"And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the
greatest of these is charity."--I. Cor. xiii, 13.
Dear brethren, in beginning the Rosary one Our Father and three Hail
Marys are said in supplication for the three divine virtues. These
virtues are called divine because they have God for their Author or
their object. In Baptism these virtues are infused into the soul
together with sanctifying grace. Through sanctifying grace, received in
Baptism, we are made children of God. From that moment there is imposed
upon us the duty, as soon as we shall be able to use our reason, of
thinking, speaking and acting as behooves the true children of God.
This duty we perform if we imitate the example of Jesus Christ, and if
we endeavor to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. But as
this cannot be done by human power, the Holy Ghost has willed to enable
us to do so, by imparting to us, in Baptism, the three divine virtues.
By the infused grace of faith God gives us a supernatural light, in
addition to the natural light of our reason, with the aid of which we
may comprehend His revelations. God bestows upon us thus, through the
virtue of faith, a share in His own wisdom. The supernatural grace of
hope turns our thought heavenward, gives us an incentive to co-operate
with grace.
The supernatural virtue of charity renders us capable of loving God in
a worthy and meritorious manner and of loving that which God loves.
As the child arrives at the age of discretion, and obtains the right
use of reason, he is obliged to practise these virtues, and thus I
strengthen his soul and grow in grace.
We are obliged to awaken frequently faith, hope, and charity towards
God and our neighbor, in a practical manner. By the possession,
practise and application of these three divine virtues we attain to
Christian perfection. The more we learn to know these virtues, the more
zealous we shall be in practising them, the more earnestly we shall
strive for their increase, the more incessantly shall we pray for them.
Let us, therefore, take these three divine virtues for the subject of
our consideration.
I. Faith is the first of the three divine virtues; it is the foundation
of the other virtues. Without faith in God, in His revelations and
promises, there can be no Christian hope, no Christian charity. For
this reason faith is the foundation of virtuous living: Christian faith
is a virtue infused by God into our souls by which we are enabled to
believe firmly all that which God has revealed and which the infallible
Catholic Church proposes for our belief.
An act of faith requires the use of the understanding and the use of
the will. The mysteries surpass our natural understanding; they are,
furthermore, to be believed in a supernatural manner, and we require,
therefore, the supernatural light of faith, added to the natural light
of our understanding, and we require also that our natural willpower be
strengthened by the supernatural power of grace. This light and this
power we receive in Baptism. The supernatural light of faith qualifies
us to understand that the truths revealed by God are divine.
In order to believe it does not suffice to know the divine truths as
the Church teaches them, we must also, of our own free will, assent to
them, and acknowledge as divine truths even those mysteries which
surpass our human understanding. To that extent faith is a matter of
the will. God, through the light and the power of the grace of faith,
comes to the assistance of our reason and will, in order that we may
confidently submit both to divine revelation, that is, to God. In order
that the infused virtue of faith may be meritorious for us, we must
co-operate with grace by readily submitting our understanding and our will
to divine revelation. Then this virtue of faith will not only be an
infused one but, also, will be an acquired one and thus become a
meritorious virtue. This actual and acquired virtue is for every adult
the first condition of salvation. Still the acceptance of the divine
doctrine is alone not sufficient for salvation. We must live in
accordance with our faith; we must do good and shun evil. Such is the
teaching of faith. "He truly believes who practises what believes,"
says St. Gregory, and St. James tells us that "Faith without works is a
dead faith and avails nothing to salvation." A living faith is the
first condition and the beginning of salvation. Eternal happiness
consists, as we are aware, in the vision of God. The living faith is a
beginning of this vision. We know God through the Christian faith, but
only as in a mirror. "Now I know in part: but then I shall know even as
I am known" (I. Cor. xiii, 12).
II. The second of the divine virtues is hope. Christian hope is a
virtue infused into our souls by which we confidently expect of God
everything which He has promised us through the merits of Christ. God
has promised us eternal happiness, also all things which we stand in
need of, and that are profitable for us in our endeavor to attain
eternal happiness. Jesus has merited these for us, and God has promised
them to us for the sake of the merits of Jesus Christ. And because God
has promised them to us we must confidently expect and hope for them,
because God is omnipotent, merciful and faithful to His promises.
This Christian confidence in God is bestowed by the virtue of hope,
infused into our souls at Baptism. We must frequently exercise it in
order to make it conducive to salvation.
The virtue of hope is based upon the virtue of faith. Faith informs us
of the promises of God, and that He is all-powerful and faithful in
fulfilling His promises. Without faith Christian hope would not be
possible. This the Apostle Paul teaches in his Epistle to the
Corinthians, in plain words: "Faith," he writes, "is the substance of
things hoped for" (Heb. xi, i). Hope is really, therefore, an active
faith in the mercy and generosity of God. Christian hope is just as
necessary for salvation as faith. "For we are saved by hope." Thus the
Apostle writes in the Epistle to the Romans (Rom. viii, 24). Hence,
when we lose hope we forfeit our salvation.
