This talk is called Nurturing the virtue of Charity through the Sacraments.
If this talk had a subtitle, it would probably say something like - you cannot give what you do not have or you can’t take blood from a stone.
In the next few minutes, we’ll cover concepts that literally took five years to cover in the diaconate formation program that me and my classmates took part in prior to ordination. No pressure. With the help of God’s grace, I will help us all have a better understanding of how we nurture charity through the sacraments.
First we’ll talk about the theological virtues and what those are, with a specific focus on charity. What it is - charity - Why it is important and, Why are we called to it.
Then we’ll talk about grace and its relationship to charity.
And then finally, we’ll talk about how to get that grace and that’ll take us to the sacraments.
We have a God who loves us; a father who keeps his promises as it’s been said. It’s also been said that since he loves us and keeps his promises to us - that he wouldn’t ask us to do things without giving us the tools we need to get them done.
So that’s quite a bit to cover, so let’s see how we do.
Let’s talk about virtues. What is a virtue? Can anyone tell me that? What is a virtue?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines virtue as "a habitual and firm disposition to do the good." Now, there are different kinds of virtues - falling mainly in two groups.
These are called cardinal virtues and theological virtues - and it’s so interesting - it’s not like these virtues have ever gone away, but you just don’t hear them referred to very often. The cardinal virtues of Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Forbearance. These words even sound a bit old don’t they? These are sometimes called moral virtues. They almost sounds a little painful don’t they? Prudence. Justice. Fortitude. Forbearance. They almost sound like the name of Infinity Stones from the Marvel Universe - that was for you, Nicole. We don’t use these words very often but they represent virtues that help us grow in morality.
Now, these moral virtues direct a person to aim at a good end, but in order for a person to make the right choices to get to this good end, that person needs to have practical wisdom. Maybe that’s why we don’t hear about them very often as true wisdom seems to be hard to find some days. One other thing to note about these cardinal virtues is that they are natural - which means us humans can get them through effort, practice and by working at them. You have what you need to get them - it just takes work. So that’s the cardinal virtues - they’re natural and you can get them by working at them.
Next let’s talk about the theological virtues. There are three of those that we pray for increases in whenever we pray the rosary (hold up rosary and point to those beads). Those theological virtues are Faith, Hope and Charity. Now these virtues are supernatural - we can’t get them on our own by just working hard. That’s not enough. The three theological virtues are like a plant - not sure if any of you have a green thumb - I don’t, but this is a helpful metaphor - picture a plant. In our plant of theological virtues, Faith is its root. Hope is its stalk or stem and Charity is its fruit. The plant is God’s own life in us. It’s been said that Faith, hope, and charity are the hands that receive God. That’s pretty serious stuff! In fact, it’s beyond serious - it’s supernatural. But it’s the truth.
So, if we think about it - the primary differences between cardinal virtues and theological virtues, besides there being 4 of one and 3 of the other is that while we can develop the cardinal virtues on our own by our own effort and study and sweat - they are like the yummy snacks on the high shelf, they’re up there, but we can reach them on our tippy toes and by stretching ourselves out and reaching - the theological virtues are different - our tippy toes can’t get us to the yummy, salty, tasty snack we so crave - we can’t get there without a boost and that boost that helps us get the theological virtues and grow in them is no less than God’s help. As a result of the need for that help, Theological virtues are called supernatural. We good so far? Brief summary.
Cardinal virtues - natural - we can get them ourselves with effort.
Theological virtues - supernatural - we can’t get them without help from God.
Cardinal - all us. Theological - need God.
We good? OK.
At the end of the day, God wants us to be happy - to be truly happy, to be a complete human being and he calls us to be saints. Ultimately, to get the level of happiness that he wants for us and that’s making it to heaven, to get that tasty, yummy, delicious snack on the highest of high shelves - we need his help of the theological virtues.
Of these three theological virtues - faith, hope and charity - St. Paul wrote that the greatest one is charity. In the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, Paul places the greater emphasis on Charity (Love), when he writes:
"So faith, hope, (charity) love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is (charity) love."
He describes it like this:
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away....And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”
Again, we’ll go back to the Catechism - and if you don’t have one - it’s not the best cover to cover read, but it’s a great resource and if you get it on the Kindle or on Google Play you can search for what you’re looking for really easily.
