Charity

Charity is the greatest of the theological virtues. By it, man loves God above all things, because he is the supreme good, and his neighbour as himself for the love of God. It unites man to God in a single movement that also embraces all that God loves. Christ made it the first of all the commandments: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and your neighbour as yourself.” Matthew 22:37-39

A love poured into the heart

Charity is a gift that God infuses into the soul together with sanctifying grace. It comes from God, who loves first and places in the heart of man the power to love him in return: “The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:5

Man then loves with a love that surpasses him, sharing in the very love with which God loves us: “Let us love, because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

To love God, to love one's neighbour

The love of God and the love of neighbour form one single charity, for one loves one's neighbour for God and in God. The one is the measure and the proof of the other: “Whoever does not love his brother, whom he sees, cannot love God, whom he does not see.” 1 John 4:20

Christ gave the measure of this love by handing over his very self, and made it the sign by which his own are known: “Love one another as I have loved you. By this all will know that you are my disciples.” John 13:34-35

The form of all the virtues

Charity gives the other virtues their completion and animates them from within, ordering them all toward God. Without it, the greatest works remain empty before him: “If I give away all my goods, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:3

It binds together the whole Christian life and brings it to its perfection: “Above all, put on love, which is the bond of perfection.” Colossians 3:14

The greatest, and that which abides

Charity surpasses faith and hope, because it attains God himself and abides when the other two reach their end. In heaven, faith will give way to vision and hope to possession; charity, however, will never pass away: “Love never ends.” 1 Corinthians 13:8

Saint Paul names it the greatest of the three and the summit of all life with God: “So now faith, hope and charity abide, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” 1 Corinthians 13:13