“Cordial love of the neighbor does not consist in feelings. This love flows not from a heart of flesh but from the heart of our will."
These words from St. Jane de Chantal speak to the character of “love of neighbor” that she envisions for the Sisters of the Visitation and for all who embrace Salesian spirituality.
The virtue of “cordiality” is central to Salesian Spirituality, for at its root is the Latin word for “heart.” “Heart love” is genuine, unfeigned, sincere, universal, and without condition. It echoes the unconditional love that God has for every person, with neither favor nor preference. He has made each of us to his divine image, the most loveable center at the core of each of us.
This is how St. Francis de Sales expresses this love of others based on their divine image: “When we see our neighbor, created to the image and likeness of God, should we not say to one another, ‘Stop, do you see this created being, do you see how it resembles the Creator? should we not cast ourselves upon him, and weep over him with love? Should we not give him a thousand, thousand blessings?’”
Francis goes on to ask why we should shower the neighbor with such love. He assures us that it is not because the person is worthy of our love. We cannot know that initially. Why then? “It is for love of God who made him in his own image and likeness and therefore capable of sharing in his goodness in grace and glory. I say it is for love of God, from whom he is, whose he is, by whom he is, in whom he is, for whom he is, whom he resembles in a most particular manner.” (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 10, Chapter 11)
Please take a few moments to reflect on each of the phrases: God, “from whom he is, whose he is, by whom he is, in whom he is, and for whom he is, whom he resembles in a most particular manner.” Francis had hoped to write a companion book to the Treatise on the Love of God, with one on the second commandment, the Treatise on the Love of Neighbor. No doubt such a work would have elaborated on those phrases, for they say everything about how truly loveable each of us is and, that, solely by virtue of our relatedness to God as source, way, and destiny.
Cordial love, then, is not conditioned on the feelings that we may or may not have for this or that person, or on our assessment of their worthiness or not of our love. The only consideration is their relatedness to God and, this, in the most profound manner imaginable.
It is for this reason that cordial love of others, as understood by Francis and Jane, does not flow from a heart of flesh that tends to condition the love of others on factors other than their divine image. Cordial love, rather, flows from “the heart of our will,” that is, from our choice that is based solely on the neighbor’s innate resemblance to the Creator.
Our love for God is absolute and without condition: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” So must be our love of others, all others, without exception, without condition.
Such a love can only flow from “the heart of our will.”
Fr. Lou
V. Rev. Lewis S. Fiorelli, OSFS
Provincial
Wilmington-Philadelphia Province