The Catechism defines the virtue of charity like this - "charity" is "the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for His own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God". Let me read that again. "Charity" is "the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for His own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God".
So charity is all about love - and we are called to it - if you look closely - you’ll see what charity is in the first three commandments that God gave us through Moses.
Charity is said to be the ultimate perfection of the human spirit, because it glorifies and reflects the nature of God. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Now, Charity has two parts: love of God and love of man, which includes both love of one's neighbor and one's self - and yep, it even includes loving those who don’t maybe love you so much - your enemies - we’re not really good at that most of the time.
St. Paul writes about charity as the most bestest theological virtue (my words not his) as a radical kind of love that the world simply had not seen before Christ—not natural, human love. This kind of charity, this love is called Agape. The type of charity that we are called to is the kind of love that created the universe. It’s the kind of charity that sent Christ down to suffer Hell on the Cross to save us. It’s the kind of charity that kissed the traitor Judas, suffered the soldiers’ slaps and sneers, and prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Was that kind of charity ever seen before Christ? Could that charity ever be confused with ordinary, humanly-attainable, natural loves or morality? Nope - not in human form.
In order to get anything close to that - we can’t get there on our own. It’s supernatural.
We need grace. We need God. We need to be loved despite our sin. Self help books fly off the shelves telling us to be positive, to fake it until we make it, that we are ok. But we’re not ok a lot of the time and we know it. The most attractive lie the Devil has ever told us (and yes, I said the Devil and yes, he is a real person and yes, he hates Charity and Grace and Us and wants what is worst for us), the most attractive lie the Devil has ever told us is that we are intrinsically good and that sin is nothing more than superstition and that we are OK the way we are, that we can do what we like, we’re not really hurting anybody and that “every little thing’s gonna be all right”. With all due respect to Bob Marley, “Every little thing is gonna be all right” is a song people sing as they march to Hell. We need God’s love, not just man’s. Man’s love is fickle.
Charity, love, this Agape is supernatural because it comes from God, it is selfless and self giving because only God has no needs and can give this totally - this freely.
So, this Charity thing sounds pretty great! Bring it on! But how do we get it? How do we get this amazing Charity that allows us to love as Christ did - to see with his eyes? And once we have it - how do we nurture it and keep it growing?
To get it you need Grace. You can’t give the kind of Charity that we’ve been talking about for the past few minutes without being filled up. You can’t make it up, you can’t grow it, you can’t get blood from a stone.
We need Grace. Now what is Grace? Again, we go back to the Catechism, which says that - Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.
The Catechism goes on to say Grace is a participation in the life of God. It’s a privilege to participate in someone’s life, but in the life of God? That sounds pretty awesome doesn’t it?
So, Grace is a participation in the life of God.
“Grace” literally means “free” and it signifies that grace is a “gift freely given.” But what is it a gift of? Grace is the gift of God’s presence in our souls. What the what? Grace is the gift of God’s presence in our souls. In our souls...you can’t get much closer than that. You can’t get much more intimate than that.
So, when we talk about having a relationship with God through grace, we’re not talking about a relationship with a distant God who separates Himself from us. We’re talking about an incredible intimacy in which God dwells in our very hearts. This is out of love for us and because He knows we need it, God makes a free gift of his power in the form of grace to help us grow in holiness - to help our plants grow and bear much charitable fruit.
Saint Theresa said “It’s all grace”. Saint Philip Neri’s said about a beggar and this is true for us too - “There but for the grace of God go I.” And that is why Brother Lawrence says, in The Practice of the Presence of God, that after he falls into any sin he simply repents, says to God, “See? That’s what I shall always do when you do not give me the grace!”
Grace is incredibly important. It’s a gift and we need it to be more like Christ and to love like him.
So, how do we get this “amazing grace”? Through the sacraments. We know the sacraments don’t we? We’ve learned about them in CCD class or we’ve taught about them or we’ve taken part in them in Church - some more than others, but we’ll get to that. So we can get grace from the sacraments.
But first, what is a sacrament?
A sacrament is defined as “a sacred sign instituted by Christ that gives grace.” A sacramental sign is very special in that Jesus actually acts through the sign to bring about what it signifies.
Sacred. Instituted by Christ. Gives grace. Not a lot of words, but a ridiculous, ginormous amount of meaning! Sacred. Instituted by Christ. Gives grace. Shut the front door!
