Culture

Charity (caritas, love) is the greatest of all the virtues. St. Paul declares, 'So faith, hope, charity abide, these three; but the greatest of these is charity' (1 Corinthians 13:13). Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and love our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. It is not mere feeling or sentiment; it is the deliberate willing of the good of another. Charity is the 'form' of all the virtues — it gives them life and direction, for, as Paul says, even the most heroic deeds 'profit nothing' without love. Its opposite vices include hatred, envy, indifference, and selfishness — the cold turning-in on oneself. The whole life of St. Nicholas, whom you met yesterday, is a parable of charity: he loved his poor neighbors so much that he gave away his fortune in secret, seeking nothing in return. That is charity at its purest — love that gives without counting the cost or seeking reward. Advent calls us especially to charity, because we are preparing to welcome Love himself: God who 'so loved the world that he gave his only Son.' The way we ready our hearts for Christ's coming is by loving as he loves.

The election of 1800 sent Thomas Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican, to the presidency after Federalist John Adams. Power passed peacefully from one party to a rival party for the first time, a quiet but remarkable proof that the Constitution worked. Jefferson called it a 'revolution' won by ballots, not bullets.

Jefferson's biggest act came in 1803. France, under Napoleon, owned the vast Louisiana Territory and the key port of New Orleans. Jefferson sent envoys to buy New Orleans; Napoleon, needing money for war in Europe, offered the entire territory. For about $15 million the United States bought 828,000 square miles and roughly doubled in size. Jefferson worried the Constitution did not clearly allow such a purchase, but he judged the opportunity too great to miss.

To explore the new land, Jefferson sent Meriwether Lewis and William Clark west in 1804. Their Corps of Discovery traveled to the Pacific Ocean and back, mapping rivers, recording plants and animals, and meeting many Native nations. A young Shoshone woman, Sacagawea, helped guide and interpret, and her presence with her infant signaled to tribes that the group came in peace.

Earlier, in 1803, the Supreme Court decided Marbury v. Madison. Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that courts can strike down laws that violate the Constitution, establishing judicial review, a key power of the judicial branch.

Key facts: - The election of 1800 produced the first peaceful transfer of power between parties. - The Louisiana Purchase (1803) cost about $15 million and doubled the nation's size. - Napoleon's France sold Louisiana; the port of New Orleans was the original goal. - Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery explored the West, 1804-1806, reaching the Pacific. - Sacagawea, a Shoshone woman, aided the expedition as guide and interpreter. - Marbury v. Madison (1803) established judicial review under Chief Justice John Marshall.

This week's art spans both war and worship. The Crusades and feudal conflict produced some of history's mightiest castles. Crusader fortresses like Krak des Chevaliers in Syria — held by the Knights Hospitaller — were marvels of military engineering: concentric rings of walls, massive towers, and clever defenses that let a small garrison hold off armies. Castle design was a deadly serious art, every feature shaped by the need to attack or defend. Turning from war to the page, the illuminated manuscript reached new heights, especially the psalter — a book of the 150 Psalms used for daily prayer. Wealthy patrons commissioned psalters glowing with gold leaf (the source of the word 'illuminate,' to fill with light), brilliant pigments, intricate initial letters, and lively marginal scenes. These were treasures of devotion and art, each one made by hand over months or years. And in the Gothic cathedrals you studied last week, the most spectacular form of stained glass was the rose window — a vast circular window of radiating, jewel-like glass, like a wheel or a blooming flower, set high in the cathedral's facade. The great rose windows of Notre-Dame de Paris and Chartres, glowing in deep blues and reds, were among the most beautiful objects medieval people ever made — geometry and light transformed into prayer. Sword and psalm, fortress and flower: medieval art held both the hardness of a warrior age and the tenderness of its faith.

Today you held two sides of the medieval world together: the fortress and the rose window, the merchant's ledger and the monk's psalter. The same civilization that built war machines also covered books in gold for the love of God.