151. Fifth Friday of Easter

Meditations no. 197 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Sow understanding and charity.

Do not speak evil against one another, brethren. He that speaks evil against a brother, or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you that you judge your neighbour? Who can judge except God? Only the Lord sees into the depths of consciences: he alone knows souls and can see how weak they are, and his judgements are judgements of mercy.

Nevertheless, criticism and gossip are rampant. Our Lord himself had to suffer the attacks of evil tongues, and a disciple is not above his teacher. Our Father writes: Jesus suffered a campaign of slurs on his name, defamation of his irreproachable conduct, biting and wounding criticism. It is not unusual for some people to accord the same treatment to those who wish to follow the Master while fully conscious of their natural shortcomings and personal mistakes which, given human weakness, are so common and even inevitable. But our experience of human limitations cannot lead us to condone sins and injustices against the good name of anyone, even though their authors try to cover their tracks by just “wondering” aloud. Jesus says that if the father of the family has been labelled Beelzebub, the members of his household cannot expect to fare any better. But he also adds that whoever calls his brother a fool shall be in danger of hell fire.

Where does this unjust, carping attitude come from? It almost seems as though some people are now wearing glasses that disfigure their vision. In principle, they reject the possibility of a virtuous life or, at least, the constant effort to do the right thing. Everything they take in is coloured by their own previous deformation. For them, even the most noble and unselfish actions are only hypocritical contortions designed to appear good. When they clearly discover goodness, writes St Gregory the Great, they scrutinize it in the hope of finding hidden defects.

When such a deformation has become almost second nature it is difficult to help people to see that it is both more human and more truthful to think well of others. St Augustine recommends the following rule of thumb: Try to acquire the virtues you believe lacking in your brothers. Then you will no longer see their defects, for you will no longer have them yourselves. Part of the mission of God’s sons and daughters is to create an atmosphere of understanding, forgiveness and loyalty around them. Jesus himself said: This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. People who love with God’s love will necessarily try to be understanding, especially when they have an apostolic mission, a specific calling to co-redeem, to save, with Jesus Christ. Our Father wrote: The panorama may sometimes seem disheartening since you realize how puny your efforts are in comparison with a whole world which knows nothing of understanding. You are right: they say that the world always ends up divided into two, one half speaking badly of the other half. But since disunity and misunderstanding abound, God wants us to practise Christ’s compassion personally and teach others to practise it, everywhere in the world.

Pride is the greatest obstacle to understanding.

What is the obstacle to understanding? Pride, self-love. The more self-satisfied people are, the greater their insensitivity to the problems of others. Then they easily make rash judgements, listening only to the “witness for the prosecution”. This was one of the principal sins of the Pharisees, which Jesus censured severely in the Gospel. But his disciples also fell into this attitude, above all during the early stages, before Christ’s charity had softened their hearts. On seeing the man born blind, whom Jesus was about to take pity on and heal, they asked: Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.

Our Father wrote: We cannot be surprised that many people, even those who think themselves Christians, act in the same way. Their first impulse is to think badly of someone or something. They don’t need any proof; they take it for granted. And they don’t keep it to themselves; they air their snap judgements to the winds.

Trying to be benevolent about it, we could call the disciples’ behaviour short-sighted. Then as now, for little has changed, there were others, the Pharisees, who consistently adopted this attitude.

At that moment, the Apostles had too much self-love and too little charity. Yet their life with Jesus made them change, since the charity which God pours into our soul transforms from within our mind and will. It provides the supernatural foundation for friendship and the joy of doing what is right.

Contemplate the scene of the cure of the paralytic, as told to us in the Acts of the Apostles. Peter and John were going up to the temple, and on their way they came across a man seated at the gate. It turns out he had been lame from birth. Everything resembles the cure of the blind man. But now the disciples no longer think that the misfortune is due to the paralytic’s sins or to the faults of his parents. And they say to him: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. Before they poured out scorn, now mercy. Before they had judged contemptuously, now they cure miraculously in the name of the Lord.

Pride is the greatest obstacle to understanding, and it is what poisons people’s tongues. For this reason, our Father urges us to ask God for humility, which will make you capable of knowing the greatness, wisdom and perfection of God. It will also make you realize the smallness, ignorance and wretchedness of human beings. Thus you will learn to understand other people’s weaknesses, by realizing that you have your own. You will learn to forgive by loving; you will desire to relate to everyone, because no human being can leave us indifferent.

Understanding means practising charity and all the specific virtues of our spirit.

We especially need to have a big heart and to open our arms wide, so that we can understand and love everyone, even those (if there are any) who don’t love or understand us. The sort of understanding our Lord asks of us can only be gained by having great charity. St Thomas comments: Charity does not even allow one to think that some other has done evil; it does not harbour ill thoughts based on suspicions and rash judgements about one’s neighbour. Moreover, our Father says: With the ever-new light of charity, with generous love for God and our neighbour, we will renew, in the light of the example our Lord set us, our desires to understand, to forgive, and not to feel that we are anyone’s enemies.

Together with charity, which is an infused supernatural virtue, there has to be the constant practice of the virtues that we need in order to live in harmony with others, cheerfully offering up to God, without anyone noticing it, the inevitable frictions that occur between people with different characters, tastes and ways of thinking, doing so cum omni humilitate et mansuetudine, cum patientia supportantes invicem in caritate, with all humility and meekness, patiently forbearing one another in love. The spirit of the Work impels us to act in this way. To understand other people’s problems better, we need to practise not only the right virtues for souls dedicated to God’s service, but also those which form part of the particular character of the Work. These virtues, which serve as the basis of our specific spirit, are the ones which tend towards the sanctification of ordinary work.

What I have just told you shows clearly, as I would like to remind you once again, that our apostolate will always be based on understanding and the virtues needed to live together with other people. We ardently desire to bring everyone to the Faith; we want to sanctify all things, because it is charity that drives us.

St Paul offers us his own example of how to live by this doctrine: To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. My daughters and sons, this is the spirit I have taught you to live. A spirit which is a very real manifestation of practical diversity, openness and unlimited availability.

If we treat our Lady, Mother of mercy, as our Mother, our relationship with her will become the divine school where we learn all about understanding.