CONSIDERATION XXXII
The Love of God
"We love Him because He first loved us." i S. John iv. 19.
First Point.
Consider, in the first place, that God deserves to be loved by you, since He loved you first, that you might love Him, and He has been the first of all to love you. " I have loved thee with an everlasting love." (Jer. xxxi. 3.) The first to love you on earth, were your parents, but they did not love you before they knew you; but God loved you before you had any being. When neither your father nor your mother were in the world, God loved you; when the world was not even created, God loved you. And how long before the creation of the world did God love you? Perhaps a thousand years or ages. There is no need to reckon years and ages. Know, that God has loved you from eternity. " I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn Thee." (Jer. xxxi. 3.) In short, God has loved you since He has been God; as long as He has loved Himself, He has loved you. Therefore S. Agnes had good reason to say, " I am prevented by another love." When the world and the creature demanded her love, she answered, " No, O world; no, O creature, I cannot love you. My God has been the first to love me, and it is therefore right that I should consecrate my love to God alone."
Thus, my brother, from eternity has thy God loved you, and from love alone, has selected you from the number of many men that He could have created, and has given you being and a position in the world. For your love even, He has made many other beautiful creatures, that they might serve you, and might remind you of the love which He has for you, and which you owe to Him. S. Augustine writes, " Heaven, and earth, and all things, tell me that I ought to love Thee." Whence, the Saint observed, the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the rivers, they seemed as if they would all speak and say to him, " Augustine, love God, since He has created us for you, in order that you might love Him." The Abbot de Ranee", when he admired the hills, fountains, and flowers, said they recalled the love that God had towards him. S. Teresa said that creation reproached her own ingratitude towards God. S. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi, whenever she held in her hand any beautiful flower or fruit, felt as if wounded with a certain arrow in her heart, with the love towards God, saying within herself, Thou, my God, hast planned from eternity to create a certain flower or fruit, in order that I might love Him.
Consider further the especial love that God had towards you in causing you to be born in a Christian land, and in the bosom of the true Church. How many are born amongst idolaters, Jews, Mahometans, or heretics, and are lost! How few have it their lot to be born amongst men, where the true faith reigns, and of the number of those few, the Lord has elected you. How many millions of persons are deprived of the Sacraments, of sermons, of the example of good companions, and of all the other helps to salvation, which are in the true Church! And God has willed to grant you all these great helps, without any merit on your part, even seeing beforehand your demerits; for, whilst He thought of creating you and of procuring for you all these favours, He already foreknew the injuries which you would do to Him.
Affections and Prayers.
O Sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, Infinite Good, Infinite Majesty, Who hast so loved men, how is it then that Thou art so disregarded of men? But amongst these men, Thou, my God, hast so particularly loved me and bestowed upon me such special grace, that Thou hast not granted to others, and I seem to have despised Thee more than others. But I throw myself at Thy feet, O Jesus, my Saviour. " Cast me not away from Thy presence." (Ps. li. 11.) I should deserve to be cast away, for the ingratitude which I have committed, but Thou hast said that Thou knowest not how to cast away a penitent heart that returns to Thee. "Hun that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out." (S. John vi. 37.) My Jesus, I repent of having offended Thee. In the time past I have been ungrateful to Thee; now I own Thee for my Saviour and my Redeemer, Who died to save me, and to be loved by me. When shall I cease, my Jesus, to be ungrateful to Thee? When shall I begin to love Thee truly? Behold, this day I resolve to love Thee with all my heart, and to love none other than Thee. O Infinite Goodness, I adore Thee for all those who adore Thee not; and I love Thee for all those who love Thee not. I believe in Thee, I hope in Thee, I love Thee, I offer Thee my all; aid me with Thy grace. Thou knowest indeed my weakness. But if when I did not desire Thee, nor loved Thee, Thou bestowedst so many favours upon me, how much more should I hope in Thy mercy, now that I love and desire but to love Thee? My Lord, give me Thy love; but so fervent a love, that it may compel me to forget every creature; a strong love, that it may enable me to overcome all difficulty in pleasing Thee; a perpetual love, that may ever abide between me and Thee. All these things I hope for, O my Jesus, through Thy merits.
Second Point.
