Treatise on the Love of GodBook III. The progress and perfection of love

The friends of God “go from strength to strength,” and are renewed every day,i.e., through good works they grow in that righteousness they have received of God’s Grace ever more and more, according as we read, “‘He that is righteous let him be righteous still, and he that is holy let him be holy still;”? “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day ;”3 “Speaking the truth in love, let us grow up into Him in all things, Which is the Head, even Christ ;”4 and again, “I pray that your love may abound more and more.”5

I never heard of any animal to whose growth there was no limit save the crocodile, which being extremely small at first, continues to grow so long as it lives, wherein it represents alike good and evil men. For “the presumption of them that hate Thee increaseth ever more and more,”® says David; and “The just shine more and more unto the perfect day.” It is not possible for them to be stationary; he who does not gain must lose in this commerce; he who is not ascending the ladder must descend ;? he who conquers not must needs be conquered. We live amid risk and strife; unless we fight we shall perish, but we cannot fight without overcoming, nor overcome without being victorious. S. Bernard, quoting Job’s words that “man continueth not,”? goes on to show that he must continually advance or fall back; he cannot be stationary. “All run, but one receiveth the prize; so run that ye may obtain.”? What is the prize save Jesus Christ? and how are ye to obtain except ye follow Him? And if ye follow, ye must be ever going on, for He will never pause, but continue in His course of love and obedience unto death, the death of the Cross.

Let there be no limit, S. Bernard says, save that of life to your pursuit of your Lord; run eagerly and swiftly, for what avails it that you run unless you attain? “I have applied my heart to fulfil Thy statutes alway, even unto the end.”3 David says not for a while, but unto the end; and forasmuch as he seeks eternal well doing his reward will be eternal. “Blessed are those that are undefiled in the way, and walk in the Law of the Lord ;”4 and woe be to them that are impure, and walk not therein. Satan has said, “I will sit upon the mount ;”5 but we are on a road, and a road means walking, not sitting; and he who walks rightly must make ground. It was to His chosen friend that God said, “Walk before Me, and be thou perfect.”®

Real virtue knows no limit, but is ever pressing onward; above all, holy charity, which is the queen of virtues, and which, having an infinite aim, would itself become infinite could it find a heart capable of infinity; ~ for it is restrained only by the capacity of its recipients, by reason of which, just as no one can ever see God fully, so no one can love Him as fully as He is to be loved. That heart which could love God fully would possess a will infinitely good, which none can possess save God Only. So we may go on continually attaining greater heights of perfection in love, but our love can never be infinite. God’s Holy Spirit can raise our minds to great supernatural efforts; but there is a mighty gulf between the finite and the infinite, and before they can be assimilated either must lose its specific nature, which cannot be. . Thus even our Lord’s own Charity, in so far as it was human, however great and superior to all that men or angels can fathom, yet is not infinite in its humanity, but only inasmuch as it flowed from a Person of Infinite Excellence, from a Divine Person, the Eternal Son of the Omnipotent Father. _ Meanwhile it is a priceless gift that we are permitted to go on in unlimited growth in God’s Love amid this weary life. “They shall go from strength to strength.”

Dow easy our Lord bas made the growth of Love. CoN SIDER the cup of cold water? or the mouthful of bread given to the poor for Christ’s Sake: how petty a thing it is in man’s sight, and yet God rewards it, and largely increases the love of the giver. Among all the fine linen and costly gifts of the Tabernacle we find goats’ hair accepted, and in like wise God accepts and rewards the smallest acts which spring from love. Like as in Arabia Felix, not the aromatic plants alone, but all vegetation shares in their sweetness, so in the loving soul, not only acts of direct charity, but all minor duties are affected by the grace of holy love, and raise up a sweet savour before God’s Majesty, Who in return augments that gracious love. I say God makes it to increase, because love does not grow as a tree, sending forth its branches of itself; but like faith and hope, it springs solely from God’s Goodness, which increases and perfects it, like the bee, which, born as it is in honey, continues to be fed thereon. And just as the pearl is not only formed of LOVE’S GROWTH EASY. TH dew, but is fed thereby, and the mother of pearl opens its shell towards the sky, as though to invite the sweet dews of dawning day; so, having received faith, hope, and charity from God’s exceeding Love, we must needs continually turn and open our hearts to Him that we may receive the increase of those virtues. Thus Our Mother Church teaches us to pray: “Almighty and Everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity ;”? therein imitating the Apostles’ petition, “Lord, increase our faith,”⁴ and accepting. what S. Paul teaches, i.e., that “God is able to make all grace abound toward you.”3

