Since love (caritas) is what God is, it is also that virtue that conforms us most dramatically to God. Thomas Aquinas says that caritas is friendship with God. In his great farewell discourse, the night before his death, Jesus says to his disciples that he no longer calls them servants, but friends—and in this he opens up a new world.
In any other religion, a human being could be called, vis-à-vis God, a creature, a penitent, or an eager supplicant, but only in Christianity could she be called an intimate of God. This is true because in Christ, God has become one of us, thereby establishing a parity beyond our capacity even to imagine.
The participation in what God is is what Aquinas means by caritas, friendship with God. The moral challenge, of course, is to live out the implications of that friendship, listening and speaking to God, obeying the promptings of his voice, opening our heart to him, and, above all, loving what he loves—which is to say, everyone and everything.
Thank you, Lord, for giving us the greatest love of all.
Smitten With Goodness 