The fruit of the Visitation: Charity
Years ago, I was struck by a sign hanging in my friend’s kitchen. It read, “I AM THIRD.” I learned that the sign was a reminder of the proper ordering of our hearts: first God, then our neighbour, and only then ourselves. Last month we reflected on humility, the virtue which is the foundation of the spiritual life because it orders our hearts correctly, placing us in right relationship with God and other people. God is like the sun – the center around which all creatures orbit. However, on account of original sin, we are born seeing the world as if we are the center, and all others revolve around us. As the influence of grace leads us to renounce this self-centered orientation and place God again at the center, our hearts are freed to give themselves over to the practice of charity, the very heart of the spiritual life. We seek to love the Lord with all our hearts, and to love our brothers and sisters for love of Him.
Charity is one and the same as Christian love. God is LOVE, and when we incarnate His love, we allow Him to penetrate and possess us. Since love is the most ambiguous word in the English language today, it bears careful defining. Contrary to public opinion, love is not love. True love – the love that is charity – is to will the genuine good of the other. Notice that this love is an act of the will: a conscious choice, not a feeling. Feelings come and go, and the way we feel may be beyond our control. The orientation of our will, however, is in our control…and this is why charity is a virtue that needs to be developed and strengthened through practice.
In the mystery of the Annunciation, the Angel Gabriel informs Mary that her elderly cousin Elizabeth is miraculously with child. Almost as soon as Jesus is conceived within Mary’s womb, she goes off “with haste” to make herself Elizabeth’s servant (Lk 1:39). How easily Our Lady could have rationalized that, bearing the Son of God within her, she ought to be exceptionally careful not to overexert herself! Quite the opposite, the blazing charity of the child in her womb urged her to look beyond herself to the needs of others: “For the love of Christ urges us on” (2 Cor 5:14). Rather than pamper herself, Mary joyfully packs up and makes the journey to Judea, where she spends the next months cooking, cleaning and affectionately attending to her cousin, who lacks the vigour of a youthful body. Our Lady put herself third, and in doing so, she had eyes to see the Will of God in all its beauty.
The specific beauty of charity merits our reflection. Our Lady is beautiful because she loves. We are drawn to her because her Heart is pure as crystal; her sole desire is the genuine good of others – the glory of God and the salvation of her children. As we ponder the Visitation, I can’t help but highlight the contrast between the heavenly beauty of our Immaculate Mother and the superficial, seductive portrayal of a woman’s beauty in popular culture. Our culture is devoid of heavenly beauty because it is devoid of Christian charity. Consider, for example, the ubiquitous place of advertising in our consumeristic society. The overwhelming message of advertisements is to satisfy and gratify ourselves. Ad after ad, billboard after billboard, commercial after commercial seeks to prey on the selfish inclinations of our fallen nature in order to increase our appetite for material things and the aggrandizement of our ego. Bombarded by such messaging, it’s easy to make illusory desires the goal of our strivings, thereby focusing our hearts on the things of this earth. On the other hand, when we empty ourselves in order to love like Mary, we radiate the very beauty of God.
Each of us is called to love uniquely, in whatever circumstances the Lord has been pleased to place us: “let every one lead the life which the Lord has assigned to him” (1 Cor 7:17). Part of discerning God’s Will for our lives is to examine those circumstances, seeking to discover His invitations to love. Who in your life is in need of your presence, your time, your encouragement, your friendship, your energy, your material assistance, your forgiveness, your compassion, your prayers or your suffering? What has God given you that He has not given to your neighbour, because He is yearning to enrich your neighbour throughyour selfless acts of love?
As we meditate on the mystery of the Visitation, let us ask Our Lady to widen the horizons of our hearts, that we may see and respond to the needs of others with a joyful spirit, and in doing so, become the beautiful Christian men and women that God created us to be.