God gives this increase according to the use we make of His Grace, as it is written, “Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance.”4 For in this way we can fulfil our Saviour’s precept, “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven ;”5 as though He said, Go on storing up the treasures of good works, —fastings, prayers, and alms. And as the widow’s two mites were accepted, and great treasures accumulate out of tiny offerings, so very trifling good deeds, imperfect as they may seem, yet have their value in God’s Sight; so that, although in themselves they may not have strength to increase our love already existing, yet His Divine Goodness credits us with them, and will not fail to reward them with greater love now and a more abundant share of glory hereafter.

Bees make that delicious honey which is their chief work, but their wax too has its value; and the loving heart which strives after great and fervent virtues will not lose the reward of those lesser good deeds, and God will love him the more for them. And God never loves a loving soul without increasing its love, our love being the special product of His Love for us. The more stedfastly we gaze upon a mirror the more our reflection seems to gaze in return at us, and the more God suffers His loving gaze to rest upon our soul, made as it is in His Image and Likeness, so much the more we are won to gaze upon Him, responding as we may in our littleness to the increase of His Mighty Love.

The Council of Trent affirms that righteousness is maintained and increased by good works, and that, as S. Bernard says, without exception, little things fostering holy love in their proportion, and great deeds more and more. Such is the Love God bears to our souls; such the longing we ought to cherish for growth in His Love. His Gracious Tenderness turns all to our good, and enables us to reap the fruit of all our efforts to please Him, however frail they be.

Among moral virtues we do not find that trifling efforts increase the virtue whence they spring; on the contrary, if very small they enfeeble it: ¢., liberality dwindles where our gifts are insignificant, and becomes niggardliness. But among those virtues which are heaven-born, above all in love, every exercise thereof brings increase. Nor need we marvel if Divine Love, that royal virtue, has naught great or small but what is love able; even as the balm, monarch of all aromatic plants, has no leaf or twig which does not carry its sweet savour. And what could love produce that would not be worthy of love, and tend to love?

That Love we teach, and use a parable. A great king having espoused a gracious princess, brought her one day apart to hold converse with her, when behold, through an untimely accident, she suddenly swooned away, to his great grief and consternation, for he loved her as his life. But this very love roused him to THE LOVING SOUL’S ADVANCE to succour her, and he speedily found a precious cordial which revived her; then gently raising her, he upheld and sustained her as she walked, until at last the virtue of a certain plaster which he laid upon her heart gave her strength to go alone, he only giving her his arm, hers the while resting against his breast; thereby rendering her four kindly services. For first, he testified the loving care he had for her; secondly, he still comforted her; thirdly, if her strength failed again, he was upholding her; and fourthly, if the way chanced .to be rugged, she was leaning on him. Thus he guarded her carefully till night, when he helped to lay her in the royal bed.

Now the righteous soul is our Lord’s bride, and as it cannot be righteous without being in charity, neither is it His bride unless it be led apart amid those delicious perfumes whereof the Song of Songs tells us. But if a soul thus honoured commits sin, it falls into a spiritual swoon; and this is verily an untimely accident, for who could imagine that a creature would forsake its Creator and its Sovereign Good for anything so worthless as the pleasures of sin? Truly Heaven marvels thereat; and had God passions like unto us, He were overwhelmed with grief, even as when He took upon Him our mortal flesh He died upon the Cross for this very thing. But now, having died once for all, He comes to the soul’s rescue, and pours into it His gracious inspirations, whereby it revives and restores consciousness; and all that without any effort of its own. He strengthens it with emotions of hope, faith, and penitence, and not merely does he lead it onwards, but He upholds it so that it scarce knows whether it is being carried or moving of itself; even as S. Paul says, “Not I, but the Grace of God which was with me.”¹ But when the soul is wholly restored by the bondage of love which God’s Holy Spirit puts upon the heart, it can go by itself, in the strength of that healing love; and then indeed it owes all glory to the God Who has so strengthened it. For whether the Holy Spirit strengthens us by His inspirations or by the love He sheds within the heart; whether His succour raises and bears us, or gives us strength to go of ourselves, come what may, it is through Him that we live and move and have our being. ;

