Supreme Position of Charity

56. The other point We wish to raise has to do with the cultivation of charity, a subject, surely, which is already of deepest concern to you, for charity is the very heart and center of the plan of God's providence as revealed in both the Old and New Testament. Are We not right in saying that charity is the goal of the Church's practice of the spiritual life? Is it not true to say that the more perfect and more joyful realization of charity is the goal of all theological study and of the practice of Christian piety? Both these things encourage Us to meditate on the scriptural and sacramental treasures of which the Church is heir, guardian, mistress, and minister.

In full agreement with Our predecessors, with those saints whom our age has given to the Church on earth and in heaven, and with the devout instincts of the faithful, We are convinced that charity should today assume its rightful, foremost position in the scale of religious and moral values-and not just in theory, but in the practice of the Christian life. And this applies not only to the charity we show toward God who has poured out the abundance of His love upon us, but also to the charity which we in turn should lavish on our brothers, the whole human race.

Charity is the key to everything. It sets all to rights. There is nothing which charity cannot achieve and renew. Charity "beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." ³⁷ Who is there among us who does not realize this? And since we realize it, is not this the time to put it into practice?