If you remember the plant I spoke about a few minutes ago - with Faith as its roots, Hope as its stem and stock and Charity as its flowers, it’s great to have a plant - I mean, I am no good with plants to be honest - it’s great to have a plant, but if you don’t water it, if you don’t feed it, if you don’t expose it to the sun or if you stick it in a closet then the plant doesn’t grow and, like a muscle you don’t use, it atrophies and dies.
We care for our plant by feeding it, by watering it, by exposing it to the sun.
The Sacraments are what feed us, water us and expose us to the Son - The S-O-N - see what I did there? The SON - S-O-N? Pun intended. The sacraments confer on us a special kind of grace called “Sacramental Grace” that we really need to grow in Charity.
Sacramental Grace is attached to the sacrament that confers it upon us and in turn helps us to live out what the sacrament signifies. It gives us what we need so that we can live the way Jesus expects us to.
Let’s face it - Jesus sets a pretty high bar for us. In its most perfect form, Only Christ can live Christian ethics. And our Lord reminds us this in scripture, when he reminds us that “Without me you can do nothing”.
We need the sacraments for the grace they give - if we want to nurture charity.
Without all the sacraments of Jesus Christ—we cannot love the way our Father calls us to love - we cannot hold the power, we cannot enter the kingdom, we cannot even know what it means to be a child of God.
Jesus was baptized, and so we are baptized. Jesus broke bread and blessed a cup of wine, commanding His followers to “do this” in His memory—and so we do. Jesus gave His Spirit to His disciples to confirm them in faith, and so does the true Church of Christ in our time. Jesus ordained His apostles to celebrate Mass and forgive sins; and so does the Church today. Jesus forgave and healed people in sacramental ways, and so does the Catholic Church. Jesus blessed marriage, and so we, too, count our marriages as blessed and sacramental.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church reaches into the Scriptures and sums it up pretty well. “Sacraments are ‘powers that come forth’ from the Body of Christ, which is ever-living and life-giving. They are actions of the Holy Spirit at work in His Body, the Church. They are ‘the masterworks of God’ in the new and everlasting covenant”.
In just a few words, this definition takes us to some of the memorable moments of Jesus’ ministry: the moments when He healed people. In the press of a crowd, Jesus said, “Someone touched Me; for I perceive that power has gone forth from me” (Luke Chapter 8:, verse 46), and immediately the anonymous woman was cured of her chronic hemorrhage. “And all the crowd sought to touch Him, for power came forth from Him and healed them all” (Luke Chapter 6, verse 19).
Jesus Himself established the sacraments as the ordinary means of spreading his power to us and to extend extending salvation to each and every person.
Even so, when a priest celebrates the sacraments, his work is secondary to that of Jesus Christ. Because of that, the sacraments do not depend upon the strength, the skill, the intelligence, the eloquence, or even the holiness of the individual priest. For it is Christ who acts—though through His unworthy minister—in every sacrament.
St. Augustine put it in a memorable way: “When Peter baptizes, it is Christ Who baptizes…. When Judas baptizes, it is Christ Who baptizes.”
The effect of the sacraments, however, depends upon how well we are disposed to receive them. Christ always gives grace in the sacraments; but we must have the right motives and conditions for receiving that grace.
God gave us sacraments because He knows we need them, He knows how we learn, He knows how to Father.
All seven sacraments are actions of Jesus Christ. Every sacrament involves both words and actions referred to as “form” and “matter.” And every sacrament confers sacramental grace that helps us to nurture Charity.
Now, we’d need a lot more time than I have to talk through all seven sacraments. In fact, I’m not going to spend any time, to be honest, talking about Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders, the Anointing of the Sick or Matrimony. Not that these are not important sacraments - they are - but instead I want to focus on two sacraments that we can participate in regularly - over and over again - and that are absolutely critical for receiving that grace that is so critical to nurturing charity - which is what this talk is about. These two sacraments also go together - or at least they are intended too!
These two sacraments are Eucharist and Penance.
First, I’ll talk about the Eucharist. We could call the Eucharist the “Sacrament of sacraments.” Anyone have any idea why? This could be a bonus question or one saved in Final Catholic Jeopardy. Why could we call the Eucharist the “Sacrament of sacraments”?
