{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-859","native_reference":{"book_number":670,"chapter_from":4,"chapter_to":4,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":8,"verse_to":8},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Ambrose of Milan</b>: So then he who sins loves not, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. But if charity exclude the desire of sin, it excludes also fear, charity then is full of perfect faith.<br/><i>— Letter 78</i></p><p><b>Bede</b>: Above all, have fervent charity among yourselves. He rightly added \"fervent,\" because we can always love, but we cannot always be vigilant in prayers due to the frailty of the flesh; we might not always be able to engage in the virtues he subsequently mentions, that is, hospitality, teaching, the administration of graces, whether common or special to our neighbors, and other such things. For indeed, these must necessarily be done both through bodily effort and at appropriate times. However, the charity itself, under whose influence these external actions are performed, can always be present within the inner person, even though it cannot always be publicly displayed.<br/><i>— Commentary on the Catholic Epistles</i></p><p><b>Bede</b>: Because charity covers a multitude of sins. Especially when it is truthfully said to God: \"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors\" (Matth. VI). And indeed, it is certain that all the good works we do atone for and cover the faults we have committed, but this is particularly said of charity, through which we forgive our neighbors what they owe us, because it is most just with God that according to the measure of mercy we have used, it will be measured to us. As, on the contrary, the wise man severely rebukes the merciless, saying: \"A man preserves anger against man, and seeks healing from God?\" (Eccli. XXVIII). And there is no doubt that in the case of one who, through charity, does everything he can for the correction of his neighbor, admonishing, rebuking, chastising, charity itself covers a multitude of sins, as James attests, saying: \"He who converts a sinner from the error of his way shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins\" (James V).<br/><i>— Commentary on the Catholic Epistles</i></p><p><b>Clement of Alexandria</b>: This is love, to love God and our neighbour. This conducts to the height which is unutterable. \"Love covers a multitude of sins. Love beareth all things, suffereth all things.\" Love joins us to God, does all things in concord. In love, all the chosen of God were perfected. Apart from love, nothing is well pleasing to God.<br/><i>— The Stromata Book 4</i></p><p><b>Clement of Rome</b>: Love unites us to God. Love covers a multitude of sins. Love bears all things, is long-suffering in all things. There is nothing base, nothing arrogant in love. Love admits of no schisms: love gives rise to no seditions: love does all things in harmony. By love have all the elect of God been made perfect; without love nothing is well-pleasing to God.<br/><i>— Letter to the Corinthians (Clement)</i></p><p><b>Leo the Great</b>: Against his plots every believer must keep careful watch that he may crush his foe on the side whence the attack is made. And there is no more powerful weapon, dearly-beloved, against the devil's wiles than kindly mercy and bounteous charity, by which every sin is either escaped or vanquished. But this lofty power is not attained until that which is opposed to it be overthrown. And what so hostile to mercy and works of charity as avarice, from the root of which spring all evils? ... Let us then, dearly-beloved, resist this pestilential evil and \"follow after charity,\" without which no virtue can flourish, that by this path of love whereby Christ came down to us, we too may mount up to Him.<br/><i>— SERMON 74.5</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: \" For, strictly speaking, there cannot any longer be reckoned ought against the martyrs, by whom in the baptism (of blood) life itself is laid down. Thus, \"love covers the multitude of sins; \" and loving God, to wit, with all its strength (by which in the endurance of martyrdom it maintains the fight), with all its life (which it lays down for God), it makes of man a martyr.<br/><i>— Scorpiace</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"a55166b5f3c0515a9813efd72bd77bcd321fd7af260ae5c473772a862ac96ae0","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":859,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"8f637c741bcf12506b5a4aeb688870d633a68da37338f05ab5d8311191f65511","translator":null,"work":null}