MOST HOLY CHARITY PRODUCES LOVE OF NEIGHBOUR
God created humans in his image and likeness. So he gave to them the ability to love in the image and likeness of the love which is proper to his divinity. You shall love, he says, the Lord your God with all your heart. It is the first and the greatest commandment. The second is similar to it; Love your neighbour as yourself (Mt 22:37- 39). Why do we love God, Theotimus? “The reason for which we love God" says St. Bernard, “is God himself." It is as if he were saying that we love God because he is the supreme and infinite goodness.[1]
Why do we love ourselves in charity? Surely because we are the image and likeness of God. Since all humans are created with the same dignity, we love them as ourselves. In other words, we love them because they have the same nature of being the most holy and living images of the Divinity. It is due to this goodness[2] that we belong to God by such a strong bond and such a loving dependence. Thus he does not raise any difficulty to call him our Father and to call us his children (1Jn 3:12). It is because of this goodness that we can be united to his divine essence by the enjoyment of his supreme goodness and bliss. It is on account of this characteristic that we receive his grace and our spirits are associated with his most Holy Spirit and made, so to say, sharing in his divine nature (2 Pet 1:4), as says St. Leo.
So it is that the same charity which causes the acts of the love of God, gives rise also to the love of neighbour. It is just as Jacob saw the same ladder touching heaven and earth serving angels equally for descending and ascend ing (Gen 28:12). We know that the one and the same love leads us to cherish God and neighbour. The same love that raises our spirit to union with God brings us back to loving fellowship with our neighbours. Nevertheless it is on the understanding that we love our neighbour in so far as he is the image and likeness of God, created to have communion with divine goodness, share in his grace and glory.
Theotimus, to love our neighbour by charity is to love God in humans or humans in God. It is to love God alone for his sake and the creature for love of God.
The young Tobias accompanied by the angel Raphael greeted Raguel to whom he was unknown. Raguel, as soon as he saw him, says Scripture, turned towards his wife Anna: Look he says, see how this young man looks like my cousin. After saying this, he asked them: From where are you, young men, my dear brothers? To which they answered: We are from the tribe of Naphthali ofthe captivity of Nineveh. And he said to them: Do you know my brother Tobias? Yes, we know him, they said. And Raguel began to say many good things about him. Then the angel interrupted: Tobias of whom you are asking about, he is this young man’s own father: Then Raguel came forward, kissed him with many tear's and wept on his shoulder: Blessing on you, my child he said, you are the son of a good, a very good person. And the good lady Anna, wife of Raguel, with her daughter Sarah also began to weep out of tenderness and love (Tobit 7:1-8).
Do you notice that Raguel, without knowing the young Tobias, embraces him, caresses him, kisses him, weeps for love of him? From where does that love come if not from the elder Tobias, his father, whom this child resembled so much? Blessed are you, he says: But why? Surely not because you are a good young man. That I do not know yet. But because you are his son and resemble your father who is a very good man.
O, my God, Theotimus, when we see a neighbour created in the image and likeness of God, should we not say to one another: Look! see this creature: How he resembles his Creator! Should we not kiss him, caress him and weep for love of him? Should we not bless him thousands of times? Why is it so? For love of him? Certainly not. For we do not know if he is worthy of love or hatred in himself (Eccl 9:1). Why then? O, Theotimus, it is for love of God who formed him in his image and likeness. Hence, he made him capable of participating in his goodness, in grace and in glory. I say, it is for love of God from whom he is, in whom he is, for whom he is and he resembles him in a very special way. Hence divine love recommends many times love of neighbour. Moreover, the same love produces and pours it out by itself in the human heart as its image and likeness. Thus the human being is the image of God. The same sacred love of human being towards the human being is the true image of the heavenly love of the human being towards God.
This subject of the love of neighbour demands a Treatise by itself. I pray the supreme lover of humans to inspire someone of his most saintly servants to write it. For the fullness of this love of the divine goodness of the heavenly Father consists in the perfection of the love of our brothers, sisters and companions.
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[1] literally: most supreme and most infinite.
[2] la qualite literally means quality. It means also property, character, nature, characteristic, perfection. Hence it may refer to goodness as St. Francis de Sales lays emphasis on divine nature as goodness.