everlastings life--life without end. "Means"--that
is, His grace, because without God's grace we cannot do any supernatural
thing.

109 Q. What is charity?
A. Charity is a divine virtue by which we love God above all things for
His own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.

The virtue of charity makes us "love God," because He is so good and
beautiful, wise and powerful in Himself; therefore for His own sake and
without any other consideration. "Above all things," in such a way that
we would rather lose anything than offend Him. But someone may say, he
thinks he loves his parents more than God. Well, let us see. To repeat
an example already given, suppose his parents told him to steal, and he
knew stealing to be a sin; if he would not steal, that would show, would
it not, that he loved God more than his parents, for he would rather
offend his parents than God. That is the kind of love we must have for
God; not mere feeling, but the firm belief that God is the best of all,
and when we have to choose between offending God and losing something,
be it goods or friends, we would rather lose anything than offend God.

"Neighbor." Not merely the person living near us, but all men of every
kind and nation--even our enemies. The people who lived at the time of
Our Lord in His country used to dispute about just what persons were to
be considered their neighbors; so one day they asked Our Lord, and He
answered them by telling them the following. Said He: (Luke 10:30) A man
was once going down from Jerusalem, and on the way robbers beat him,
robbed him, and left him on the wayside dying. First one man came by,
looked at the wounded man, and passed on; then another came and did the
same; finally a third man came, who was of a different religion and
nationality from the wounded man. But he did not consider these things.
He dressed the poor man's wounds, placed him upon his horse and brought
him to an inn or hotel, and paid the innkeeper to take care of him.
"Now," said Our Lord, "which of these three was neighbor to the wounded
man?" And they answered rightly, "The man that helped him." Our Lord, by
this example, wished to teach them and us that everybody is our neighbor
who is in distress of any kind and needs our help. Neighbor, therefore,
means every human being, no matter where he lives or what his color,
learning, manners, etc., for every human being in the world is a child
of God and has been redeemed by Ou