Volume II, Treatise VII, Chapter V

Third Affection—the Love of God

Tue third affection we ought to excite in ourselves, by a consideration of the sufferings of Jesus Christ, is the love of God. Nothing moves us more to love, than to see ourselves loved, nothing ties or binds us so fast as this does; and this being so, it is here that the soul, considering at leisure the extreme love for her, which Jesus Christ manifested in his passion, ought thereby inflame herself with love and gratitude towards him, who has so tenderly loved her. “Tt was in this,” says St. John, “that the charity of God towards us appeared most, to have sent his only Son into the world, that weé might live by him. * (1 John 4:9) St. Luke, speaking “of what happened in the transfiguration of our Saviour, when Elias and Moses appeared on each side of him, calls his passion an excess of love.

‘‘ They entertained themselves with him,” says he, ‘‘ and spoke of that excess he was to make manifest at Jerusalem.” —( (Luke 9:31)) And without doubt it is with great reason that he calls the death of the Son of God an excess of love. First, because he died for his enemies. “There is no greater mark of love,” says the Saviour of the world, “than to give one’s life for one’s friends; (John 15:13) but the divine love of our Saviour went yet further, even so far as to give his for his enemies. “It is in this,” says St.

Paul, “that God made appear his charity towards us, that Jesus Christ died for us, evén when we were sinners.” (Romans 5:9) Secondly, his death is justly called an excess of love; because in rigour one drop alone, of those many drops of blood our Saviour shed, in his circumcision; one of those drops of sweat, he so copiously shed in the garden; and lastly, even the least thing he performed for our redemption, was sufficient to redeem the whole world, nay a thousand worlds, as the saints assure us; since being God, he could consequently do nothing which was not of infinite value and merit. Notwithstanding, his infinite goodness was not content with what was sufficient: No! he vouchsafed liberally to bestow even the last drop of his blood upon us. The apostle speaking of this love calls it too great a love; ‘ because,” says he, “‘ of that too great love with which he has loved us.” (Ephesians 2:4) ~ And in effect this love infinitely exceeds all that can either be said or even imagined. The prophet Zachary, the father of St. John the Baptist, speaking of the grace that God was ready to bestow upon mankind, in the person of Jesus Christ, is not contented to style it a grace that proceeds from the mercy of God; but says, it comes “from the bowels of his mercy, in which he was pleased to visit us from above.” (Luke 1:78)

Who therefore can refrain from loving him who has so much loved us? “Wherefore let us love God,” says St. John, “because God has first loved us.” (1 John 4:19) Let us do to him as he has done to us; let us answer his goodness and tenderness; let us endeavour to testify our love towards him, as he has testified his towards us. He has given us very efficacious proofs of his, and at the same time very hard and painful ones, which are the best marks of a truelove; and itis this that made St. Ambrose cry out; “I owe, O Lord, far more to your passion by which you have redeemed me, than to your omnipotence by whch you have created me.”—(Lib. ii. sup. Luc.) For how great soever the benefit of our creation was, it cost you nothing, you needed to do nothing but speak: “you spoke and all was made, you commanded and all was created.”—-(Psalms 148:5) But it was not the same in man’s redemption; “that” cost you a thousand reproaches, a thousand torments; in a word, it cost you even the last drop of your blood. For these goods so effectual, let us make areturn in effect; and as St. John says, “‘my dear children, let us love God not in words only, and by our tongues, but in our works and in truth.” (1 John 3:18) It was in his desire of being contemned for the love of us, that ‘the Son of God shewed how he loved us—let us also shew that we love him, by seeking to be contemned for love of him; and by rejoicing when any such occasion offers itself to us. He has shewn us his love by offering himself entirely for us as a sacrifice to his Eternal Father; let us shew ours by offering our-

selves entirely to him; by wholly resigning ourselves to him, and

placing our hearts entirely i in his hands, that he may dispose of us

in all things according to his divine will. It is in this, that true love is shewn, and not in saying with our tongues, O Lord! I love thee. And it is in this sense, that the holy fathers interpret these words of the apostle, “it is patience that renders a work perfect.” —(Jam. i. 4.) For he who embraces pains, humiliations, and mortifications with joy for the love of another, gives true and effective marks of his love; because he fails not to shew it even in the hardest times, when real affection is most plainly discerned. Behold here, therefore, one of the chief advantages we ought endeavour to reap from the meditation of the passion of Christ; and for this purpose we must often exercise ourselves in prayer, in order to form those acts of love, which I have just noted. But above all, let us endeavour to offer ourselves to God with our whole hearts, that he may dispose of us in all things when, and as he pleases. Afterwards tracing in our minds those trying circumstances which may occur, let us suffer nothing to pass, without forming thereon acts and resolutions, of entirely abandoning ourselves to his divine will; for this is a very profitable exercise, and it leads to high

perfection, and manifests a heart deeply penetrated with the love of God.

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