Requirements of vocation

It is not my purpose in this letter to give a detailed exposition of the main demands of our vocation. However, since I have allowed myself to be led by St John to speak to you of the need for sacrifice in fulfilling the Father’s will, let me now remind you of the teaching which the same apostle gave to the first Christians, who were also eager to know the obligations of their Christian vocation.

Filial and fraternal love

It is a teaching which has all the authentic, perennial timeliness of the Gospel, made clearer to our eyes, through God’s special grace, by the light that our deep sense of divine filiation infuses in our souls. Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever who loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes (1 John 2:7-11).

My children, ours is a pathway of love. Love for God, who is our Father; and sincere, constant, sensitive, fraternal charity. You should exercise charity always and in everything, for the charity of our heavenly Father is constantly being poured into our hearts.¹² United in God’s charity, consummati in unum,¹³ living out Our Lord’s mandatum novum,¹⁴ we will be God’s light and warmth among men, and strong as a walled city. Frater qui adiuvatur a fratre quasi civitas firma (Prov 18:19), a brother helped by his brother is like a fortified city.