Let us come now to charity, which is the lintel of the heavenly gate. Charity, the queen of virtues, seems on one side very broad, since it extends to God, to the Angels, to all men, even to strangers and enemies; yet it is rendered narrow when one must pass through it, because of the incredible difficulty it brings with it, since its precepts must be fulfilled not in word and speech but in deed and truth. For what, I ask, does this Queen command? (1 John 3:18) First, that God be loved with the whole heart, with the whole soul, and with all one's strength (Matt. 22:37; Luke 10:27). A man is brought into great straits when he girds himself to fulfill these things. For what is it to love God with a true and supreme love? Those words from the heart and from the soul mean that the love must be true, not feigned — not in word and speech, as St. John says, but in deed and truth (1 John 3:18). Those words from the whole heart and with all your strength — or with all your might, as another Evangelist has it (Mark 12:30) — mean that love for God must be the greatest of all. The force of the precept, then, is that God be loved with a true and supreme love, so that nothing be preferred to Him, nothing made equal to Him, and all things placed after Him — so that the Christian man be ready, together with the Patriarch Abraham, if it be necessary for the glory of God, not to spare the life of his own, only-begotten, and most beloved son. And not only this, but also — as the Lord commands in the Gospel — to hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yea, and his own life also, and to renounce all that he possesses (Luke 14:26, 33): that is, to be ready, with the same promptness, to be deprived of all his kin, of his own life, and of all his possessions and dignities, of which he would be deprived if he truly and from the soul hated them. These are great straits, and who is fit to pass through them? For men will be found more easily — and not a few of them — who are ready to renounce God and all His promises than to renounce riches and temporal honors, to say nothing of their own lives or their children. St. Cyprian is witness in his treatise On the Lapsed that in the primitive Church itself, when the ardor of charity was far greater than it is now, there were very many deserters in place of a few martyrs — men who set their patrimonies, to say nothing of their lives, before the charity of God; and Eusebius testifies to the same in his Ecclesiastical History (bk. 6, ch. 2).
What shall we now say of charity toward our neighbor? What does charity command us to do for our neighbors? Surely this: to love them as ourselves, and to do to others what we would have done to ourselves. For who is there who, if he were in great need, would not wish to be given by the rich at least what they have left over? Nor will he accept the excuse if the rich man replies that he is weighed down with debt because he has bought a villa at a great price, or built a sumptuous palace, or at least adorned it with costly hangings; for perhaps those things are superfluous, and charity does not allow our poor neighbor to lack the things he needs. On this matter let the reader consult, I beg, St. Basil in his homily to the rich, and St. Bernard in his discourse upon those words: Behold, we have left all things. For he will see and shudder at the danger of those who do not consider that they will render an account to the Lord of their own wealth, and who use it according to their own desire, not according to the will of the Lord and charity toward their neighbors. For if we shall render an account for an idle word, why not much more for money ill spent? (Matt. 12:36)
But let us hear the Apostle John, and learn from him how far the debt of charity extends. In this, he says, we have known the charity of God: because He has laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (1 John 3:16). Christ, who is God, laid down His life for His servants: what great thing then will it be if we lay down our soul, that is, our life, for our brethren? Therefore the Apostle does not say, We can, but, We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren; nor did he say, I think, I judge, I advise; but he pronounced absolutely, We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren — and if our lives, why not much more our goods? Hence St. Gregory rightly concludes: Since the soul by which we live is incomparably better than the earthly substance we outwardly possess, who will not give his substance, seeing he is to give his life? (Hom. 14 on the Gospel) The same may be said of other things: for he who is bound to lay down his life for his brethren — why is he not much more bound to do them good? And he who is bound to lay down his life for his brethren — why is he not bound to take diligent care not to injure his brother by word or deed? Because, then, the precept of charity toward God and neighbor involves such straits that they are surmounted by few, therefore to the man who asked the Lord, Are they few who are saved? the Lord could rightly answer that they are few, and that for this reason we must strive with all our strength to surmount, together with those few, the straits of the saving gate.