March 31
Daily Gleanings of the Saintly LifeQuinquagesima Sunday
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. I CORINTHIANS xiii. 13.
ON the Sunday before Lent the Church sets before us the subject of charity; it reminds us that all works of repentance can be of no avail unless they begin and end in the love of God. Love must be the law to regulate our whole spiritual life. Where love is there is no anger, no ill-will, no jealousy. In converse with others it hath no false liberality, no dissembling of evil; but at the same time it hath no pleasure in wickedness, in seeing, or hearing, or speaking of it, but with the truth it finds its own joy and sympathy. Charity is full of forbearance, of confidence, of hope, of patience, which it is tempted on no occasion to forego; being, as it were, proof against all things in the armour of God, clothed all over with humility. Faith in Abraham, patience in Job, meekness in Moses, penitential love in David, affectionate gentleness and long-suffering are seen in Joseph; but all these together make up that charity which is the "bond of perfectness," for which we are to labour after the example of Christ. For in S. Paul's language, to "put on Christ" is to "put on charity." Love gives life to all other graces, and crowns all.
Brighter joys and tenderer tears, Fonder faith, more faithful fears, Lowlier penitence for sin, More of Christ our souls within; Love, which when its life was newer, Burnt within us, deeper, truer, Lost too long, while we deplore them, Jesus plead for—God restore them.