p. 35The Sacred Heart and the Charity of the Home

All the true charity of the world has found its fountainhead in the Heart of Christ. Before the Son of God became Man, pity and compassion for the poor, the sick, the afflicted, as we know it today, did not exist in the world. Our Lord Himself said that He had come to teach men a new commandment—to love one another, that as He loved them, so also they might love one another. By this, He declares, are all men to know His disciples, because of the love they have one for another. Hence, charity is the characteristic virtue of the Christian home as it is also of the individual followers of our Lord.

“Little children love one another.” These words so brief and so beautiful, so touching and full of significance, so full of music and of tenderness, should be the motto which guides the conversation, the conduct, and the attitude toward one another, of all the dwellers in a Catholic home. When our Lord addresses us as little children, these words are an expression of great endearment. They come, warm with love, from the pure depths of His Divine Heart. He loves us. He loves us all and with what an intense, personal, devoted, and unselfish love. He loves each one of us for ourself, because we are the living image of His Father, and He loves us for His Father’s sake, whose living image we are. Looking at one another, we see the dearly beloved of Christ, the friends of His Sacred Heart, His brothers and sisters—the “Little Children” for whose love He has lived, suffered, taught, established His Church, given the sacraments, and died on the cross.

His Sacred Heart bids us to love one another. It is the second of those two great commandments in which He has summed up all religion, the law, and the prophets. “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (St. Mark, xii. 30-31).

It is natural for members of the family to love one another, unnatural for them to be unkind, cruel, and cold in their own family circle. Even the pagans cherish their own. But the teachings of the Sacred Heart have raised family love to a new level and a new dignity. When He made matrimony a sacrament, He sealed with His own Sacred Blood that contract between husband and wife which is the foundation of the home. He also sanctified by His blessed teaching and His holy grace the family love which is the natural bond of union in the home.

Our love for one another should be like the love of the Heart of Christ for us. “As I have loved you, so do you also love one another.” Such a love is constant; it is universal. It does not depend on merit, nor favors received, nor the whim of the moment, nor personal preference, but it can be counted on, even when we are provoked, to give us patience. Even when we are imposed upon, it will give us kindness; even when things go wrong and we might be excused for being a little harsh, it will keep us in peace.

There is no great credit for being kind and loving at home, when everything goes right, when nobody crosses us, when our interests are not in conflict with the interests of others. But when something occurs which is really vexing, then our love for the Sacred Heart and our wish to imitate His love for others should keep us in peace. There is some credit and merit in being loving when it is hard to love and easy to be uncharitable.

Families in which the life of the household runs merely along natural lines, so that the brothers and sisters, father and mother are kind when they feel kind, cross when they feel cross, yield freely to their likes and dislikes, and are generous only because they expect to get something in return—such families can hardly be said to imitate the charity of the Sacred Heart. Our Lord, Himself, has said, “For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? do not even the publicans this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more? do not also the heathens this?” (St. Matthew, v. 46-47). To imitate Christ we must do more than the heathens do; we must be kind when others are unkind to us, obliging when others are disobliging, patient when others are harsh, forgiving when others annoy us.

Therefore, it is the way the members of the family act under provocation and vexation, or when their personal interests are disregarded, or when they have to make some sacrifice that really shows whether the charity of the Sacred Heart rules in that home. If it does, then such little opportunities as occur so often in family life, for bearing with each other’s faults, for giving up to each other and forgiving small vexations, will be seized on with alacrity and profited by habitually.

It would seem that this commandment of our Lord, “Little children love one another,” is sometimes woefully disregarded or misunderstood, even by very good and well-meaning people, who wish to be followers of Christ in the true sense of the word. They sometimes fail to realize that Christ has given a two-fold commandment, of the love of the neighbor as well as the love of God. The love of God they earnestly desire to practice. From the love of their neighbor, they quietly dispense themselves, when it becomes difficult or inconvenient.

These two commandments are really one. It is one charity in union with the Sacred Heart to love God for His own sake and our neighbor for the love of God. St. John, the beloved disciple, inquires pointedly how men can love God whom they do not see, when they fail to love men whom they see. We may change this inquiry about a little and make it fit our present purpose. The statue and the image of the Sacred Heart are in our homes as a continual reminder of the love of our Lord for us all and of His desire that we should love one another. In sight of the image of the Sacred Heart our family life goes on with its joys and sorrows, its vexations and consolations, its little rubs and its opportunities for patience and kindness in little things. How can we say that we truly love our Lord’s Sacred Heart, as He desires to be loved, if we do not carry out in daily practice His tender exhortations to love one another?