THE VIRTUES DRAW THEIR PERFECTION FROM SACRED LOVE
Charity is then the bond of perfection (Col 3:14), since in it and by it are contained and gathered all the perfections of the soul. Without it not only can one not have the complete array of virtues but without it one cannot have the perfection of any one virtue. Without the cement and mortar that joins stones and walls, the entire building collapses. Without the nerves, muscles and tendons, the whole body would fall apart. Without charity the virtues cannot sustain one another. Our Lord always joins the fulfilling of the commandments to charity. He says, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, is the one who loves me (Jn 14:21). Whoever does not love me does not keep my commandments (Jn 14: 24). If anyone loves me, he will keep my words ( Jn 14:23). The beloved disciple repeats this saying, Whoever keeps the commandments of God, in this person the love of God is perfect (1Jn 2:5), and The love of God is this, that we obey his commandments (1Jn 5:3). Whoever had all the virtues would keep all the commandments. The one who had the virtue of religion would keep the first three commandments. The one who had piety would observe the fourth. The one who had mildness and gentleness would keep the fifth. By chastity one would observe the sixth. By generosity one would avoid breaking the seventh. By truth one would keep the eighth. And by frugality and modesty one would observe the ninth and tenth. If we cannot keep the commandments without charity, still less can we have all the virtues without it.
It is true that even though one does not have divine love one could have some virtue and live for a short time without offending God. We see sometimes trees uprooted from the earth producing some fruit but imperfectly and not for long. Similarly, a heart separated from charity could indeed produce some acts of virtue, but not for long.
All virtues separated from charity are very imperfect. Without charity the virtues cannot come to their end which is to make humans happy. Bees, at the time of their birth, are little grubs and worms, without feet, without wings, without shape. But in course of time they change and become little flies. When they are strong and fully grown, then it is said that they are formed, finished and perfect bees because they have all that is needed for flying. and making honey. The virtues have their beginnings, their progress and their perfection. I do not deny that without charity they can be born and even grow. But that they should come to their perfection and bear the name of made, formed and accomplished virtues depends on charity. Charity gives them the strength to fly to God, to receive from his mercy the honey of true merit and of the sanctification of the hearts in which these virtues are found.
Charity is among the virtues as the sun among the stars. It distributes to all of them their brightness and beauty. Faith, hope, fear and repentance usually enter the soul before charity to prepare a place for it. On its arrival they obey it and serve it like all the other virtues. And by its presence it inspires them, adorns them and enlivens them all.
The other virtues can mutually help and stimulate one another in their activities and practice. After all, it is well known that chastity needs and arouses sobriety, and that obedience leads us to generosity, to prayer, to humility. By this communication which they have among themselves they share in one another’s perfections. Chastity kept by obedience has a double dignity, that is, its own and that of obedience; rather even more of obedience than its own. As Aristotle says one who steals in order to be able to commit fornication was more of a fornicator than a thief, all the more so because his affection was entirely turned to fornication and he made use of theft only as a means to it. So also, one who keeps chastity in order to obey is more obedient than chaste, since he makes use of chastity in the service of obedience. But yet, from the combination of obedience with chastity an accomplished and perfect virtue cannot result. This is because both of them lack the ultimate perfection which is love. So much so that if it were possible to put all the virtues together in one person, except charity, this grouping of virtues would truly be a most perfect and complete body in all its parts such as Adam’s was when God with his omnipotent hand formed it from the clay of the earth. However, it would be a body without movement, without life and without beauty, until God breathed into it the breath of life (Gen. 2:7), that is, holy charity, without which nothing profits us (1Cor. 13:3).
The perfection of divine love is so supreme that it perfects all the virtues and cannot be perfected by them. Not even by obedience itself which is the one most able to spread perfection on the others. Even though love is commanded and we exercise obedience in loving , nevertheless, love does not draw its perfection from obedience but from the goodness of the one whom it loves. All the more so because love is excellent not because it is obedient but because it loves an excellent good. Truly, in loving we obey just as in obeying we love. If this obedience is so excellently lovable, it is because it tends to the excellence of love. Its perfection consists not in that loving we obey but in that obeying we love. So much so that just as God is equally the last end of all that is good as he is its first beginning, so also love which is the source of every good affection is likewise its final end and perfection.