But that we may go on the better in God’s Presence towards the end,—our salvation,—His Love succours the soul, holding it ever in His Hand; for thus He shows the exceeding sweetness of His Love, He gives the soul ever fresh confidence, He protects it from the evil tendencies and habits of past sin, and He defends and upholds it against all temptation.

We sometimes see powerful men who need being stimulated to put forth their strength, and, so to say, to be led to their work. And so God does not leave us to go forth alone, but He intreats and stimulates us, while at the same time He stimulates His own Love on our behalf, renewing in our ear such warnings as S. Paul’s: “See that ye receive not the Grace of God in vain ;”' “As we have opportunity, let us do good unto all men ;”? “So run, that ye may obtain.”3 And He is continually speaking to the ear of our heart that which He said to the Patriarch Abraham: “Walk before Me, and be thou perfect.”4

Above all, that soul which attempts any special undertaking stands in need of God’s Help, for while feeble love will dispose us and give us sufficient strength for what is necessary to salvation, those who would undertake very excellent and unwonted works need to be upheld by the Hand of our Divine Lover, even as the princess of my parable, who could not go far without her lord upheld her. oe.

Thus it was through God’s Grace and Love that S. Anthony and S. Simeon Stylites led their wondrous lives, as also the Blessed Teresa when she made her vow of special obedience; S. Francis and S. Louis, ‘when they undertook to cross the ocean for God’s Glory; the Blessed Francis Xavier, when he devoted his life to the conversion of the Indies; S. Charles, when he offered up his to serve the plague-stricken; S. Paulinus, when he sold himself to ransom the widow’s son. They could never have achieved such noble undertakings if, to the charity already filling their hearts, God had not added special courage, light, and inspiration, leading them on to such extraordinary feats of spiritual strength. Remember, again, that young man of whom we read in the Gospel, whom our Lord loved, and who therefore was not without charity. He had assuredly no thought of selling all he had to give to the poor, and following our Lord; and even when the Dear Lord vouchsafed to inspire him with it, he had not courage to carry it out, For such mighty works we need not inspiration only, but strength to effect that which inspiration requires of us; as also under the assault of special temptation we need a special and individual presence of Heavenly Aid. Therefore it is that the Church so frequently bids us cry out, “Arise, help us and deliver us !” “Make clean our hearts within us !” : “Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings!” ‘Make speed to help us, O Lord!” and the like, in order that through such prayers we may obtain grace to perform excellent and extraordinary works, as also to perform those which are ordinary with greater fervour, to resist lesser temptations more stedfastly, and to meet such as are heavier with more hearty resistance. =

S. Anthony underwent the assault of a troop of demons, and after unspeakable trial and struggle, at last he beheld the roof of his cell burst asunder, and a ray of heavenly light pierced within, scattering the dark host of the enemy at once, and effacing all the wounds he had received; whereby he recognised the special Presence of God, and turning towards the glad vision, he cried out, “Where wert Thou, O Dear Jesus, where wert Thou? wherefore camest Thou not at first to spare me this trial?” And the answer came from on high: “I was beside thee, Anthony, but I waited the issue of thy strife. Good and valiant soldier, I will never fail thee.” Wherein lay the valour of this great spiritual warrior? He himself has recorded how, being assaulted by the devil, he began to chant the seventh verse of the 118th Psalm: “The Lord taketh my part with them that help me; therefore shall I see my desire upon mine enemies.”

