© 2007 Guy de Viron
© 2007 Association Francophone des Lecteurs du Livre d'Urantia
Love is considered the supreme good, the sum of all ordinary virtues (patience, kindness, generosity, humility, courtesy, selflessness, gentleness, simplicity, sincerity…). It is the most enviable gift because it is the only lasting good. God, the Eternal is love. We must therefore desire this eternal gift. Let us put love before the rest.
Love is the fulfillment of the Law. If we love, we will fulfill all the commandments of the Law without even thinking about it. Love is greater than all gifts, all virtues and all knowledge because the end is greater than the means, because the whole is greater than the part. Faith serves to unite the soul with God in order to become like Him. It is the means that leads to love, but it is love that is the goal. Thus, love is obviously greater than Faith.
Love surpasses all virtues in excellence. Like a ray of light that passes through the magnificent prism of inspired intelligence, it breaks down into various elements: the familiar qualities that every man can practice whatever his situation. This rich light that transfigures the multitude of words and acts that make up each of our days. This supreme power, this sovereign good, remains the sum of all ordinary virtues. Introduced into our sphere of action, the one to which we wish to give the gift of our life, this power will make our vocation fruitful. For our earthly mission we need nothing greater, but we cannot be satisfied with anything smaller. We can have all the talents, if we do not have love, for ourselves and for the cause of Christ, it will be of no use.
Love is ready to accomplish its task when the time comes. It waits, clothed in a gentle and peaceful spirit. It knows how to suffer without complaining, it endures everything, it believes everything, it hopes everything. Love knows how to wait, because it knows how to understand. Indeed, there is no debtor in this world more sure, more unshakable than Love. “Love never succumbs.” To love is success; to love is happiness for oneself and for others; to love is life, it is the goal of life! Where love is, there is God. He who abides in Love abides in God. Since God is Love, our duty is to love, to love without restriction, without calculation, without delay. Let us spread our love to all.
Only one thing is truly worthy of envy, it is to have a broad, generous soul, rich in Love of neighbor; for it is safe from envy. Let us place the seal of humility on our lips and forget the good that we have done. Be full of kindness for all, pour out our love in abundance on the world and, when Christian love has accomplished its beautiful work, withdraw into the shadows and not boast of it, not breathe a word of it. True love hides itself even from itself, and excludes self-contentment.
Love does not seek its own interest, or, more literally, what is its own. It sometimes happens that we are called upon to exercise a higher right, that of renouncing our rights. Love goes even further. It wants us not to assert these rights, to take no account of them, and for the personal element to be entirely eliminated from our calculations. It is relatively easy to renounce something external to ourselves; the most difficult thing is to renounce ourselves and even more difficult not to desire things for ourselves. For there is no greatness in things.
The only greatness is that of Love that forgets itself. Happiness consists not in possessing and acquiring, but in giving and serving. In the eyes of Him who is Love, a sin against Love may appear a hundred times more vile than any other. In fact, no form of vice contributes more to perverting a Christian community than bitterness of character. To water life with bitterness, to disunite communities, to break the most sacred ties, to desolate homes, to dry up hearts, to darken the days of childhood, in a word to produce, without reason or pretext, anguish and misery, there is nothing like bad humor. Let us imagine how many prodigal children can be, in their turn, estranged from the kingdom of God by the cantankerous humor of those who profess to be its citizens. There is truly no place in heaven for hostile and bitter moods. The man who is afflicted with them would make heaven uninhabitable for others. If therefore he is not born again, he can in no way enter the kingdom of heaven. Bad humor gives the measure of Love: it is the revealing symptom of a nature devoid of Love. The lack of patience, kindness, generosity, courtesy, altruism suddenly shows itself in a flash of anger. As a remedy, let us give sweetness to souls by pouring out its opposite, namely a great Love, a new spirit, the Christ Spirit. This / Holy Spirit, penetrating us entirely, softens, purifies, transforms everything. Let us act by referring to Jesus Christ and in his name. Let us remember that it is better not to live than not to love.
Love always sees the best side of actions. If we try to exert a beneficent influence around us, we will achieve success in exact proportion to the degree of confidence we show in those to whom we address ourselves. The respect we show a fallen man will help him to regain self-respect; by seeing him as he ideally is we restore his hope and provide him with the model of the man he can become. Simplicity is the grace that suspicious people should desire.
He who loves will find his joy in the truth. He will not find his joy in what he has been taught to believe; he will not find it in the doctrine of a Church but “in the truth.” He will accept only what is certain; he will strive to find the reality of the facts, he will seek the truth with a humble and sincere heart and, having found it, even at the cost of great sacrifices, he will cherish it. He will rejoice with the truth. This implies a forgetfulness of self which makes one not feel justified, or magnified by the weaknesses of others, but covers all faults. A sincerity of intention makes every effort to see things as they really are and rejoices in finding them better than seen by suspicion and fears.
The most important thing in our life is to possess Christian Love, to make it the driving force behind all our actions. Learn to love. Our earthly passage is a period of instruction devoted to a single great eternal lesson: how to love better and more. THEREFORE WE MUST EXERCISE IT. He who does not exercise his soul does not develop its resources. He acquires neither strength of character, nor moral vigor, nor spiritual wealth. Love is the abundant, strong and virile expression of the whole of a Christian personality; it is the new nature in the likeness of Christ. And the components of this beautiful personality develop and affirm themselves through incessant practice.
Let us not complain about the hand that wants to perfect in us the still imperfect outline of the image of Christ. Every day, without our knowing it, this image grows in beauty. Let us therefore resolutely mingle with life. Let us not isolate ourselves. Let us live among men, things, troubles, difficulties, obstacles. “Talent grows in solitude and character in the flow of life.” Talent, abilities, in different areas, grow in solitude. So it is with the capacity for prayer, faith, meditation, the sight of the invisible. But character, the very essence of our being, grows in the flow of life in this world. It is essential and good that men must learn to love, to love themselves.
Guy De Viron