Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 309 - Part III.

YOUCAT Question n. 309 - Part III. What is charity?

(Youcat answer - repeated)  Charity is the power by which we, who have been loved first by God, can give ourselves to God so as to be united with him and can accept our neighbor for God’s sake as unconditionally and sincerely as we accept ourselves.   

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 1828) The practice of the moral life animated by charity gives to the Christian the spiritual freedom of the children of God. He no longer stands before God as a slave, in servile fear, or as a mercenary looking for wages, but as a son responding to the love of him who "first loved us" (Cf. 1 Jn 4:19): If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages,… we resemble mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands… we are in the position of children (St. Basil, Reg. fus. tract., prol. 3 PG 31, 896 B).

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Jesus places love above all laws, without however abolishing the latter. Therefore St. Augustine rightly says, “Love, and do what you will.” Which is not at all as easy as it sounds. That is why charity, love, is the greatest virtue, the energy that inspires all the other virtues and fills them with divine life.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 1829) The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity and remains disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion: Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest (St. Augustine, In ep. Jo. 10, 4: PL 35, 2057).

(The next question is: What are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit?)