9781644135945

The Time After Pentecost
God penetrates the soul with the fullness of His light and His goodness. He gives Himself to
the soul so completely that He communicates His life to it so that it shares His knowledge,
His will, and His love, which become the object of the soul’s blessedness. He belongs to the
soul completely and it dwells in Him and loses itself in Him; it loves the beloved more than
itself. It is elevated above its own nature and is so closely united to the beloved that it shares
the nature of the beloved and receives a new life. “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit”
(1 Cor 6:17). This love is the essence of Christian perfection, the highest reach to which a
soul can attain, the perfect fulfillment of all the commandments, the end and object of all our
striving. This fact is true because through such a love we achieve perfect union with God and
complete victory over sin, particularly over our besetting sin of self-love. Moreover, through
such a love we conquer our inordinate desires and our attachment to all that is worldly and
transitory. If we give God our love, then we have given Him all. If we give ourselves entirely
up to Him, then He gives Himself entirely to us in the fullness of His love in time and eternity.
“With thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind.” God wills to
have our whole love, otherwise He is not satisfied. He is jealous of the devotion of our spirit.
“I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous” (Ex 20:5). We must subject our spirit to Him in
humility, seeing as He sees, judging as He judges; we must subject our intellect to faith and
accept all that the day may bring, as the dispensation of a kindly providence. God is jealous of
the love of our heart, for He must be the center of all our wishes and movements; He wishes
us to love Him above all else, and to subordinate the love we have for other creatures to our
love for Him. God is jealous of our powers and our works. He desires that we put them at His
service at all times, that we use them for fulfilling His holy will, and that we avoid all willful
infidelity. God is jealous of our intentions and motives, and desires that we make Him the
center of all our actions. We must never allow self to be our chief motive, but always God and
God alone. God is jealous of our thoughts and desires, and in so far as it is humanly possible in
our daily life, we must direct them all to Him, that even while we work they may center upon
Him and give Him assurance of our love. He wishes to have our whole and undivided love.
“Thou art just, O Lord,” when Thou dost demand of us all our love; all the rest that we can
give to Thee is so little. “Vow ye, and pray to the Lord your God, all you that round about Him
bring presents” (Communion). But all our vows and presents have value only in the degree in
which they express our love.
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.” Do we love Him with a perfect love that really seeks
Him for His own sake? Does our love abhor every willful venial sin, every willful infidelity,
every slight omission? Does our love seek for nothing but that which will give joy to God?
Does it seek His holy will and good pleasure in all things? Is it prepared to accept all that He
sends simply because He sends it? Does our love produce works and actions that express our
devotion to God? Does our love also manifest charity towards our friends and enemies? “Follow
after charity” (1 Cor 14:1).
Prayer
O God, Thou dost make all things a blessing for those who love Thee. Grant that our hearts
may be bound to Thee by an immovable love, that no temptation may harm the life that Thou
hast awakened in us. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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