So, too, our Lord revealed to S. Catherine of Sienna that He was in her heart during a cruel temptation which she underwent, as a Captain in the midst of a beleaguered fortress, and that without His Succour she had been lost. It is even so with every onslaught we experience from the enemy, so that we may fitly speak like Jacob of “the Angel Which redeemed me from all evil,”* and say with David, “The Lord is my Shepherd, therefore can I lack nothing. He shall feed me in a green pasture, and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort. He shall convert my soul, and bring me forth in the paths of righteousness for His Name’s Sake. . . . Thy loving-kindness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the House of the Lord for ever.”?

Just as a tender mother leads her child, upholding him when needful, and letting him go by himself where the path is easy; one while holding his hand to steady him, another carrying him in her arms; even so our Dear Lord watches tenderly over the children of His Love, leading them through difficult places, and carrying them through trials which were else unbearable. “I the Lord will hold thy right hand, saying

® Gen, xlviii. 16, 2 Ps, xxiii,

unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.”¹ Therefore we may boldly trust in God and His certain succour; sure that if we act up to His Grace, He will finish the good work He has begun in us, “for it is God Which worketh in us both to will and to do of His Good Pleasure.”3

This guiding which God vouchsafes to the soul from its first beginnings of love until that final perfection which only comes with death, is what we call the great gift of final perseverance, a gift to which our Lord has attached eternal glory: “He that endureth unto the end shall be saved.”4 In fact that gift is simply the united course of guidance, succour, and support by means of which we abide in God’s Love to the end; just as the education and upbringing of a child is simply a series of care, instruction, and assistance bestowed upon him until he attains an age when he becomes independent of all such.

Nevertheless the course of such guidance is not alike to all who persevere. With some it is very brief, as with those whose conversion immediately precedes death, e.g. the good thief; or the soldier who, won by S. James's stedfast faith, professed his faith, and shared the apostle’s martyrdom then and there; or that jailer who kept the forty martyrs of Sebaste, and who, seeing one of their number falter and renounce the martyr’s palm, himself took the vacant place, and became simultaneously a Christian and a martyr; or the notary we read of in the life of S. Antony of Padua, who after a vile life died a martyr’s death; or many another we hold blessed in that they died in grace, having lived in sin. Such as these reach the haven after a brief voyage, achieving their pilgrimage with one bound, which God’s Almighty Hand enables them to make so opportunely, that their enemies behold them triumphant ere yet the strife seems to have begun, conversion and perseverance in their case being one and the same. ‘Strictly speaking, we can scarcely call this perseverance, although it attains the same end.

With others, again, perseverance is long, e.g. Anna ‘with her fourscore years, S. John the Evangelist, S. Paul the first hermit, S. Hilarion, S. Romuald, or S. Francis de Paul, and these have needed sundry ‘manner of help, according to the nature and duration of their various pilgrimages.

Under all circumstances perseverance is the best gift we can desire in this life; a gift, as the Council of Trent teaches, which we can seek only from God, Who - Alone can strengthen those who stand and lift up them ‘that fall. Therefore we are bound to ask it continually, us ing the means to win it which God has set before us: prayer, fasting, almsgiving, the Sacraments, the companionship of good men, hearing and reading God’s Word. And forasmuch as the gift of prayer and devotion is freely given to all who heartily yield themselves up to God’s Holy Spirit, it is in our own power to persevere. Not that I mean to say that the first springs of perseverance depend upon ourselves; far from it, they are a precious gift of God’s Mercy. But that gift is put at our disposal to use according to our will, which is certainly in our own power. For while God’s Grace is necessary to a persevering will, such a will is in our power, because His Grace never fails us when our will acts up to our power. As S. Bernard says, we may all truly affirm with S. Paul that neither death nor life, nor angels nor powers, nor depth nor height can separate us from the Love of God Which is in Jesus Christ. No created power can wrest us from that Holy Love, only we ourselves can of our own will forsake it; our own will is all we have to fear. Therefore it behoves us to put all our hope in God, Who will perform that good work He has begun in us provided we do not fail Him. Do not imagine but that He Who bade the paralytic man go and sin no more, gave him abundant power of will GOD'S SPECIAL GIFT, 101 to obey the precept. He would not bid His faithful. servants persevere without enabling them to do so: “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life;”? “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong ;”? “So run, that ye may obtain.”3 With David we must cry out, “Cast me not away in the time of age; forsake me not when my strength faileth me,” certain that if we ask the blessed gift of perseverance, He will not refuse it to us.

