"reward of a prophet," and the especial "reward of a just man." In this way Christ also shows how highly He esteems and loves His holy and faithful ministers, seeing that He not only confers favours on them and very greatly rewards their virtue, but for their sakes bears a peculiar love to those who assist them, and who are loved by them in turn, bestows higher benefits on them, and makes them worthy to receive a fuller reward in return for kindnesses done to His ministers. There is yet another reason for which God gives this especial reward. When any servant of God either performs an act of kindness, or assists from his temporal means, or himself takes a part with the just man and minister of Christ in good works, and in bringing souls to God, in instructing others, in obtaining for them the sacraments, or in any other works of spiritual mercy, he participates in the fruits of the good work done, and cooperates in the holy ministry for souls, and therefore will justly receive from God a reward similar to that which is granted to the just man and to the minister of God, whom he has helped by his means or by his own personal service. For though the just man may possess more of this world's goods, yet he enjoys the holy liberty of preaching the truth, of defending virtue, and another who maintains and assists him, becomes a sharer in his holiness and sanctity, and will receive a reward along with him. And that teacher or minister of the Gospel in whom the Holy Spirit dwells must have bodily nourishment to strengthen him for his work, and without which he cannot work; another, therefore, who supplies him with this, supplies him with strength to preach and fulfil all the other holy offices of his ministry, for this reason he will receive a reward along with the minister of Christ. CHAPTER XLII. The reasons which should direct us in loving some neighbours more than others. WE have considered the order which we should follow in loving sinners, and men of holiness of life, and the ministers of Christ, let us now consider the order in which charity is to be practised towards our different neighbours. In regard of our parents, of our brothers and sisters, of our relations, and of all others united with us by some particular bond of connection or affinity, or of fellow-membership in the same state, city, or household, we owe greater love, and a higher obligation to works of charity, than we do towards others who have not these claims upon us. The explanation of this is, that love is founded in some mutual communication and union between persons, and the closer this union is, so much the greater should the love be. Besides, grace perfects instead of destroying nature, and we see that all men have this natural inclination to love those who stand in a nearer relation to them. Nor is this a tendency introduced by sin, but one founded on right reason; so that had men persevered in that state of pure and healthy nature which God at first gave them, they would still have had this inclination. Wherefore grace does not destroy, but only restrains and directs it, that it run not to extreme, and that it may propose God as its true end. St. Augustine writes: "Since you cannot do good to every one, you must first select those who by reason of place or time, or some other circumstance, are by a kind of providence more particularly connected with you." "'* And the Apostle confirms the same principle: "But if any man have not care of his own, and especially of those of his house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." This care of which the Apostle speaks is to be taken as embracing proper in*St. Aug. lib. i. De Doct. Christ. cap. xxviii. 1 Tim. v. 8. struction as regards the soul, and for the body the providing of all things necessary, and this with especial reference to servants and members of the same family, towards whom the obligation is greatest. The faith which he hath denied is that duty to God and to all dependent on him to which the natural law binds him; such a man is worse than an infidel, because many of these in obedience to their natural reason attend to this duty. And since the obligation of helping those brought into closer connection with us is the stronger, for the external act proceeds from the interior affection, it follows that those ought to have the preference before strangers. This principle holds good as long as relatives and neighbours are equal in other respects to the rest of our neighbours; if however there be any inequality, this rule is not to be followed in every case. For, if the necessity of a relation or neighbour is not very grievous, and he can without much injury to himself live on what he has, but the need of some stranger is so urgent that he is wanting in what is necessary for the barest existence, then is the stranger to be assisted before the other. And in proportion as this person, more remotely connected with us, possesses greater dignity, and is of greater utility to the state or to the spiritual good of souls, whilst the necessities of those nearer to us are not more grievous, well-ordered charity demands that succour should be given to this person first, since the public good takes precedence of the private, as is especially seen in the case of works of mercy. There is another point we must attend to here. If a distantly-connected neighbour be of holy life and great virtue, and those nearer to us are bad, or at all events inferior to him in virtue, then must we so observe charity that the good are more loved by us, more esteemed, and receive more solid benefit, by our desiring higher glory for them than for near neighbours whose virtue is much inferior. We should wish also to see Divine justice preserved, which requires that the greater glory should be D betowed on him who merits more, nor ought we to wish that God should grant to a neighbour whose merit is so much less, a degree of glory which in his present disposition he does not deserve. This, however, charity does not forbid our desiring, namely, that God may make a sinful neighbour as good as, nay, greater than any other saint on the earth, and that for this end He may impart to him higher aids and graces than to others, by help of which he can merit and obtain higher glory. It is, moreover, lawful for us, with a view to those spiritual goods for the sake of which we love our neighbour, to bear them a more intense and ardent affection of charity, according to the dispositions which we see in them. For, in addition to the general friendship of charity and grace, there is a natural and human friendship which we can direct towards the same end of charity, by desiring for them still more of the spiritual benefits of grace and glory, as also of temporal benefits helping them forward to that end. In this mode of showing charity to those most nearly connected with us, Christ has not left us without example. He was born in Bethlehem, and to all the inhabitants and near neighbours of that time, He, in His wondrous charity, gave them advantages above all other Jews of possessing most glorious martyrs in their “children of two years old and under," to whom He gave in Heaven the brightest crowns of martyrdom, and raised them to higher glory than was ever attained before by infants dying in Divine grace since the beginning of the world. That crown of martyrdom, which by a singular grace and privilege is usually bestowed only on saints after many years of mature life spent in constant labour and prayer, was here granted to infants who had neither laboured, nor merited, nor had even attained the use of reason. And at the same time that on these infants He conferred the benefit of so extraordinary a charity, He bestowed a like favour upon their parents, making them the fathers and mothers of martyred children, and gave them again to them as their guardians and advocates with God. By this most glorious martyrdom of so many infants, He cast an incredible lustre over Bethlehem and all its neighbourhood. Christ dwelt, for the most part, in lower Galilee, inhabited by the tribe of Zabulon, near to the lake of Genesareth, along with St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin, from His return out of Egypt till His manifestation to Israel, whence He was called by men the Galilæan.* And since this was the humblest and most despised province of Judæa, as the Pharisees remarked to Nicodemus, "Search the Scriptures, and see that out of Galilee a prophet riseth not," + our Lord, when about to appoint His Apostles, who were to be the princes and foundation stones of His Church, teachers of the whole world, and universal judges over the twelve tribes of Israel, and over every nation on the earth, as well as the highest courtiers of His Kingdom in Heaven, He chose them, too, out of this province of Galilee, and from beside this lake of Genesareth, while, in the midst of their nets and fishing boats, they were following the humble trade of fishermen. And, though not all were fishers, yet all were born in Galilee; so that when the Jewish strangers heard them, after the descent of the Holy Ghost, speaking in their different tongues, they exclaimed with wonder, "Behold, are not all these that speak Galilæans? And how have we heard every man our own tongue wherein we were born?" Thus did Christ greatly ennoble, magnify, and exalt to Heaven the province in which He dwelt. + Within the province of this very Galilee, the least of all its towns, was Nazareth, in which our Lord was conceived and grew up till He was about thirty years old.§ After His fast in the desert, when He went forth to make Himself known in Israel, He began to preach in the town of Nazareth; and He entered the synagogue, and, taking up the book, read that prophecy in Isaias which spoke * St. Matt. xxvi. 69. Acts ii. 7, 8. + St. John vii. 52. |