(1 John 4:9-12) (continued)
16. Caring for Love
Love is a delightful word, but the thing itself is even more delightful. I can't be speaking of it all the time. I have much to do, and my various activities distract me so that I'm not always at leisure to speak of love, even though there is nothing better I could do. But even if I can't always be speaking of it, I can always keep it in myself. It's like the ''Alleluia" we sing during Eastertide. Singing ''Alleluia" lasts only a few moments, and we go on to something else. Alleluia means "'praise God," you know. You can't always be praising God in words, but you can always praise him by your way of life.
Works of mercy, loving affections, holy piety, unshakable chastity, unassuming temperance: these you should always keep, in public or at home, when you're with others or when you're alone, speaking or silent, busy or at leisure. You should keep them continually, because all these virtues I've named are interior ones. But who's competent to name them all? They're like a general's army inside your heart. A general does whatever he decides through his army, and in the same way our Lord Jesus Christ employs these virtues as his servants once he begins to live in our "inner self," *in our hearts, through faith." These virtues are invisible, but we praise them when we speak of them. We wouldn't do this if we didn't love them, and we wouldn't love them if we didn't see them. But if this is true, then we do see them, but with other eyes, with the inner vision of the heart. By the invisible virtues I've mentioned, we visibly move our members. Our feet walk but where do they go? W herever our good will, serving a good general, moves them. Our hands work but what do they do? They do whatever love commands of them, whatever the love of the Holy Spirit inspires in them. We see our members only when they move; we
78 / LOVEONE ANOTHER, MY FRIENDS don't see who commands them from within. And who this is can be known only to the One who commands and to the one who is inwardly commanded.
Dear friends, do you remember the words of the gospel, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men in order to be seen by them"? Does our Lord mean that we should hide the good we do from other people and fear to be seen by them? If you don't have any onlookers, you won't have any imitators. Therefore you should be seen. But you're not to do good in order to be seen. That shouldn't be the cause of your happiness, the reason you rejoice, so that you suppose you've obtained all the fruit of your good deed when you've been seen and praised. That's nothing. Consider yourself unworthy when you're praised, and let the One who works through you be praised in you. Don't do good so you'll be praised; rather do it for the glory of the One who makes it possible for you to do good. From yourself comes your power of doing wrong, from God your power of doing right.
See how foolish are the people who think otherwise! The good they do they attribute to themselves, and they want to blame God when they do wrong. I don't know what to call this distorted and irrational attitude, which turns things on their heads. We must set things aright! Do you want to have God underneath and yourself on top? That's putting yourself down, not up! God is always on top. Is it that you do right and God wrong? Say this instead, if you want to speak the truth: "I do wrong and he does right; and the good I do comes from him, because all I do on my own is bad." This confession strengthens your heart and provides a firm foundation for love.
This is what I say, then, my friends, and I wouldn't stop saying it even if I could. Let your actions be those that are appropriate to the season, the hour, the day. Should you always be speaking or silent or resting or fasting? Always giving bread to the needy? Always clothing the naked? Always visiting the sick? Always reconciling those having a quarrel? Always burying the dead? No, now you should do one thing, now another.
CARING FORLOVE / 79
These actions have a beginning and an end. But the principle that commands them doesn't begin, and it must not stop. The love within you shouldn't cease. Love's services must be done at the appropriate time.