Then at last the Heavenly King has led the soul He loves all through to the end of. this life, He yet further brings it safe through the | hour of death, leading it to Eternal Glory,—to the fruition of holy perseverance. And the soul overwhelmed with love for its Bridegroom, clings to the Dear Hand Which has led it, joyfully confessing that He is the Giver of all good, and has more than fulfilled Jacob’s prayer that God would be with him, and keep him in the way he went, and bring him to his father’s house in peace: “Thou, Lord, hast kept me in my way, Thou hast fed me with Thy Sacraments, Thou hast clothed me with the wedding garment of Thy Love, and brought me to Thy Heavenly Home.

* Rev. ii. 10. 2 1 Cor. xvi. 13. 3 1 Cor. ix. 24.

4 Ps. Ixxi. 8. S. Francis gives the old metrical version :—

* Seigneur Dieu, mon unique Espoir

Au temps de ma pauvre vieillesse,

Quand le temps lassé me rendra

Due ta main point ne me délaisse.”

Surely Thou art my God for ever and ever!” “Thou hast holden me by my right hand. . . Thou shalt receive me with glory.”?

Such is the order of our passage to eternal life, for which God’s Providence has from all eternity appointed the number, variety, and order of necessary graces and their interdependence.

First of all, He willed fully that notwithstanding Adam’s sin all men should be saved, but so and by such means as were fitting to their nature, gifted as it was with free-will; that is, He willed all to be saved who would co-operate with the grace and favours He imparted to that end.

Now among these favours, calling or vocation He willed to be the first, and that to be so adapted to our free-will that we might accept or reject it at pleasure. And to those whom He foresaw would accept it He willed to supply the emotions of penitence; and to those who seconded these emotions He willed to give holy love; and to them He imparted the needful help to persevere; and to those that rightly use that gracious help He determined to give final perseverance and. the glorious blessedness of His Eternal Love.

Thus we can trace out the course of God’s Providence > in our salvation from the first to the last step, from. that fruit which is Glory to the root which is the Redemption of Christ our Saviour. For God’s Goodness gives that Glory as the result of perseverance in well-doing, perseverance in well-doing as the result of love, love coming of penitence, penitence itself of obedience to vocation, and that vocation is the result of our Lord’s Redemption, on which the whole mystic ladder of Jacob is founded; in Heaven, where it rests on the Loving Bosom of the Eternal Father receiving His elect whom He has glorified, and on earth, where it is fixed in the pierced Side of Him Who died therefore on Mount Calvary.

The Church testifies that the effects of God’s Providence are ruled by Him even as is their interdependence when she prays to Him as the Eternal and Omnipotent God, the Lord of the living and the dead, Who shows mercy to all those He has foreseen would become His in faith and in works; as though acknowledging that that glory which is the crown of God’s Mercy to man, is only destined for those whom Divine Wisdom foreknew would so obey their calling as to attain to that living faith which brings forth the fruit of love.

And finally, all these results depend absolutely upon the Redemption of our Saviour, Whose Merits win them for us in the strictest sense, by His loving obedience unto death, even the death of the Cross ;' which is the root of all the grace we receive, we being spiritual grafts, grafted into that Stem. If when so grafted we abide in Him, we shall assuredly bring forth the fruit of the glory prepared for us by that life of grace He imparts; but if we are as shoots broken off, i.e. if we resist the action of His Goodness, no wonder if we are cut off wholly, and cast into the fire as profitless branches.?_ God has prepared Paradise for those He foreknows as His; let us strive to be truly His in faith and in works, and He will be ours in glory. And it rests with us to be His; for though it comes of God’s Gift, He never refuses that Gift to any, but offers it freely to all who will heartily consent to receive it. See, then, how earnestly God desires that we be His, since to that end He has made Himself wholly ours, yielding up to us both His Life and His Death; His Life, that we might be delivered from eternal death; His Death, that we might attain eternal life. Be it ours so to live that we may be ever His in this life, and yet more for eternity.

