Day SIX: Charity Above all

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Text from the Cardinal:

Charity is the master weapon, because it is the one that penetrates hearts and inflicts wounds of eternal life. Let this be the secret of your action (I.52-53). In our relations with the unbelievers, we must be inspired by a supernatural love for them; we must love them as Our Lord loved His Apostles. We must want to die for them, just as Jesus Christ died for his Apostles. (I.320). When I speak of charity, I do not speak only of the charity of almsgiving, I speak of the charity which knows how to suffer, to give oneself, to sacrifice oneself if necessary, and which, by this demonstration, finally forces the most hardened ones to say, “Those are really God’s disciples” (P.88).

Reflection:

Lavigerie was a man with a big heart, full of compassion. All his life was filled with deeds, where he put into practice his motto ‘Caritas’ symbolised by the Pelican. The example of the Pelican is an invitation to give our blood to feed those who depend on us. For the Cardinal, all the apostolic activity of the Missionary aims to share with those he meets what his joy is and his reason for living: to know Christ. It is not just a matter of creating warm relationships with people we care about, but of turning to each and every one of them, attractive or otherwise, and offering them that unique encounter. It is also what he asks of his Sisters when they visit families. He invites Missionaries to recognise the Lord in every patient they care for and for whom they must show great patience. Many accounts show his attention to people and his concern for the most fragile. One of his first acts when he arrived in Algiers was to create a home for the elderly, to be cared for by the Little Sisters of the Poor.