SACRED LOVE RAISES SOME VIRTUES TO A HIGHER EXCELLENCE THAN OTHERS
Some virtues have a natural link and correspondence with charity. Hence they are much more capable of receiving its precious influence and consequently of sharing in its dignity and worth. Such are the virtues of faith and hope, which, along with charity, refer immediately to God. Religion, together with penance and devotion, are employed to honour his divine majesty. These virtues, of their own nature, are so very closely related to God. They are greatly susceptible to the impressions of sacred love. To make them share in its holiness it is sufficient that they are with it, that is, in a heart that loves God. To give grapes the taste of olives, all that is necessary is to plant the grape vine among the olive trees. Without touching one another at all, by their mere proximity, these plants will mutually interchange their savours and characteristics. So great is the inclination of one to the other and so close the affinity they have.
It is true that all flowers, except those of the tree called sad, and a few others that are monstrosities by nature, all, I say, are joyful, open out and grow in beauty at the sight of the sun, by the vital warmth they receive from its rays. All the yellow flowers, and especially that which the Greeks call heliotropium and we the sunflower, not only receive joy and pleasure from the presence of the sun but follow by an affectionate turning movement the attractions of its rays, looking at it and turning themselves towards it, from its rising to its setting. In the same way, all the virtues receive a new brilliance and a very great dignity from the presence of holy love. But faith, hope, the fear of God, piety, penance and all the other virtues which of their nature are specially concerned with God and his honour, not only receive the impression of divine love whereby they are raised to a great value, but they wholly incline towards it, associating themselves with it, following and serving it on all occasions. Finally, my dear Theotimus, the Holy Word attributes a certain saving, sanctifying and glorifying property and power to faith, to hope, to piety, to the fear of God, to penance. This clearly shows that these are virtues of great price.
When practised by a person who has the love of God, they become excellently more fruitful and holy than the others which of their own nature do not have so great an affinity with sacred love. The one who cries out, “If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (l Cor. 13:2), shows clearly that with charity his faith would benefit him greatly. Thus charity is a virtue beyond compare. It not only adorns the heart in which it is, but by its very presence it also blesses and sanctifies all the virtues that it finds there. It embalms and perfumes them with its heavenly odour by means of which they are made of great value in God’s sight. However, it does this far more excellently in faith, in hope and in other virtues which have of themselves a nature that tends to piety.
Theotimus, that is why, among all virtuous actions, we should practise carefully those of religion and reverence towards divine things, those of faith, of hope and of the most holy fear of God. We should speak often of heavenly things, thinking of and longing for eternity. We ought to visit churches and take part in sacred services regularly, reading spiritual books and performing the ceremonies of the Christian religion. Sacred love nourishes itself completely amid these exercises. It spreads its graces and properties over them in greater abundance than it does over the actions of virtues which are purely human. It is like the beautiful rainbow making sweet-scented all the plants on which it shines, but the aspalathus plant more than all the others.