All rivers run unto the sea... unto the place whence the rivers come, thither they return again.”¹ The ocean whence they rise is also their last end, and their whole course tends solely to reunite them therewith. “Thou hast made my heart for Thyself,’ says S. Augustine, “and my heart knoweth no rest until it return to Thee.” “Whom have I in Heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of Thee. . . . God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.” Nevertheless this union after which we long cannot be fully perfected in this life; we may begin to love. God here, we can only love Him perfectly in the next. — - es,

The Bride says, “I found Him Whom my soul loveth: I held Him, and would not let Him go, until I had brought Him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.”3 She has found Him; she feels the joy of His Presence in a thousand ways; she holds Him by means of strong, cleaving affection; she will not let Him go, but she does not seek the marriage kiss until she be with Him in her mother’s ‘house, i.e. in the Heavenly Jerusalem. She does not scruple to hold: Him as the captive of love, Whom she can lead at her own will into that blessed resting-place, into which, nevertheless, she will be led by Him, even as Rebekah was led into Sarah’s tent by Isaac.4 The ardent soul, in its passionate love, assumes an empire over its object, and the Bridegroom Himself avows that His Bride has “ravished His heart,” binding Him as a prisoner with one lock of her hair.”

This perfect union of the soul with God, then, will only be brought about in Heaven, at “the marriage supper of the Lamb.”? In this lower life the soul is indeed the Lamb’s betrothed, but not yet wedded; troth and pledges are given, but the further solemnisation waits. And therefore we may yet fall away, although there can never be any cause thereto, since the Bridegroom will never forsake us, and He can never be estranged save by our inconstancy or treachery. But once in Heaven, and the marriage celebrated, that blessed bond will be indissoluble.

Yet while waiting this joyful consummation, the Heavenly Bridegroom vouchsafes us many an intimation of His gracious Presence, for without any endearments the soul would not be drawn, nor run after the savour of His ointments.3 Therefore the Bride says, - “Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His Mouth.” But - these are all but foretastes of that best of all embraces which shall last for ever, compared with which all the others are as nothing, a mere shadow and token of the embrace which shall last for ever, the eternal union of the Bride and her Bridegroom.

When, the changes and chances of this life ended, the souls of the righteous come to the haven where they would be, they rise up to the highest degree of love attainable; and this final gift being bestowed as a reward of righteousness, it is not given merely in “good measure,” but “pressed down and shaken together, and running over,” as our Dear Lord says," that love which is given as a reward being even greater than the ample love by which the soul was enabled to win its recompense. And not only will each individual possess more love in Heaven than he ever possessed on earth, but the smallest exercise of that love will be greater than the most abundant outpour of love here can ever be. There the saints will know no intermission in their life of love, while here even God’s choicest servants, hindered and fettered by the necessities of mortal life, are fain to put up with many a distraction from their holy task. In Heaven the blessed will enjoy a love altogether stedfast, constant, unfailing, which can know no failure or slackening; their intention is ever pure and single. Who could compare a seafaring life, ever surrounded with perils and alarms, to a life spent in a royal mansion where every possible delight abounds, - surpassing all that we can conceive?

There is then far more enjoyment and perfection in that holy love which the inhabitants of Paradise enjoy, than in that of pilgrims yet on earth. Nevertheless - some have been so blessed as to experience a more abundant charity in this their pilgrimage than even the saints who are gathered into the Eternal Home. We cannot doubt but that the charity of S. John, and of other apostolic men, was greater, even while on earth, than that of those little ones who, dying in their first baptismal grace, have entered into eternal glory.

We do not ordinarily expect a shepherd to be more valiant than trained soldiers, yet David proved himself the better man amid the practised troops of the mighty Israelitish army. Neither is it common to find mortal men who abound more in love than those souls which have passed to life immortal; yet to some has been granted a more fervent charity even than theirs. For just as, when comparing a red-hot iron with a bright lamp, the iron possesses most fire and heat, while the lamp has most flame and brightness, so the babe which has entered the glorified life may have most light and glory, while S. John or S. Paul in his captivity has most fire of love and heat of affection.

