208. Perfection = charity beyond measure
208. Perfection = charity beyond measure
If everything’s perfection consists in achieving its own proper form perfectly, and if form is finite and has limits, so as to give the thing its nature and identity, then does this principle apply to love also? Is love to be limited, measured, moderated, and finitized by something?—by anything at all? Or is the perfection of charity beyond measure?
The perfection of charity, in respect of which the Christian life is said to be perfect, consists in our loving God with our whole heart and our neighbor as ourselves. . . . [T]he love of God and of our neighbor is not commanded according to a measure so that what is in excess of the measure be a matter of counsel (rather than commandment). This is evident from the very form of the commandment, pointing as it does to perfection, for instance in the words Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, since the whole is the same as the perfect. . . . The reason for this is that the end of the commandment is charity, according to the Apostle (1 Tim 1:5), and the end is not subject to a measure, but only such things as are directed to the end (only the means are subject to a measure), as the Philosopher observes; thus a physician does not measure the amount of his healing, but how much medicine or diet he shall employ for the purpose of healing. . . .
Augustine says: Whatever things God commands, for instance, ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery,’ and whatever are not commanded yet suggested by a special counsel, for instance, ‘It is good for a man not to touch a woman,’ are then done aright when they are referred to the love of God and of our neighbor for God’s sake, both in this world and in the world to come. Hence the abbot Moses says: Fastings, watchings, meditating on the Scriptures, penury and loss of all one’s wealth, these are not perfection but means to perfection, since not in them does the school of perfection find its end, but through them . . . we endeavor to ascend by these steps to the perfection of charity. . . .
Augustine says: The perfection of charity is prescribed to man in this life (even though it is not achieved in this life) because one runs not right unless one knows whether to run (II-II, 184,3).
Jesus says (Jn 3:34) that God “gives the Spirit without measure”. That is the paradigm for charity, and charity is the standard for perfection. We are to give as God gives, “without measure”.
The alternative is: “I give you this much of my heart, my love, my life, my time.” That is right for other loves, for merely natural loves. That is wrong for the love of God. We are to love our neighbor only “as ourselves”, and there is a measure here, for we are finite: we are not to adore or idolize ourselves, but to love ourselves reasonably and according to the finite measure of our human nature. But we are to love God with our “whole heart and soul and mind and strength”. The central dimension of Christianity is not “classical” but “romantic”, not reasonable and limited but wild and unlimited. In every other field perfection is measured by some finite measure; in loving God, it is not. And the reason is that in God loving us it also is not.
This is the absolute end that measures all other things as means. The principle of “the golden mean” applies to means but not to the final end.
And this is not the icing on the cake, so to speak; it is the cake. It is the heart of the Christian life. If you are not a wild and crazy fanatic when it comes to giving yourself to God, you are not practicing the heart of Christianity. (If you are a fanatic about anything else, you are an idolater.)
Human married love is a finite image of this infinite love. Spouses give their whole selves, hearts, and bodies (including their fertility, their children, future as well as present) to each other forever. (That’s why contraception is wrong by nature: it’s a limit, a “Wait! Hold! No! Not quite! We won’t give each other Everything”) It is a unique human relationship, the favorite symbol of the mystics; it is the one relationship that comes the closest to the ultimate and eternal relationship with God in Heaven.