Volume I, Treatise VIII, Chapter XXXII

Of the Conformity and Union with God by the Means of a Perfect Love, and the Practice We Are to Observe Tn This Eercise

Tat we may better understand what perfection is included in this exercise of conformity to the will of God, and that we may clearly show how far we may advance by this means, I intend to conclude this treatise, by speaking briefly of the exercise acknowledged by the saints and masters of a spiritual life to be the most sublime of all. This exercise is that of the love of God; and without doubt it is not foreign to our purpose to speak of it in this place, since one of the principal effects of love being, according to St. Denis, to endeavour that those who love have but one will in all things, it follows by consequenee, the more we love God, the more we conform ourselves to his divine will; and again, the more strict this conformity is, the more perfect is also our love. The better to explain this point, it is requisite we elevate ourselves in thought up to heaven, and there behold that the continual occupation of the blessed is to love God, to conform themselves entirely to his holy will, and to have no other will but his; inasmuch as the nearer we approach this idea, the greater will our perfection be in this exercise. St. John, in his first canonical epistle, says, that the sight of God makes the blessed like to him: “When he shall appear to us in glory, we shall be like to him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2) And this, because at the same instant they see God, they are so transformed into him, that their will becomes one and the same thing with his. Let us then see what is his will, and what he most of all loves, that so by knowing what is the will and the love of the blessed in heaven, we may also know at the same time what will and love we ought to have +in ourselves. ‘Che will and supreme love in God is the will of his own glory, and the love of his own being sovereignly perfect, and sovereignly amiable. The will and love of the blessed ss the same thing with the will and love of God; so that their love is a continual act, by which they are moved incessantly to will, with all their force, that God may be what he is; that he be equally good, equally perfect, equally happy, equally worthy of honour and praise, as he in himself is. And as they see in him all they can wish may be, they thence feel an inconceivable joy on seeing that he whom they love is so complete in perfection, and so replenished with all good. What we see sometimes happen in this life. may give us some faint idea or representation of that supreme and all divine joy which the blessed receive herein. Consider how sensible the joy of a son is, who, loving his father with all affection and tenderness, sees him rich, wise, powerful, honoured and esteemed by the whole world, and particularly favoured by his prince. There are children, doubtless, so nobly born as not to feel any joy comparable to that of seeing their parents so highly esteemed, and in so sublime a post and degree of dignity. If then in the world, where the sentiments of love are so weak, and where all happiness is so contemptible, this joy, notwithstanding, arrives to such a greatness, what must that of the blessed be in beholding their sovereign Master, their Creator, and their heavenly Father, into whom they are wholly transformed by love, to be infinitely good, infinitely holy, infinitely perfect, and infinitely powerful; in beholding all things created to receive their being and perfection from his holy will only; and that not so much as one leaf falls from the tree without his permission? It is of this joy the apostle speaks when he says: ‘ Neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has the heart of man been able to conceive what God has designed for those who love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9) This is that “river of living water which St. John saw, issuing forth from the throne of God and the Lamb.” (Apocalypse 22:1) “That river whose impetuous stream rejoiced the city of God.” (Psalms 45:5) That river, in which the blessed continually quench their thirst, and inebriate themselves with divine love; blessing God eternally, and singing perpetually, “Bless God, because the Lord our God Omnipotent is entered into his kingdom; let us rejoice and exult, and give him the glory.” (Apocalypse 19:6,7) They rejoice at the glory and greatness of God; they make themselves happy incessantly, and as it were, animating one the other, they all say, ‘ Blessing, splendour, wisdom, thanksgiving, honour, power and strength be to our God for ever. Amen.” (Apoe. vii. 12.)

See here, to speak according to the weak extent of human capacity, what is the continual exercise and love of the blessed in heaven, and how great the conformity and-union to the divine will; and see consequently what we are to endeavour to imitate as far as in our power, in order that this will may be performed on earth as it is in heaven. When God ordered Moses to make him a tabernacle: ‘“Take notice,” says he, “and make it according to the model and pattern shown you upon the mountain.” (Exodus 25:40) Itis thus that, in imitation of what is performed upon this high mountain of glory, we are to exercise ourselves always in loving and willing what the blessed love and will in heaven, and what God ‘himself loves and wills; that is to say, the grandeur of his glory, and the immensity of his being sovereignly perfect and sovereignly happy.

But that all may perform with more facility what we here have laid down, we will show in short in what the practice of this exercise consists. When we are in prayer, let us elevate our understanding to the consideration of the infinite being of God, his eternity, his wisdom, his omnipotence, his beauty, his glory, and his happiness; and at the same time, form acts of our will, by which we may conceive in ourselves a content and joy that God is what he is; that he is God, that he has no dependence on anything but himself, the immensity of his own being, and the infinite good he possesses. For if he stands in need of nothing whatsoever, and all things stand in need of him, he is therefore all powerful, and all replenished with goodness, with sanctity, and glory, and all other perfections, which are found in him without number or limit. St. Thomas, and other divines say, this is the greatest and most perfect act of love we can produce, and the most sublime exercise of conformity we are capable of practising. For there is no more excellent love of God than that which God bears himself; which is the love of his own glory, and of his sovereignly perfect being; nor a will more holy than his. By consequence, then, the more the manner wherein we love God resembles that wherein he loves himself, the more perfect is our love and our union and conformity to the divine will. Moreover, if it be true what philosophy, or rather what nature itself teaches us, that to love is to wish well to the person we love, it follows of necessity the more we wish another well, the more we love him. But the greatest good we can wish God, is that which he already possesses—the immensity of his being, of his goodness, his wisdom, his omnipotence, and his glory. For we may well rejoice when we love any creature, not only in the gifts it possesses, but also wish it possessed many more; inasmuch as all creatures want many things. But as to God, we cannot wish him anything but he possesses; because, his immensity including all things, and being infinite in himself, it is impossible he should receive more glory, power, and goodness than he already has. Wherefore the greatest good we can wish him, and by consequence, the greatest and most perfect love we can bear him, is to rejoice at the infinite good he possesses, and to take a holy delight therein.

The sacred humanity of Jesus Christ, the glorious Virgin, all the saints in heaven, and all the choirs of angels, rejoice incessantly on beholding God so replenished with all perfection and good, and eternally manifest their joy by continual songs of gladness and by the eternal praises they give him. “Blessed are those, O Lord! who live in your habitations. They shall praise you for ever and ever.” (Ps. Ixxxiii. 5.) Let us endeavour to imitate them, according as the Church teaches us, “in joining our voices and hearts with theirs, and saying with an humble and sincere confession; holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts! the heavens and the earth are full of your glory.” Let us exercise ourselves continually, at least as oft as we are able, in praising and glorifying God, in rejoicing with him at the immensity of that great good he possesses; and so we shall become in some manner like to the blessed, and to God himself, and shall hereby have the most sublime love of God, and the most perfect conformity to the divine will, we are capable of.

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