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.