Blessed Virgin Mother, Our Lady; for she is the Mother of fair Love,' the “only dove,” the “choice one.”? It is a pious thought that at least during her last earthly days her love must have surpassed that of the Seraphim; for if “many daughters have done virtuously,” surely she “excelled them all.”3 All saints and angels are like to the stars in heaven, but she is “fair as the moon, clear as the sun.”4 And even as that sweet Mother’ charity exceeds that of all saints above, so I believe that she exercised it more abundantly while here on earth. The Church’s tradition is that she was never guilty of venial sin, so that there was no hindrance or drawback to the progress of her love, which must have been continually increasing; she was never drawn down by any sensual desires, so that love reigned supreme within her soul. Her virginity of body and heart was even worthier than that of the angels, and her mind, knowing no distraction, cared for the things of the Lord alone, being holy both in body and spirit And what must a mother’s love, the most ardent, unwearied, and insatiable of all love, have been in the heart of such a Mother for such a Son! Even her very slumber was the sleep of love: “I sleep, but my heart waketh.” Surely she slept but to gain fresh vigour to serve her God anew, which is a very true practice of love. S. Augustine says that charity constrains us to cherish the body in so far as it is necessary to the fulfilling of good works, as it is a part of our individuality, and will be a sharer in our eternal blessedness. Assuredly the Christian should cherish his body as a living image of that of his Incarnate Lord, as springing. from the same root, and as bound to Him by a close relationship; above all, when that relationship has been 'renewed by receiving the Divine Body of our Redeemer in the ever-blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, and after we have been consecrated to God in Baptism, Confirmation, and other Sacraments. And if so, how lovingly must the Blessed Virgin have regarded her own pure body; not merely inasmuch as it was gentle, humble, and pure, gifted with all conceivable sweetness, but far more because it was the earthly source of the Saviour’s Body, and so inseparably united thereto.

We know that evil dreams, which are the result of unrestrained thoughts by day, are, after a fashion, sin, because they are the consequence of voluntary wrongdoing; and in like manner we may assume-that such peaceful dreams as arise from holy waking thoughts are good and acceptable in God’s Sight.

Thus S. Chrysostom, in one of his Homilies, speaking to his people of the great love he bore them, tells them that when the urgency of sleep closed his eyes, the force of that love opened wide the vision of his soul, and that many a time in slumber he seemed to talk with them, since the soul is wont in dreams to carry on that which chiefly occupies it while the body wakes. So that when he saw them not with his natural eyes, he yet saw them with the eyes of love. What then, O Blessed Jesus, must have been the. dreams of Thy Holy Mother, when she slept, her heart waking! Surely she must often have dreamed of holding Thee within her womb, and at her breast; and may be she would also dream that as once Thou didst nestle there like a tender lamb he she in her turn slept in Thy pierced Side like a dove “in the clefts of the rock ;”⁷ or did she sometimes dream, like Joseph, of future glory,? when she should be “clothed with the sun,”3—that is, enveloped in the Glory of her Son; or again, with Jacob,‘did she dream of the work of redemption wrought by Him for men and angels? Who can fathom the sweetness of such sleeping visions! ,

Nor would.I affirm that her privileged soul had no ‘exercise of reason in sleep. Many have imagined -that when Solomon dreamed his wondrous dream$ he ‘had power. to exercise free-will, as testified by his .“wise and understanding” choice, and his admirable “prayer. How much more, then, may the Mother of the True Solomon have had a reasoning faculty, her ‘heart waking indeed while she slept! We know that - §. John was given the use of reason while yet in his - mother’s womb, a far. greater marvel.© In short, just -as asbestos ever retains the fire it once possesses, so: the Blessed Virgin’s heart ever retained that fire of -love kindled by her Son; with this difference, that wbereas though the asbestos flame cannot he extin- . guished, neither can it increase, the fire of her love could not cease to wax ever more and more until its. perfection in Heaven. Verily she is the Mother of Pure Love, the most loving and most loved, the one ‘only Mother of the One Only Son, the Most Loving and Most Loved. x Cant. ii. 14. * Gen. xxxvii. 3 serve her love. ch CHAPTER IX.

Ciihat is the Onion of the Bilegsen with Gon?

