1. And so let us now learn, the Apostle teaching, of what sort and how great this love is—not a way of the feet, but of morals. «If,» he says, «I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal» (1 Cor. 13:1). By the tongues of men or of angels we ought to understand the empty eloquence of certain men signified—those who pronounce whatever they please, indeed accurately and eloquently; but although they discourse in an ornate and copious manner, yet if they undertake the office of teaching more out of the vanity of pleasing than out of the love of counseling—not that they may teach others, but that they may show themselves learned; and seek not the profit, but the applause of their hearers;
if they transfer the whole diligence of their conscience, ill-fitted, to the tongue, and wish more zealously to cultivate eloquence than life: if, lifted up by the haughtiness of vain loquacity, they desire their sayings to be praised rather than carried out; and are concerned not for the sanctity of the work, but for the elaborated charm of their speech: are not such men deservedly compared to sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal? who, in the manner of tinkling brass or a cymbal, seek to make excellent things resound rather than to do them: nor do they blush to disagree with their own selves by living otherwise than they preach: who, in order somehow to obscure the foulness of their own way of life, do not cease to preach honorable things;
yet not that their hearers may profit by their preaching, but that they themselves may seem to care for the things they preach. 2. But let us see what the Apostle joins to these. «If,» he says, «I have prophecy, and know all mysteries, and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so that I remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing» (Ibid. 2). He does not say this as though some could not have certain good things without love; but because they would profit nothing those who have them, if they fail in love. But love itself is necessary even here, that all good things may profit those who have the highest good of love, and there it will remain even more perfect for them, when it shall have led all who persevere in it to the vision of God.
Moreover, prophecy and the knowledge of all mysteries, or learning, and faith itself, or other such things—which are judged necessary not to the perfection of the faithful but to their frailty—will not be able to be necessary in that perfection of the saints toward which, rooted in love, they strive to arrive, once they have arrived there; for things incomparably better and more perfect will have taken their place. Because there will be no need of prophecy there, when it shall have led to fulfillment that future which it was promising; nor of learning, which like a lamp illuminates the faithful in the night of this present age, when in the day of that life the living Sun shall forever have shone upon the just;
nor will the knowledge of mysteries, or faith itself, be necessary, when Christian perfection shall have arrived at those things which were signified through mystery and believed by faith. But love indeed is here necessary, which separates us from the devil, purifies us from sin, and reconciles us to God; yet there it will be made perfect, when it shall have joined to God the perfect, by whom it was bestowed. 3. Furthermore, the Apostle, amplifying the praise of divine love, adds and says: «If I distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I deliver up my body so that I burn, but have not love, it profits me nothing» (1 Cor. 13:3). And not without reason. For if, in that last examination, it must be asked not what but for what reason we do a thing;
of what profit will alms, or the surrender of the body to death, be to those who have not love? Therefore it is love that must be possessed, love that must be pursued, without which neither alms, nor the slaying of the body, nor all those things said above, nor any other goods whatsoever, lead anyone to salvation. For any good action or suffering, unless it proceeds from faith «which works through love» (Gal. 5:6), will not be able to profit us. Wherefore no damnable sin will be able to remain in those, nor any good be lacking to them, in whom love—the cleansing of every defilement and the mother of all good things—has abounded.
Since indeed «if love is patient, is kind, is not puffed up, deals not perversely, is not inflated, is not ambitious, seeks not the things that are its own; is not provoked, thinks no evil, rejoices not over iniquity but rejoices together with the truth; if it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things» (1 Cor. 13:4ff.); and imparts to those in whom it dwells all these goods which it possesses: what can be more perfect in this life than those who, with love reigning within them, abound in such great virtues? 4. Accordingly, when we see some, founded upon the mass of patience, set an unshaken breast against raging evils;
when we see them, moved by an abundance of holy kindness, willing to have their own good shared with all, not seething with any torches of burning envy; not dealing perversely, but showing purity simply with all whomsoever; not inflated by any haughtiness of ruinous vanity; not coveting, through the crime of greed, anything of what belongs to others; not seeking the things that are their own, for the sake of the good of fellowship; thinking no evil against anyone, however provoked by any injuries; rejoicing not over the iniquity of another or of their own work, but over the truth;
bearing all the restless, or restlessnesses, with a settled tranquillity of soul; believing, in fear, the punishments divinely threatened after this life; hoping, in joy, the rewards promised; desiring, in bravely enduring, the revelation of the sons of God: when, then, we see that some can do these and such goods, let us recognize that they can do what they ardently will, and do it, not by the greatness of their own virtue; but by the benefit of that love «which is not of ourselves, but has been poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us» (Rom. 5:5).