Salesian Literature

Chapter 13  :  How to make all our actions, and the practice of virtue, expressions of charity

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Man is very much the master of his human, rational actions, so he has a reason for all of them; he can direct them to one or several goals, as he thinks fit.  He can even alter the natural goal of his activity: when, for example, he swears to what is false – for the whole purpose of taking an oath is to avoid deceit.  He can also add another purpose to the natural goal of an action: when, for instance, he gives an alms and not only intends to relieve another’s misfortune, but means to induce the beggar to do the like.

 

Occasionally we add a goal which is less perfect than that of the action itself; sometimes, again, we add a goal of similar perfection; further, now and then we add a higher, nobler goal.  Almsgiving, for example, has relieving the needy for its special goal; but we can add other motives.  We could give alms to win a poor man’s friendship, or to edify our neighbour, or to please God.  there you have three different motives, different goals, of which the first is less, the second equal and the third higher in value than almsgiving’s normal purpose.  So, you see, we can give our actions a variety of qualities, depending on the various motives, goals and purposes we have in doing them.

 

You are to be good money-changers, our Saviour warns us[1].  So we are to take great care, Theotimus, only to change the motives or goals of our actions profitably and with advantage, regulating the whole business according to good order and reason.

 

If I fast in Lent, my motive may be charity – so as to please God; or it may be obedience – because the Church orders it; or it may be temperance; or it may be industry – to study better; or it may be prudence – to achieve some essential saving; or it may be chastity – to take the flesh; or it may be religion – to pray better.

 

Now I can, if I wish, put all these motives together and fast for all those reasons at once; but this would mean keeping a watchful eye on placing motives in their right order.  If I were to fast chiefly in order to save rather than out of obedience to the Church, or for the purpose of studying well rather than simply pleasing God, it is quite obvious, surely, that I should be profaning what is right and proper, placing self-interest before obedience to the Church, to God’s will.  To fast for the purpose of saving is good; to fast out of obedience to the Church is better; to fast so as to please God is better still.

 

Although you might think that it is impossible to make an evil thing out of three good ones, the man who arranges them in the wrong order, preferring the lesser to the better, is obviously guilty of moral disorder.

 

Charity, the supreme motive of our actions, has one great virtue: its greater purity makes our consequent actions purer. Thus the angels and saints in heaven have only one reason for loving anything at all – their love for God; only one motive – their desire to please him.

 

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[1]  These words are not to be found in Scripture.  The quotation is given by Origen, St. Ambrose, St. Jerome.  St. Francis uses it again in Book 12, chapter 7; also in his Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 3, Chapter 22.

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