2. The divine love that leads to love for one’s fellow human beings.

It was rather out of a sense of inner emptiness that Vincent gradually came to a change of heart and began searching for a more spiritual direction in his life.  It was especially his interactions with Pierre de Bérule and Francis of Sales that led him to a true deepening of his faith.  It was de Bérule who encouraged Vincent to take his priesthood seriously and introduced him to parish work.  His involvement with the de Gondi family—where he was responsible for the children’s guidance and developed a strong bond with Madame de Gondi, who was deeply religious —also led him to a new way of life.  And finally, there is Francis of Sales, who, with his vision of the call to holiness and the decision to entrust him with the leadership of the Paris Visitation Community, led him to a true deepening of his religious life.  He became a man of intense prayer, rising every day at 4 a.m. and beginning his day with an hour of meditation before celebrating the Eucharist.  And he also sets aside time for prayer throughout the day.  He came to the conviction that charity can only be born from an intense relationship with God.  We can truly love others when we allow ourselves to be illuminated by God’s love.  “Humanly speaking, you can’t accomplish any of this on your own; God Himself must intervene.  Neither philosophy, nor theology, nor fine words have any power to affect the deepest being of a person.  Jesus Christ must do it with us—or rather, we with Him.  Let us act in and through Him, let us speak with His words and live in His spirit.  Be open and receptive, therefore, to clothe yourself with His Spirit.”  He will therefore constantly urge his collaborators not to lose themselves in their work, but to return again and again to the source, and to let charity truly grow out of the love of God. “Inner prayer is an elevation of soul and spirit to God.  The soul slowly detaches itself from itself to seek God within itself.  It is a conversation of the soul with God, a wordless mutual understanding and exchange of thoughts.  God communicates to the soul inwardly what He believes it must know and do.  And the soul, for its part, entrusts its own desires to God in a silent dialogue, just as He Himself has taught it.  That is how precious interior prayer is. There is simply nothing more important.”  And then he makes the connection between prayer and charity: “Love is a mission.  It is not only about love for God but also about love for one’s neighbour out of love for God.  God has chosen us as instruments of His immeasurable fatherly love.  He wants this love to spread throughout the whole world and take hold everywhere.  We must kindle the fire of divine love in all people and continue the mission of God’s Son.  He came to bring fire to the earth, and what else can we wish for but that this fire blaze up and set everything ablaze.”  “We must love God, but let it happen through the exertion of our arms and the sweat of our brow.

In Vincent, a unity arises between prayer and action, in which charity finds its true source in prayer, yet he dares to reverse this and give charity the highest priority.  According to Vincent, charity always comes first, but since this charity cannot exist without prayer, prayer must be the foundation. Yet charity also becomes prayer and is prayer precisely because of that unbreakable bond between the two. “Service to the poor must have the highest priority and cannot be postponed.  So if, during the time set aside for prayer, medicine must be brought to someone in need of it, or help must be offered in some other way, do so without hesitation and entrust it to God as if you had not interrupted your prayer at all.  And do not worry that you might have neglected prayer because of your service to the poor.  One does not neglect God when one leaves Him for His own sake.  This is leaving God for God’s sake.”   For Vincent, it is clear that Jesus, who is present in the tabernacle, is also present in the poor, for he sees the poor as the icon of Jesus.

In Peter Joseph Triest we see the same movement, how love for God becomes the true source of his love for his fellow human beings. During the period when he had to live in hiding in Ronse—a period lasting five years—Father Triest deepened his spiritual life and was, as it were, overwhelmed by God’s love.  From his preserved daily schedule, we know how much time he devoted each day to prayer, meditation, and reading the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments.  This made him a spiritual man—we might even say a mystical man.  For him, love of God became the foundation of his love for his neighbour, which he was able to fully develop after this period of hiding.  He writes the following about divine love: “The first reason that should prompt us to be grateful to God and to love Him lies in the fact that He created us and gave us existence.  Not only did God create us and give us existence, He also continually sustains us in existence.  Another reason why one must love God is that He became man for us and redeemed us.  St. Bernard said: ‘You must give your whole life to Christ Jesus, because He gave His life for you and bore bitter crosses.’  We must love God because He has adopted us as His children and thus granted us a right to His Kingdom.  But what should most inspire us to love God is that He instituted for us the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, in which He has given Himself wholly to us as food and drink, so that through it He might pour out His entire Spirit into our souls.  … The love that the Lord Jesus showed us in the institution of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, which is truly the sacrament of love, is the greatest He has ever shown or could ever show.” Based on this overwhelming love that we have been allowed to receive from God, Triest argues that we owe Him our total reciprocal love. “You are bound to love Him in return. If He has bequeathed you such a precious treasure in His will, what gratitude, what tenderness, what reverence do you owe Him?  How should you burn with love if you have the good fortune to truly serve your God.”  “It is through this divine love that we set out toward God as our ultimate goal.  This love must always grow, so that through this love, man may draw ever closer to his goal.  Divine love is a mighty fire!”  Triest repeats here what St. Bernard also said about love: “The measure of love is love without measure.” “When a heart is inflamed by this ardent love, it can no longer rest; it wants to move forward.  It is no longer satisfied with feet to walk; it seeks wings to fly.” 

It is from this mystical fervour, this being overwhelmed by God’s love, that his love for his neighbour grows.  But he had to wait until this life in obscurity came to an end.  A Sister describes it as a restrained urge: “For a long time, the Spirit of God had instilled in him a great zeal, which, coupled with his fiery and lively character, was a heavy trial for him for many years.  He saw evil happening without being able to remedy it.” When he was finally able to openly exercise his priestly ministry after his five years in Ronse, a purified love for his neighbour sprang up within him, as a reflection of divine love.  “To move someone to care and compassion for a sufferer, nothing is as powerful as love, which is the source of all things.  Love has a special power to move a person and to overcome the reason; love is so eloquent that it even penetrates the innermost part of the heart. .. Love gives strength that nature cannot provide.”   From this moment on, Triest becomes a true icon of charity, and just as with Vincent, we see, as it were, a fusion of divine love that flows almost silently into charity.  He, too, writes to his Sisters that they must be willing to sacrifice a moment of prayer for a work of charity, for it is the same Lord Jesus whom one serves and loves both in prayer and in caring for one’s fellow human beings. “Serving the sick is a noble vocation; through this service, you become co-workers and handmaids of God’s Providence over the sick.  You must also realize that it is Jesus Himself whom you serve in the sick.  Through your love, you become like God.  You participate in the ministry of Jesus Christ.  You cannot more perfectly represent Jesus Christ than by helping those who groan in misery, who bear the cross of poverty along with sickness and suffering.”

Brother René Stockman,
Brother of Charity