But God has not only given to us so many beautiful creatures, He cannot be said to be satisfied until He has arrived at the giving us, even Himself. " Who loved me, and gave Himself for me." (Gal. ii. 20.) Accursed sin has caused us to lose the Divine grace and heaven, and to become the slaves of hell; but the Son of God, to the wonder of heaven and nature, willed to come on earth and become Man, to redeem us from eternal death, and to enable us to obtain that grace and that heaven which we had lost. What a marvel would it not be to see a king become a worm for the love of worms! But it should excite in us an infinitely greater wonder, to see a God become man for the love of men. " Made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men," (Phil. ii. 7), or clothed with flesh " The Word was made flesh." (S. John i. 14.) But this wonder increases, when we see that which this Son of God, both did and suffered for our sakes. A single drop of His Blood, one tear, one single prayer of His was sufficient to save us; since this being the prayer of a Divine Person was of infinite value, and was sufficient not only to save the whole world, but an infinite number of worlds. But no, says S. Chrysostom, " that which was sufficient for our redemption was not sufficient for His love." He did not will to save us only, but since He loved us so much, He desired to be much loved by us; and therefore He willed to choose for Himself a whole life, fully laden with pains and insults, and a death the most bitter of all deaths, that we might understand the infinite love with which He burned towards us. " He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the, cross." (Phil. ii. 8.) Oh, the excess of Divine love which neither men nor angels will ever be able to comprehend! S. Bonaventure calls it " Excess of sorrow, excess of love." If the Redeemer had not been God, but our simple friend or parent, what greater proof of affection would He be able to give us than to die for us? " Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (S. John xv. 13.) If our Blessed Lord had to save His own Father, what more could He have done by His love? If, my brother, thou hadst been God and the creator of Jesus Christ, what more could He have done for you than to have sacrificed His life in the midst of taunts and sorrows? If the vilest man on earth had done for you that which Jesus Christ has done, could you live without loving Him?
But what say you? Do you believe in the incarnation and death of Jesus Christ? Do you believe in Him, and yet not love Him? And can you think of loving anything else save Jesus Christ? Perhaps you doubt whether He loves you? But S. Augustine says, " It was on this account that Christ came, that man might know how much God loved him." Before the Incarnation, man could doubt whether God loved him with tenderness; but after the incarnation and death of our blessed Lord, who can longer doubt? And what greater tenderness of His affection was He able to show to you, than in sacrificing His Divine life for you? We have had an ear to hear the words creation, redemption, a God in a manger, a God upon a Cross. O holy faith, enlighten us!
Affections and Prayers.
O my Jesus, I see that Thou hast had nothing more Thou couldst do to place me in the necessity of loving Thee; and I see that I have procured by my ingratitude the placing of Thee under an obligation to abandon me. Yet for ever blessed be Thy patience, which has borne with me so long. I should merit a hell expressly for myself, but Thy death gives me confidence. Ah! teach me to know well the grounds which Thou hast for being loved, O Highest Good! and compel me to love Thee. I well knew that Thou, my Jesus, didst die for me; and after knowing this, how have I been able to live for so many years forgetful of Thee? Oh, were I able to turn back again, and live over again those past years, my Lord, I would give them all to Thee. But these years return not. Ah, grant that for the rest of life which remains to me, I may spend the whole of it in loving Thee, and giving Thee pleasure. My dear Redeemer, I love Thee with all my heart; but do Thou increase this love in me; make me ever to remember what Thou hast done" for me, and permit me riot to live any more ungrateful to Thee. No, I will no longer resist the lights which Thou hast given me. Thou desirest to be loved by me, and I desire to love Thee. And whom should I wish to love, if I do not love God, Who is infinite beauty, infinite goodness? a God Who died for me, Who suffered with so great patience, and Who, in place of punishing me as I deserved, has changed the punishment into grace and favour. Yes, I love Thee, O God, worthy of infinite love; and I sigh and seek for nothing else than to live wholly occupied in loving Thee, and forgetful of everything which is not Thee, O Infinite Love of my soul; succour Thou a soul that desires to be wholly Thine.
Third Point.
