Lent 2026 - Reading #44 - Love (Charity)
Reading
Saint Augustine, in his homilies on the First Letter of John, delivers his most famous teaching on love: "Once for all, then, a short precept is given unto you: Love, and do what you will. Whether you hold your peace, through love hold your peace; whether you cry out, through love cry out; whether you correct, through love correct; whether you spare, through love do you spare. Let the root of love be within; of this root can nothing spring but what is good." Augustine further reflects: "Love is a beautiful thing. But what love? The love of God, love for the sake of God. This is a love that never fails, a love that does not grow old, that does not grow corrupt. It is renewed day by day. This love is the way, the truth, and the life. By this love we live, by this love we are lifted up, by this love we are carried to God." For Augustine, love is not one rule among many but the one rule that contains all others. If the root is love, then every action, silence or speech, correction or mercy, giving or withholding, becomes an expression of the good. The challenge is not to learn a complex moral code but to transform the heart so thoroughly that love becomes its native language.
Reflection
The second day of Holy Week. Forty-six days into our Lenten journey, and Augustine gives us what may be the most liberating sentence in all of Christian ethics: "Love, and do what you will." After six weeks of careful moral instruction, prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, faith, hope, Augustine seems to sweep it all away with a single breathtaking command. But he does no such thing. "Love, and do what you will" does not mean "do whatever you feel like." It means: transform the root, and the fruit will take care of itself. If the deepest motivation of your heart is genuine love, love of God, love of neighbor, then your actions will be right. Not because you are following rules but because you are operating from a transformed nature. All the virtues we have cultivated these past weeks are not replaced by love; they are perfected by it. Love needs prudence to be wise, justice to be fair, fortitude to endure, and temperance to be free. This week, as the events of the Passion unfold, watch how love operates. Jesus in the garden, sweating blood, asking for the cup to pass, that is love combined with honesty and fortitude. Jesus washing the disciples' feet, that is love combined with humility and justice. Jesus on the cross, forgiving his executioners, that is love in its most radical, most costly, most beautiful form. Love, and do what you will. But be warned: if you truly love, what you will may astonish you.