SACRED LOVE SANCTIFIES THE VIRTUES STILL MORE PERFECTLY WHEN THEY ARE PRACTISED BY ITS ORDER AND REQUEST
The beautiful Rachel had a great desire to have children from her dear Jacob. She became fruitful by two means, also having children in two different ways. At the beginning of her marriage she was not able to have children from her own body. She made use of the body of her servant, Bilhah, as if by way of a loan. She associated her servant with herself in order to fulfill her duties of marriage. She said to her husband, “I have my maid servant, Bilhah. Take her in marriage. Go in to her so that she may bear upon my knees, and I may have children through her" (Gn.30:3). So it happened according to her wish. Bilahah conceived and bore many children upon Rachel’s knees. Rachel accepted them as really her own, all the more so because they had been formed from two bodies. Of these, Jacob’s belonged to her by the law of marriage and Bala’s belonged to her by the obligation of service. Even more so, since their being born had resulted from her order and will. But she had later on two other children, not commanded and ordered by her, but conceived and brought forth, formed from her own body by herself. These are Joseph and her dear Benjamin.
My dear Theotimus, this is what I want to tell you. Charity and sacred love, a hundred times more beautiful than Rachel, when wedded to the human spirit, has a constant longing to produce holy deeds. If at the beginning it is not able itself to give birth to the children of its own lineage by the sacred union uniquely proper to it, it calls the other virtues as its faithful servants. It associates them to its marriage and commands the heart to employ them so that through them it can cause holy deeds to be born. These deeds it adopts and esteems as its own since they are produced by its order and command, and from a heart which belongs to it. All the more so since, as we have pointed out elsewhere,[1] love is the master of the heart and consequently of all the works of the other virtues done with its consent.
But, besides all this, this Divine love always has two activities flowing directly from itself. One is effective (deliberate) love. Like another Joseph, making use of the fullness of royal authority, it subjects and disposes the multitude of our faculties, powers, passions and emotions to God’s will in order that he may be loved, obeyed and served above all things. In this way is fulfilled the great Divine commandment, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength (Mk 12:30).
The other is affective (spontaneous) love or affectionate love. Like a little Benjamin, it is very delicate, tender, pleasing and lovable. But in this it is happier than Benjamin. Charity, its mother, does not die in giving birth to it but rather gains, so it seems, a new life, by the sweetness she feels in it.
Therefore, Theotimus, in this way, the virtuous actions of the children of God all belong to sacred love. Some because it produces them itself of its own nature, others because it sanctifies them by its life-giving presence, and finally still others by the authority and command it exercises over the other virtues by which it brings them to birth. Though these last-mentioned actions are not in fact of such great value as actions which properly and immediately flow from charity, nevertheless they are eminently superior to actions whose whole sanctity is due solely to the presence of and association with charity.
When a great general of an army wins an important battle, he will, without doubt, receive all the honour for the victory. Nor is this unreasonable. He will have himself fought at the head of his army, performing many great feats of arms. Besides, he will have arranged his troops, and ordered and commanded all that was done. That is why he is considered to have done everything, either personally by fighting with his own hands, or by his direction in commanding others.
Even if some friendly troops come unexpectedly and join the army, the honour for the work they do will surely be given to the general. Even if they did not receive orders from him, yet they have served him and followed his purpose. Nevertheless, after we have given all the glory to him as a whole, we do not fail to give each part of the army due credit for its own share. What was done by the vanguard, the main body and the rearguard is made known. How the French, the Italians, the Germans, the Spaniards behaved is told. Even the private individuals who distinguished themselves in the fighting are praised.
In the same way, my dear Theotimus, among all the virtues, the glory of our salvation and victory over hell is given to sacred love. As prince and general of the whole army of virtues it carries out all the exploits by which we gain the triumph. Sacred love has its proper actions, issuing and proceeding from itself, by which it does wonders of arms against our enemies. Besides this it arranges, commands and regulates the actions of the other virtues which, for this reason, are called acts commanded or ordered by love. In the end, if some virtues perform their activities without its orders, provided they help its intention, which is God’s glory, it acknowledges them to be its own.
We say in general, with the divine Apostle [St. Paul], that charity bear's all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Cor 13:7), that in a word, it does everything. Nevertheless, we allot particular praise for the salvation of the Blessed to other virtues in which each excelled. We say that faith has saved some, almsgiving some others, temperance, prayer, humility, hope, chastity still others, because the acts of these virtues have appeared brightly in these Saints. Yet, after we have extolled these particular virtues, we must reciprocally refer all their honour to sacred love which gives to all of them the sanctity they have. For what else does the glorious Apostle [St. Paul] mean when he teaches that charity is kind, is patient, believes all, hopes all, endures all, but that charity regulates and commands patience to be patient, hope to trust, faith to believe?
Theotimus, it is true that the Apostle also points out that love is the soul and the life of all the virtues. It is as if he wanted to say that patience is not patient enough, nor faith sufficiently faithful, nor hope sufficiently confident, nor kindness gentle enough, unless love inspires them and gives them life. It is the same thing that this same vessel of election gives us to understand when he says that without charity nothing profits him (1Cor 13:3) and he is nothing (1Cor 13:2). It is as if he were to say that without love he is neither patient, nor kind, nor constant, nor faithful, nor hopeful as a servant of God should be which is the true and desirable being of humans.
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[1] See Bk.I, Ch.4 and Ch. 6; Bk. VIII, Ch. 1; Bk X, Ch.1