The marvel increases when we see then the desire which our blessed Lord had to suffer and to die for us. Whilst living, He said, " I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" (S. Luke xii. 50.) I must be baptized with the baptism of My own Blood; and I feel Myself dying with the desire that My passion and death may speedily come, since by this, man may quickly know the love that I bear to him. It was this feeling which made Him say, on the night preceding His Passion, " With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you." (S. Luke xxii. 15.) Therefore S. Basil of Seleucia writes, " God cannot be satiated by His love for men."
Ah, my Jesus, men do not love Thee, because they do not consider the love that Thou hast borne for them. O God, a mind that reflects that God died for this, and had such a desire to die, that He might show His affection, how can such a mind live without loving Hun? " The love of Christ constraineth us." (2 Cor. v. 14.) S. Paul says, that it is not only that which our blessed Lord has done and suffered, but the love which He has shown in the suffering for us that obliges us, and, as it were, forces us to love Him. Considering this, S. Laurence Justinian exclaimed, " We see the wise infatuated through excess of love." Who could ever believe, had not faith assured us, that the Creator had willed to die for His creatures? When the death of Jesus Christ was preached to the heathen, they regarded it as folly, which they could never believe, as the Apostle testifies, " We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness." (i Cor. i. 23.) And how could it be, they would say, that a God, most happy in Himself, Who has no need of anything, should have come down to earth, should have become man, and should have died for the love of men, His own creatures. But yet it is an article of faith, that Jesus Christ, the true Son of God, for His love to us, was given to death. "Christ .... loved us, and hath given Himself for us." (Eph. v. 2.)
And wherefore has He done this? That we should live no longer to the world, but to that Lord alone that willed to die for us. " He died for all, that they which live, should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him Which died for them." (2 Cor. v. 15.) He has done this, that by the love which He has shown for us, He may gain every affection of our hearts. " To this end Christ both died and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living." (Rom. xiv. 9.) Hence the saints, considering the death of Jesus Christ, have thought that it was little to do, to give life and all things for the love of a God so loving. How many nobles and princes have left parents, riches, country, and even kingdoms, to seclude themselves in the cloister, and to live for the love of Jesus Christ alone I How many martyrs have sacrificed their lives! How many virgins, renouncing splendid nuptials, have gone rejoicing to death, so to render some recompence of affection to the God who died for their sakes! And you, my brother! what have you done yet for the love of Jesus Christ? As He died for the saints, so He died even for you. What, at least, do you think of doing with the remainder of your life, which God grants to you, that you may love Him? Henceforth, look intently at and often upon, your crucified Lord; and beholding Him, recall the love that He had borne for you, and say to yourself, Then, hast Thou my God died for me? Do this at least often, still so doing, that you may be unable to do less than to feel yourself sweetly constrained to love a God Who has so greatly loved you.
Affections and Prayers.
O my Redeemer, it is true that I have not loved Thee, because I have not considered Thy love to me. Ah, my Jesus, I have been very ungrateful; Thou hast given Thy life for a death the most bitter of all, and I have been so forgetful, that I have not willingly thought about it. Pardon me, and I promise that henceforth, my crucified Love, Thou shalt be the one object of my thoughts, and of all my affections. Also, when the devil and the world shall offer me some forbidden fruit, recall Thyself to me, my loved Saviour the pains which Thou hast suffered for my sake that I may love Thee, and never more offend Thee. If my servant had done for me that which Thou hast done, I should not have had the heart to wound him; and I have often turned away from Thee, Who died for me. O beautiful flame of love, which compellest Thee, a God, to give a life for me; come, inflame, fill my whole heart, and destroy in it every affection towards the creature. Ah, my loved Redeemer, how is it possible to think of Thee in the manger of Bethlehem, on the Cross at Calvary, or in the Sacrament on our altars, without loving Thee? My Jesus, I love Thee with my whole soul. During the remaining years of my life, Thou shalt be my only Good, my only Love. The unhappy years are sufficient for me, during which I lived miserably forgetful of Thy Passion and Thy love. I give myself entirely to Thee and if I do not give myself as I ought, take hold of me, and reign in all my heart. " Thy kingdom come." (S. Matt. vi. 10.) Let it serve no other than Thy love; speak of no other; treat of no other; think of no other; sigh for nothing, but Thy love and Thy pleasure. Aid me ever with Thy grace, that I may be faithful to Thee. I confide in Thy merits, O my Jesus!