It’s because while the other sacraments are works of Jesus Christ, the Eucharist is Christ Himself—body, blood, soul, and divinity. The Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life.”
In Holy Communion, we receive the body and blood of Christ, and we “participate” in that body and blood. Jesus’ presence is real and substantial. We share in His flesh and blood. You’ve heard the saying, “you are what you eat”? We become what we eat. Through Holy Communion, we become “one body” in Christ - the mystical body of Christ. Remember what we said earlier, we can do nothing without Christ. But if we flip that around, we can do all with Christ who strengthens us - and one of the primary ways Jesus strengthens us is through the Eucharist. We can’t get any closer to Jesus than through holy communion with our Lord. And doing so fills us with sacramental grace, that - if we are properly disposed - helps strengthens the disposition within us to do good - it nurtures Charity and helps us to better love God and those around us which is pretty awesome. Remember, God doesn’t give us something to do without giving us the tools to do it.
Now, not so fast - there’s a rub though. Holy communion with our Lord is amazing and we can’t get much closer to Him without being in heaven - but we need to be properly disposed. Jesus is without sin. If we come into contact with Him and are in a state of sin (rather than being in a state of grace), instead of getting closer to God, instead of nurturing the theological virtue of Charity that we are called to - we are actually, getting further away and sinning even worse, compounding sin upon sin. Being in a state of sin does not allow us to receive the full effect of sacramental grace that we need to nurture charity.
But again, God doesn’t give us something He expects us to do without giving us “the way”, without giving us the tools. This brings us to the second sacrament we need to help us nurture charity. It’s available to us - it’s a gift - and none of us take advantage of it as much as we should - and by not taking advantage of it as often as we should, we are hurting ourselves and others. This gift is the Sacrament of Penance.
Penance is a sacrament that goes by many names, most popularly “the sacrament of reconciliation” or “confession.” It is the sacrament, by which Christ forgives our sins through the absolution of the priest. The most ancient manual of the Church’s sacramental and moral life, the Didache, urged Christians to confess their sins before approaching the altar for Communion. It is, after all, by confessing our sins and receiving forgiveness that we are restored to normal family life.
We are sons of almighty God; but we stray; and so He humbles Himself to come down to us and give us what we need to come home to stay. Making a frequent sacramental confession is critical. But in order for the sacrament to have its fullest healing effect, certain elements need to be in place. First, to be sure you are prepared to make a good confession, you need to perform an Examination of Conscience. In a properly done Examination of Conscience the penitent - asks themselves a series of questions, tied to God’s commandments to help them recall their sins so that they can confess them. After performing a proper Examination of Conscience - and its a good idea to do this the last couple of minutes before you go to bed at night to be sure you think about that day and take note of things to confess - I use a Google Doc to keep track - sounds silly, but it isn’t - I even pull up the Google Doc on my phone in the confessional - my mind’s not what it used to be. In approaching confession - for it to have its intended effect - the person approaching the sacrament must be sorry; you must confess your sins; and you must perform the act of penance prescribed by the priest. The priest then pronounces the words of absolution (“I absolve you…”), prays for the sinner, and does penance with them.
No matter how bad you think your sins are, they are nothing the priest has not heard before. If it helps, and you feel a little strange about going to your own pastor, go to another church in your town or go to another town. I go to one who is a bit older and is a little hard of hearing - that works for me. Regular confessions are absolutely critical to being able to have a proper communion with Jesus and to receive the grace needed to grow in Charity. It’s kind of like an air filter in your air conditioner in your car or in your home. If you clean it regularly, you breathe in clean air and everyone stays healthy. If you don’t, that filter picks up dirt and dust and cannot do its job - in fact it can make you sick. Eucharist without regular penance is no different. No one likes going to confession - but we need it in order for our relationship with God to be what it was intended to be and remember, God doesn’t ask us to do anything without giving us the tools to do it. Stop me if you’ve heard that before.
So, at this point, I’ve spoken entirely too long. To review quickly. God calls us to Charity. In order to nurture that charity we need Grace which is a free gift from God. Jesus instituted the sacraments to give us a special kind of grace called sacramental grace we need in order to nurture that Charity. This is power that comes directly to us from Jesus Christ. Two of these sacraments that we should participate in as frequently as possible is Penance and the Eucharist so that that virtue of Charity, the flowers on our plant can grow wildly and beautifully.
