Generosity
Christ
is generous towards us. The Passion and the Mass are the transcendent
reality and the divine symbol of Christ's endless generosity. He
held back absolutely nothing, but, for our sake, surrendered Himself wholly to
God's will in a perfect act of infinite generosity. Not even He could make an
offering more perfect. We must respond with a like generosity—with a generosity
that will show itself in practical gratitude for all He has done for us,
and in complete self-surrender to all He wishes to do to us. This
self-surrender and gratitude will prompt us constantly to do all we can for
Him.
Such
generosity towards Christ is a great practical safeguard in the Christian life.
It develops a holy dread of sin, keeping us away from the occasions even of
venial sin; it stirs us to beseech Christ for help in temptation; it urges us
to repent immediately of sins committed (for generosity does not preserve us
from all sin); finally it enables us in practice to distinguish the humility
which realizes its own nothingness from the laziness which is content with its
own weakness. How many Christians suffer from retarded spiritual growth,
because they take too low a view of what Christ expects of them and of what
they could do united to the strength of Christ. Contentment with mediocrity is
not what it is often mistaken for—a practical judgment of our own limitations
or a prudent middle course between sin and saintliness; mediocrity is a slur on
Christ's generosity and a contempt for His promises.
Compassion
Christ,
and the Christian, show generosity most effectively in compassion. Christ had
compassion on us, on our sins; "while we were yet sinners, Christ died on
our behalf". (Roms. V.8.) We must have compassion on Christ, on Christ
suffering for our sins. The huge range of Christ's compassion on man is given
in the three terms used in the preface to describe His kingdom: justice, love
and peace. If we do enjoy these three goods to any extent, if we may hope for
their increase, it is because Christ has taken such profound pity on mankind
smitten with sin, hatred and conflict. It is by spreading justice, love and
peace that we can take compassion on Christ and on suffering humanity.
Justice
Christ
is our justice, our justification. Not merely has He been just towards us,
but He conferred justice on us when, through baptism, He raised us up from the
death of sin. "Even when we were dead in our transgressions, God Who is
rich in His mercy brought us to life with Christ." (Eph. II.5.) Christ is
now our justification in the eyes of the Father. He destroyed the decree that
was written against us, nailing it to the cross, so that there is now no
condemnation to those who are in Christ. (Col. II.13; Roms. VIII.1.) If we are
in Christ, we are in His love: to the extent we love Christ, we are one with
Him, and the Father cannot condemn those who are one with His own divine Son.
Christ freely bestowed justice on us; the least we must do is to be just to
Christ, giving Him all the service and obedience which is His due. And we can
go further. Like Christ, and by Christ's power, we can produce justice in the
world; we can do our share towards justifying men from their sins. To use this
power of reconciling man to God is to have compassion on the whole body of
Christ which is the church. The ordained priest exercises this power in a
special way, but it belongs to the church which as a whole possesses a royal
priesthood. (1 Pet. II.5.)
Love
In
the actual dispensation of God, however, love is still the great force, and
justice cannot be conferred on men or spread through the world without love. We
cannot understand Christ justifying man unless we see Christ loving man. If
Christ is led to justify us, and to justify us in the special manner of Calvary
and of the Mass, He is led by the greatness of His love. All this justification
of man is the work of God, who is "rich in mercy", and has saved us
"by reason of the great love wherewith He has loved us." (Eph. II.5.)
Our dealings with Christ similarly must not be confined to justice; our power
to co-operate with Christ in producing justice depends so much on our love. For
us, as for Christ, the great driving force must be love. For love sets up far
higher and more intimate relations than justice could by itself. Justice
prompts us to give another all that is his due; love prompts us to give him
all. "If a man take thy coat, give him thy cloak also; if he force thee to
go one mile, go with him other two." (Matt. V.40.) Christ here was
outlining, not our duties in justice, but the generosity that grows out of
love.
