NINTH LESSON
Of Love to our Brethren.
"And the second commandment is like to this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."—St. Matthew 22:39
What then is this most important commandment, this commandment which obliges us as fully as the one by which God orders us to love and serve him? It is the love we owe our neighbors.
By creating men to live together, my children, God imposed on them the fulfillment of certain duties towards one another, duties of benevolence and mutual affection, which contribute to the happiness of each one. These duties towards our neighbor are of different kinds: each and all are, however, expressedly contained in the Lord's commandment: "Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself." This precept, in fact, contains all the others, for it is easy to fulfil them all when you faithfully observe this one. is it not natural, my friends, to try to avoid giving the slightest cause of grief to those you love, and even when you can, to do them a kindness, to pity them under misfortune, and console them in their troubles? Yes, no doubt. All these good feelings are also to be met within our intercourse with our neighbor if, according to God's precept, our heart is full of sincere charity towards him.
But who is this neighbor we are to love? You think perhaps it is only the persons you know and who are your countrymen? No, my children, your neighbor is every man, without a single exception, not even the wicked, not even our enemies, if we are unfortunate enough to have any. And why did God command us thus to love each other? Because we are all members of the same family, all children of God, sons of Adam, our first father. That is why for a Christian there should be no strangers, and why in each one of his fellowmen he sees a brother.
A universal charity to your neighbor, a charity which regards at the same time the wicked, our enemies, the unknown, is not as difficult to put in practice, as you might suppose, my children, Otherwise God would not have made a duty of this virtue; He orders nothing but what we can do, nothing of which he has not himself given us the first example. God takes care of all his creatures with the same tender forethought, and as He says Himself, he makes his sun to shine on the good and on the wicked. Jesus Christ did still more than sacrifice Himself for the salvation of mankind: He sought for sinners, in preference to the righteous, to lavish upon them His mercies; and it is for the former, more than for the latter, that he came on earth. During His stay here below, our Lord always returned kindness for injustice, good for evil. His most cruel enemies were never able to exhaust his charity, and he died on the cross, praying for his persecutors.
Here is your model, my children. Tell me now if, after such an example, you could still give way to that egotistical feeling which leads to the love of self only, and to the utter forgetfulness of what is due to others; that feeling of ill-will which prevents the pardon of slight offences, of little grievances committed, perhaps quite unintentionally, and which, even for that reason, ought to be easily forgotten. And you, particularly happy children, who see around you nothing but indulgence and goodness, how could you not show the same feelings to your neighbor? At your age, it is true, you are more in need of others than they of you; nevertheless a young child has often many opportunities of making himself useful, of showing himself attentive, obliging, ready to do any little kindness—above all, he can try never to be troublesome. And if while doing, out of love for his neighbor, the little that depends upon him, he promises to do in future what is impossible to him at present, he fulfills his duty towards his brother. So to act is to obey God's precept.
My children, you must not conclude, that by this precept God obliges us to love every one alike, and one as much as another. It is natural to prefer your parents to your friends, your friends to mere acquaintances, your countrymen to foreigners. Those whom we love from the depths of our hearts, with a particular tenderness, do we not love them much more than ourselves? and it is only as we love ourselves that God orders us to love our neighbors.
Not to do to others what you would not have done to yourself. To do to others what you would wish them to do to you. Such is the rule, which must direct us in our feelings and in our actions towards others. Ah, if this law of charity were better observed, what peace in the world! what union in families! how much better should we be! and at the same time, my friends, how much happier!
Therefore, my children, let sincere fraternal charity be our universal practice—let us show ourselves to be true disciples of our divine Master, by loving our neighbor, as we love ourselves, and as Christ has loved us. For "this Commandment we have from God," that he who loveth God, love also his brother."
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