De operibus ex charitate factis.

The Primacy of Love in All Works

No evil should be done for any worldly reason, but good works may be set aside or changed for the sake of charity, since only love gives outward actions their true worth and fruitfulness before God.

For nothing in this world, and for love of no one at all, should any evil be done. But for the benefit of someone in need, a good work may sometimes be set aside, or at some point changed for something better. For by this deed a good work is not destroyed, but is changed into something better. Without love, no outward work benefits anyone at all.¹ But whatever is done from love, however small and despised it may be, is made wholly fruitful. Indeed, God weighs more by how much one acts in love than by how much one does.

Discerning True Love from Self-Interest

Much is accomplished by the one who loves greatly, acts well, and serves the common good, yet what often appears as love is frequently mixed with self-interest, carnal desire, and the hope of personal reward.

The one who loves much accomplishes much. The one who does a thing well accomplishes much. The one who is zealous for the community rather than for his own will does well. What often seems to be love is more often self-interest, because a person's carnal inclination, own will, hope of reward, and selfish affection are rarely absent from what they choose.²³

The Perfect Love That Seeks Only God

True and perfect love seeks nothing for itself but God's glory alone, attributes all good to God as its source, and longs for the blessed fruition of God in which all saints rest, revealing the utter vanity of earthly things.

Whoever has true and perfect love seeks nothing for themselves in any matter, but desires that God's glory alone be made manifest in all things.⁴ Such a person envies no one, because they love no private joy, nor do they wish to find their delight in themselves, but above all things they long to be made blessed in God.⁵ They attribute no good thing to anyone as though it were their own, but refer everything wholly to God, from whom all things proceed.⁶ In whom all the saints finally rest in joyful fruition.⁷ O, if only someone had a spark of true love — they would perceive that all earthly things are utterly full of vanity.^✦⁸

Read the original Latin

Pro nulla re mundi, et pro nullius hominis dilectione aliquod malum est faciendum. Sed pro utilitate indigentis bonum opus aliquando intermittendum aut quandoque pro meliori mutandum. Hoc nam facto opus bonum non destruitur, sed in melius commutatur. Sine charitate opus externum non prodest quemquam. Quicquid autem ex charitate agitur quantumcumque etiam parvum sit, et despectum totum efficitur fructuosum. Magis si quidem Deus pensat ex quanto quis agit, quam quantum quis facit.

Multum quis facit, qui multum diligit. Multum facit qui rem bene facit. Bene facit, qui magis communitati, quam suæ voluntati fervit. Sæpe videtur esse charitas, et est magis carnalitas, quia carnalis inclinatio, propria voluntas, spes retributionis, affectus voluntatis raro abesse volunt.

Qui veram et perfectam charitatem habet, in nulla re se ipsum quærit, sed Dei solummodo gloriam in omnibus fieri desiderat. Nulli etiam invidet, quia nullum privatum gaudium amat, nec in se ipso vult gaudere, sed in Deo super omnia optat bona beatificari. Nemini aliquid boni attribuit, sed totaliter ad Deum refert tota, unde omnia procedunt. In quo finaliter omnes Sancti fruibiliter quiescunt. O qui scintillam haberet veræ charitatis, perfecte omnia terrena sentiret plena vanitatis.

Scripture echoes

↩Eccl.1.2 — Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.

Notes

1 ↩caritas rendered as love per lexeme policy default; the theological-virtue sense is active here.
2 ↩The connective et is rendered with contrastive force ('but rather / more often') given the sharp opposition between charitas and carnalitas. The causal quia introduces the explanation.
3 ↩charitas rendered as 'love' per default policy; the contrast with carnalitas makes the theological-virtue sense clear in context.
4 ↩charitatem rendered as 'love' per lexeme policy (charitas → love by default); the theological-virtue sense is evident here.
5 ↩gaudium rendered as 'joy' and beatificari as 'to be made blessed' — the passive infinitive carries the sense of being blessed by God.
6 ↩unde rendered as 'from whom' (relative of source/origin), connecting the referral of all things to God as their source.
7 ↩fruibiliter (rare adverb from fruibilis) rendered as 'in joyful fruition' to capture the sense of delightfully enjoying God as the final end.
8 ↩charitatis rendered as 'love' per lexeme policy; vanitatis rendered as 'vanity' per lexeme policy (vanitas → vanity).