nctifying grace. He who possesses sanctifying grace
possesses also the virtue of divine charity. He who loses sanctifying
grace through mortal sin, loses also divine charity. The virtue of
charity is a participation in the divine charity with which God loves
us. It is a divine commandment that we must love God with our whole
heart, with our whole soul, with our whole strength, and that we must
love our neighbor as ourselves, for God's sake. To give oneself wholly
to God, to prefer Him to all things, rather lose all things than offend
Him, to seek to accomplish His holy will in all things, to observe His
commandments, to offer up to God every thought, word, and deed, to work
and suffer for God, to live and die for God, this is the true love of
God.

"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth
me." Thus speaks the Son of God (John xiv, 21). To love God in this
manner is made possible for us by the divine virtue of charity,
received in Baptism. We may, however, co-operate with it and so fulfil
God's commandments. Only in this manner does the infused virtue become
an acquired and meritorious virtue. The Christian virtue of charity is
the greatest of all virtues. It presupposes faith and hope because we
must believe and hope in God before we can love Him: charity gives life
to faith and hope. Without charity, faith and hope are dead and avail
not for salvation. Who so loves not remains in death. Charity is not
merely the greatest of all virtues, but it contains all Christian
virtues; it is the essence of the Christian life. Through Christian
faith we participate in the divine knowledge, through hope in the
divine power, and through charity we participate in the divine justice
and sanctity. Christian charity renders us holy, as the heavenly Father
is holy, and perfect as the Father in heaven is perfect. It is charity
which here on earth unites us with God. "He who abides in charity
abides in God and God in him." It is a virtue which continues for all
eternity, when faith has become the vision, and hope the possession, of
God.

The love of God is inseparably united to the love of our neighbor; for,
as St. Augustine says, there are two commandments but only one charity,
because there is no other charity with which we love our neighbor than
that with which we love God. Who so says that he loves God, but does
not love his neighbor, in him there is no divine charity.

We have seen, therefore, how the t