love because he loved us first. (I John 4:19) Mary was loved as a mother by Jesus, who is God. Her capacity for love had to be boundless, and the love she poured out on Jesus must surely have been the greatest maternal love ever known. Jesus was infinitely lovable, and his goodness constantly elicited even more love from Mary. There can be no doubt, therefore, that Mary’s love for God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit was greater than that of any other saint. It was her love for Jesus that impelled her to stand at the foot of his cross. By her presence at the cross, joined her will to that of her son and participated in His sacrifice.
Mary’s special relationship to the Holy Spirit is another assurance of her great love for God. It was the grace of the Holy Spirit that overshadowed her, causing her to conceive Jesus in her womb. The great gift of the Holy Spirit is love, and this gift was granted to Mary in the person of Jesus and in her ongoing relationship to the Holy Spirit. Mary’s love was so vast that Jesus could entrust to his Mother the beloved disciple, and disciples of every age, knowing that she would love them as her won.
What makes the difference between charity and love?
To be continued…
Mary, Morning Star, Pray for us!!
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