SACRED LOVE MAKES THE VIRTUES VERY MUCH MORE PLEASING TO GOD THAN THEY ARE OF THEIR OWN NATURE
Experts on countryside things admire the freshness and the purity of little strawberries. This is because even though they creep on the ground and are constantly crawled over by snakes, lizards and other poisonous creatures, they pick up no trace of poison, nor are they infected with any harmful quality. This is a sign that they have no affinity with poison. Human virtues are like that, Theotimus. Though they may be in a heart that is mean, earthly and largely occupied with sin, yet they are not at all infected with its malice. They are of a very noble and innocent nature that cannot be corrupted by association with evil. As even Aristotle said, “Virtue is a habit which no one can make ill use of”.
Virtues are very good in themselves but they are not given an eternal reward when practised by unbelievers or those living in sin. We should not be at all surprised at this. The sinful heart from which they spring is unable to receive any eternal good. It is in fact turned away from God. Besides no one can receive the celestial inheritance belonging to the Son of God, unless he is in Christ and is his adopted brother. Moreover, the covenant by which God promises Paradise refers only to such as are in his grace. The virtues of sinners have no worth or value except that of their nature. Therefore they cannot raise them to the merit of supernatural rewards. Indeed, for this very reason they are called supernatural because nature and all that is part of it can neither give nor merit them.
The virtues which are found in God’s friends, even though they be only moral and natural in themselves, are yet ennobled and raised to the dignity of saintly actions because of the excellence of the heart which produces them. One of the characteristics of friendship is to make attractive the friend and all that is good and honest in that person. Friendship pours out its grace and favour upon all the actions of the one who is loved, however little ground for favour there may be. The bitter things of friends are sweet, the sweet things of enemies are bitter.
When a person is a friend of God, all his virtuous actions are dedicated to God, The heart that has given itself has surely also given all that depends on itself. One who gives a tree without reserve, surely also gives the leaves, the flowers and the fruit. The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow tike a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house ofthe Lord; they flourish in the courts ofour God (Ps 92:12-13).3 Since the righteous is planted in the house of God, his leaves, his flowers and his fruit grow there, and are dedicated to the service of his Majesty. The righteous is like a tree planted near running waters, which yields its fruit in due season. Even its leaves do not fall off. All that he does will prosper (Ps 1:3). Not only the fruits of charity and the flowers of the activities which it commands, but even its very leaves, that is, the moral and natural virtues, draw a special efficacy from the love of the heart which produces them. If you are grafting a rose tree, and you place a grain of musk in the cleft you have made on the stem, all the roses that are produced will smell of musk. Cleave then your heart by holy penance and place the love of God in the cleft. Then graft on it any virtue you like and the resulting actions will be perfumed with sanctity, without need of any further care.
The Spartans, if they were to hear a very good sentence from the mouth of a wicked person, would consider that it should not be accepted unless it was first spoken by the mouth of a good person. And so, to make the sentence worthy of acceptance they did nothing more than get it said by a virtuous person. If you wish to make holy the human and moral virtue of Epictetus, Socrates or Demades, just have them practised by a person who is truly Christian, that is, who has the love of God. And so God looked first at the good Abel and then at his offerings (Gen.4:4). Indeed, in the sight of God, the worth and value of these offerings was due to the goodness and piety of the one who presented them. Oh, the supreme goodness of this great God. He so favours his lovers that he cherishes their smallest actions because of whatever little good they contain. These actions he ennobles so very well and gives them the title and quality of holy. This is in contemplation of his beloved Son whose adopted children he wants to honour by sanctifying all that is good in them; with regard to their bodies, their bones, their hair, their clothes, their graves, even the very shadow of their bodies(Acts 5:15); with regard to their hearts, their faith, hope, love, religion, yes, even the sobriety, the courtesy and the friendliness in their heart. So then, my dear brothers and sister's, says the Apostle [St.Paul], stand firm and steady, keep busy always in every work ofthe Lord, since you know that your work in the Lord is never useless (1Cor.15:58). Remember, Theotimus, that every virtuous action should be considered work of the Lord, even when it is done by an unbeliever. God told Ezeckiel that Nabuchadnezzar and his army had worked for him, because they had waged a lawful and just war agaist the Tyrians (Ezek. 29:18-20). In this way he shows clearly that the justice of the unjust is God’s, that it tends to him and belongs to him, even though the unjust who work that justice are neither his, nor tend to him, nor belong to him. Just as the great prophet and prince Job, though a descendant of a race of unbelievers and living in the land of Hus, still belonged to God, so also moral virtues, though proceeding from a sinful heart, do indeed belong to God. When these same virtues are found in a truly Christian heart, that is in a heart enriched with holy love, then they not only belong to God and are not in vain in the Lord but they are made fruitful and precious in the eyes of his goodness, “Add charity to a man” says St. Augustine, “and everything is profit; take charity from him, and all the rest profits no longer.” And to those who love God all things work together unto good, says the Apostle [St.Paul] (Rom.8:28).