Reflection #13
Divine Love Conquers All
"Love is strong as death," says the Holy Scripture. (Canticle of Canticles 8:6). As death separates us from all the goods of the earth, from riches, from honors, from relations, from friends and from all worldly pleasures, so the love of God, when it reigns in a heart, strips it of all affection for these perishable goods. Therefore, the Saints have been seen to strip themselves of everything the world offered them, renounce their possessions, the highest dignities and all they had and fly into deserts or cloisters, to think only on loving God.
The soul cannot exist without loving either the Creator or creatures. Find a soul detached from every earthly love, and you will find it all filled with divine love. Would we know whether we have given ourselves wholly to God? Let us examine ourselves, whether we are weaned from every earthly thing.
Some persons lament that in all their devotions, prayers, Communions, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, they do not find God. To such, St. Teresa says: "Detach your heart from creatures, then seek God, and you will find Him." You will not always find spiritual sweetness, which God does not give without interruption in this life to those who love Him, but only from time to time, to excite in them a longing for those boundless delights which He prepares for them in Paradise; but yet He lets them taste that inward peace that excels all sensual delights, that "peace of God, which," says the Apostle, "surpasseth all understanding." (Philippians 4:7). And what greater delight can be enjoyed by a soul which ardently loves God than to be able to say with true affection: "My God and my all"? St. Francis of Assisi continued a whole night in an ecstasy of Paradise, continually repeating these words: "My God and my all."
"Love is as strong as death." (Canticle of Canticles 8:6). If a dying man was seen moving towards anything, he would give a sign that he was not dead. Death deprives us of everything. He that would give himself altogether to God must leave everything. If he reserves anything, he gives a sign that his love for God is not perfect, but weak.
Divine love strips us of everything. Father Segneri, an eminent servant of God, used to say: "Love for God is a beloved thief, who robs us of every earthly thing." Another servant of God, when he had given to the poor all his possessions and was asked what had reduced him to such poverty, took the book of the Gospels out of his pocket and said: "See, this is what has robbed me of everything." In a word, Jesus Christ will possess our whole heart, and He will have no companion there. St. Augustine writes, that the Roman Senate refused to allow adoration to be paid to Jesus Christ because He was a proud God, who claimed to be honored alone. And so it is, for as He alone is Our Lord, He has every right to be adored and loved by us with an individual love.
St. Francis de Sales says that the pure love of God consumes everything which is not God. When, therefore, there arises in our heart any affection for something which is not of God, or not loved for the sake of God, we must instantly banish it, saying: "Depart, there is no room here for thee." In this consists that complete renunciation which Our Lord so much recommends, if we would be wholly His; it must be total, that is, of everything, and especially of our relations and friends. How many, by trying to please men, have failed to become saints! David has said: "They . . . that please men . . . have been confounded, because God hath despised them." (Psalm 52:6).
But above all, we must renounce ourselves, by conquering self-love--cursed self-love, which wants to introduce itself into everything, even our holiest actions, by placing before us our own glory or our own pleasure! How many preachers, how many writers, thus lose all their labors! Frequently, even in prayer, in spiritual reading, or in Holy Communion, there enters some motive which is not pure, either the desire to be noticed, or of enjoying spiritual consolations. We must, therefore, be attentive to beat down this enemy who makes us lose our best actions. Hence, we must deprive ourselves, as far as possible, of whatever most pleases us, deprive ourselves of this diversion, for the very reason that it is agreeable; do a service to this disagreeable person, because he is disagreeable; take this bitter medicine, just because it is bitter. Self-love makes it appear to us that nothing is good in which we do not find our own satisfaction; but he that would wholly belong to God must do violence to himself whenever it is a question of anything pleasing to him and say always: "Let me lose everything, provided that I please God."
For the rest, no one is more contented in the world than he who despises all the goods of the world. Whoever strips himself the most of such goods becomes richest in divine graces. Thus does God know how to reward those who love Him faithfully.
But, O my Jesus, Thou knowest my weakness; Thou hast promised to help him who trusts in Thee. O Lord, I love Thee; in Thee I trust; give me strength, and make me entirely Thine own.
