Lent 2026 - Reading #43 - Love (Charity)
Reading
Thomas Aquinas crowns his treatment of the virtues with charity, the love of God and neighbor that perfects all other virtues: "Charity is the mother and root of all the virtues, inasmuch as it is the form of all the virtues. For since the end is the principle in matters of action, so charity, which regards the last end, is the principle of all the other virtues. A virtue directed to a lesser end cannot be a perfect virtue unless it is referred to the principal end by means of charity." Aquinas explains the relationship between love of God and love of neighbor: "The aspect under which our neighbor is to be loved is God, since what we ought to love in our neighbor is that he may be in God. Hence it is clear that it is specifically the same act whereby we love God and whereby we love our neighbor. On this account, charity extends not merely to the love of God, but also to the love of our neighbor." For Aquinas, charity is not merely one virtue among many, it is the virtue that gives all other virtues their ultimate meaning and direction. Without charity, prudence is mere cleverness, justice is mere legalism, fortitude is mere stubbornness, and temperance is mere self-discipline. With charity, every virtue is transfigured into an expression of love.
Reflection
Holy Week begins. Palm Sunday. Forty-five days into Lent, we arrive at the virtue for which all others exist: love. Charity. The form of all the virtues, the mother and root, the one thing without which everything else is empty noise and clanging cymbals. Our long pilgrimage through the seven virtues reaches its destination this week, and that destination is not an idea but a Person hanging on a cross. Aquinas teaches that charity is not a separate compartment of the moral life but the animating principle of the whole thing. Everything we have been building, the clear sight of prudence, the right action of justice, the endurance of fortitude, the self-mastery of temperance, the trust of faith, the confidence of hope, all of it finds its fulfillment and its meaning in love. A person of perfect prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, but without charity, would be impressive but not yet holy. Holiness is love. This week, as we walk through the events of Christ's passion, we will see love in its most extreme and undeniable form. The God who is love did not merely teach about love or command love, he embodied it, in flesh and blood, through suffering and death. Every day this week will bring us closer to that mystery. Today, on Palm Sunday, the crowds cheer. By Friday, they will cry "Crucify." Through it all, love endures. This is the love we are called to receive and to give. This is the love that makes us who we were created to be.