Christian hope is in part desire, in part confidence. It is a lively
desire for eternal happiness, for the possession of God and for the
means which aid us in gaining salvation. It contains in itself a
heartfelt desire for forgiveness of sins, and for liberation from the
punishment due to sins. It includes an ardent longing for a virtuous
Christian life. It is that hunger and thirst for justice of which
Christ speaks in the eight Beatitudes. As God is the supreme good,
combining every other good, so our desire for the blessed possession of
God must be the sincerest, indeed, the sole, desire of our hearts. All
other things we may desire only on God's account, and only in so far as
they are the means to help us to the possession of God. Whoever
experiences this desire will zealously pray for all things; he will be
a man of prayer.
Christian hope is not only desire, but also confidence. God has
promised us forgiveness of our sins and the grace to do the good that
is required of us. He has promised us after a Christian life the
eternal happiness of heaven. He is ready to fulfil His promises. The
fulfillment of the divine promise depends, however, upon our own
co-operation, upon our sincere good-will, upon our co-operation with
grace. Our confidence must, therefore, never become presumption. The
Apostle admonishes us to work out our salvation in fear and trembling.
St. Francis de Sales calls confidence in God and distrust in ourselves
the two balancing poles by the help of which we are enabled to keep our
equilibrium. To distrust ourselves, and to have the fullest trust in
God, this is the essence of Christian hope.
Christian hope is an essential condition for eternal happiness. By hope
we anticipate life eternal. It is to us a pledge and a foretaste, and
when we shall pass into eternity with this living hope, our hope will
be transformed into possession of that which we have hoped for the
possession of God, the supreme good.
III. Charity, the third of the divine virtues, is the virtue infused by
God into our souls which enables us to love God above all things, and
for His sake to love our neighbor as ourselves. That such divine
charity surpasses human power is quite evident. It is inseparably
united to sanctifying grace. He who possesses sanctifying grace
possesses also the virtue of divine charity. He who loses sanctifying
grace through mortal sin, loses also divine charity. The virtue of
charity is a participation in the divine charity with which God loves
us. It is a divine commandment that we must love God with our whole
heart, with our whole soul, with our whole strength, and that we must
love our neighbor as ourselves, for God's sake. To give oneself wholly
to God, to prefer Him to all things, rather lose all things than offend
Him, to seek to accomplish His holy will in all things, to observe His
commandments, to offer up to God every thought, word, and deed, to work
and suffer for God, to live and die for God, this is the true love of
God.
"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth
me." Thus speaks the Son of God (John xiv, 21). To love God in this
manner is made possible for us by the divine virtue of charity,
received in Baptism. We may, however, co-operate with it and so fulfil
God's commandments. Only in this manner does the infused virtue become
an acquired and meritorious virtue. The Christian virtue of charity is
the greatest of all virtues. It presupposes faith and hope because we
must believe and hope in God before we can love Him: charity gives life
to faith and hope. Without charity, faith and hope are dead and avail
not for salvation. Who so loves not remains in death. Charity is not
merely the greatest of all virtues, but it contains all Christian
virtues; it is the essence of the Christian life. Through Christian
faith we participate in the divine knowledge, through hope in the
divine power, and through charity we participate in the divine justice
and sanctity. Christian charity renders us holy, as the heavenly Father
is holy, and perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect. It is charity
which here on earth unites us with God. "He who abides in charity
abides in God and God in him." It is a virtue which continues for all
eternity, when faith has become the vision, and hope the possession, of
God.
The love of God is inseparably united to the love of our neighbor; for,
as St. Augustine says, there are two commandments but only one charity,
because there is no other charity with which we love our neighbor than
that with which we love God. Who so says that he loves God, but does
not love his neighbor, in him there is no divine charity.
We have seen, therefore, how the three divine virtues are the
foundation of the Christian life, and that their practise constitutes
Christian life. The true worship of God consists in practising these
virtues which, at the same time, are the sole way to eternal bliss.
Progress in the Christian life keeps pace with the activity of these
virtues. This increase of virtue is, likewise, a gracious gift of God.
We are ever obliged to co-operate with grace. We must strive for the
increase of our faith, hope, and charity, by frequently practising
these virtues, by the worthy reception of the holy Sacraments, by
attentively contemplating the divine truths and, especially, by humble
and heartfelt prayer.
How feeble, indeed, is our faith, how wavering our hope, how
insufficient our love of God and our neighbor. They need the
strengthening grace of God.
To pray rightly, and to be worthy of being heard, we must awaken these
fundamental virtues. Therefore, at the beginning of the Rosary we say
devoutly one Our Father and three Hail Marys to ask God for an increase
of these virtues. Because faith, hope, and charity should be both the
basis and the fruit of the Rosary. Amen.