In Thee also I Trust, O my sweet advocate, Mary.
[Excepted from 'Devout Reflections and Meditations' by St. Alphonsus Liguori] (Public domain)
The soul cannot exist without loving either the Creator or creatures. Find a soul detached from every earthly love, and you will find it all filled with divine love. Would we know whether we have given ourselves wholly to God? Let us examine ourselves, whether we are weaned from every earthly thing.
Some persons lament that in all their devotions, prayers, Communions, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, they do not find God. To such, St. Teresa says: "Detach your heart from creatures, then seek God, and you will find Him." You will not always find spiritual sweetness, which God does not give without interruption in this life to those who love Him, but only from time to time, to excite in them a longing for those boundless delights which He prepares for them in Paradise; but yet He lets them taste that inward peace that excels all sensual delights, that "peace of God, which," says the Apostle, "surpasseth all understanding." (Philippians 4:7). And what greater delight can be enjoyed by a soul which ardently loves God than to be able to say with true affection: "My God and my all"? St. Francis of Assisi continued a whole night in an ecstasy of Paradise, continually repeating these words: "My God and my all."
"Love is as strong as death." (Canticle of Canticles 8:6). If a dying man was seen moving towards anything, he would give a sign that he was not dead. Death deprives us of everything. He that would give himself altogether to God must leave everything. If he reserves anything, he gives a sign that his love for God is not perfect, but weak.
Divine love strips us of everything. Father Segneri, an eminent servant of God, used to say: "Love for God is a beloved thief, who robs us of every earthly thing." Another servant of God, when he had given to the poor all his possessions and was asked what had reduced him to such poverty, took the book of the Gospels out of his pocket and said: "See, this is what has robbed me of everything." In a word, Jesus Christ will possess our whole heart, and He will have no companion there. St. Augustine writes, that the Roman Senate refused to allow adoration to be paid to Jesus Christ because He was a proud God, who claimed to be honored alone. And so it is, for as He alone is Our Lord, He has every right to be adored and loved by us with an individual love.
St. Francis de Sales says that the pure love of God consumes everything which is not God. When, therefore, there arises in our heart any affection for something which is not of God, or not loved for the sake of God, we must instantly banish it, saying: "Depart, there is no room here for thee." In this consists that complete renunciation which Our Lord so much recommends, if we would be wholly His; it must be total, that is, of everything, and especially of our relations and friends. How many, by trying to please men, have failed to become saints! David has said: "They . . . that please men . . . have been confounded, because God hath despised them." (Psalm 52:6).
But above all, we must renounce ourselves, by conquering self-love--cursed self-love, which wants to introduce itself into everything, even our holiest actions, by placing before us our own glory or our own pleasure! How many preachers, how many writers, thus lose all their labors! Frequently, even in prayer, in spiritual reading, or in Holy Communion, there enters some motive which is not pure, either the desire to be noticed, or of enjoying spiritual consolations. We must, therefore, be attentive to beat down this enemy who makes us lose our best actions. Hence, we must deprive ourselves, as far as possible, of whatever most pleases us, deprive ourselves of this diversion, for the very reason that it is agreeable; do a service to this disagreeable person, because he is disagreeable; take this bitter medicine, just because it is bitter. Self-love makes it appear to us that nothing is good in which we do not find our own satisfaction; but he that would wholly belong to God must do violence to himself whenever it is a question of anything pleasing to him and say always: "Let me lose everything, provided that I please God."
For the rest, no one is more contented in the world than he who despises all the goods of the world. Whoever strips himself the most of such goods becomes richest in divine graces. Thus does God know how to reward those who love Him faithfully.
But, O my Jesus, Thou knowest my weakness; Thou hast promised to help him who trusts in Thee. O Lord, I love Thee; in Thee I trust; give me strength, and make me entirely Thine own.
In Thee also I Trust, O my sweet advocate, Mary.
[Excepted from 'Devout Reflections and Meditations' by St. Alphonsus Liguori] (Public domain)
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