That triumphant love which the blessed enjoy in Heaven is the final, unchanging, eternal union of the soul with God. What, then, is this union?

The more our senses appreciate pleasant or excellent things, the more eagerly they seek to enjoy these. The more beautiful an object, the more earnestly the eye feeds upon it; the sweeter a sound, the more greedily the ear drinks it in; and thus everything exercises a powerful though friendly violence upon its corresponding sense, according to its intrinsic force, provided it be adapted to the capacity of the sense to enjoy. For greatly as the eye revels in light, it cannot bear to gaze upon the sun; and welcome as music is to the ear, we cannot bear it in too close a neighbourhood to the ear. So truth is the attraction of the mind which seeks above all to fathom it; and the more excellent such truth, so much the more the understanding delights in dwelling thereon. How great was the delight of those ancient philosophers who attained to such profound knowledge of Nature's truths! No earthly pleasure was so sweet to them as their beloved philosophy, for which some forsook honour, riches, and country; while of Democritus we read that he put out his eyes, depriving himself for ever of the joys of earthly sight, in order the better to study truth by spiritual light. So attractive is the knowledge of truth; and Aristotle often declares that all human bliss consists in wisdom, or the knowledge of supreme truths. But when.the mind rises above natural light, and begins to perceive the sacred truths of faith, what then is the delight! The soul melts away for very bliss when it hears

The UNION OF THE BLESSED WITH GOD III that word which is “sweeter than honey to the mouth.”⁹

God has set His mark on all creation, so that the knowledge we attain of Him in His creatures is verily as a sight of His Footprints; while compared with that, faith is a sight of His Very Face, which we may not yet see in the fulness of its glory, but only as Jacob beheld Him at the ford of Jabbok in “the breaking of the day,” when he cried out, “I have seen God Face to face, and my life is preserved.”¹⁰ Oh, how lovely is that light of faith whereby we see clearly, not alone the origin and purpose of creatures, but the Eternal Birth of the Eternal Word, by Whom all things are made, Who with the Father and the Holy Ghost is One God, Blessed for ever and ever! Truly, as S. Jerome exclaims to Paula, Plato in his learning knew not this, neither Demosthenes with all his eloquence! “Thy Word is sweeter than honey and the honeycomb !”3““Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us by the way?”4 And if God’s truths are so sweet beheld as we now behold them,.by the dim light of faith, what, O my God, will they be when we behold them in the full noonday brightness of Thy Glory!

The Queen of Sheba, when she came to behold the glories of Solomon, and to hear his wisdom, was altogether crushed by those marvels, and cried out, “Behold the half was not told me!”5 Very glorious are the truths which faith now reveals to us by hearing. But when we reach the Heavenly Jerusalem, and behold Him Who is greater than Solomon seated on the throne of His Glory, displaying the eternal secrets of His sovereign truth, with a light so bright that we shall see for ourselves that which here we believed, then what will be the joy and overwhelming gladness! Heart of man never could conceive such blessedness: “Very excellent things are spoken of thee, O City of ‘God,”* but we had not even afar off imagined the infinite greatness of the pleasure of Thy. Holy

House! ;

Past Certify Longing will greatly increase the Onion of the Bileggen with Gov. : P REVIOUS longing stimulates and sharpens enjoyment attained; and the more urgent our desire, the more rapturous will our possession be. And oh! what bliss will it be to see the Face of God, the one paramount desire of the soul! Our heart is athirst, and cannot be quenched with mortal joy, which if -moderate does not satisfy, if immoderate chokes us. Yet we always crave for excessive joy, and then it becomes insupportable and harmful. Men have died of joy as well as of sadness. When Alexander had conquered the world, he heard some insignificant person say that there were more worlds; and like a child crying for an apple refused him, this Alexander whom the world calls Great, fell to weeping because he could scarce hope to conquer those other -worlds, since he had not yet full possession of this one! Does not such dissatisfaction in one who ‘had achieved such vast earthly possession prove that the thirst of man’s heart cannot be satiated in this life, and that the whole world will not suffice to quench it? Admirable, gracious dissatisfaction! Never, O my soul, shalt thou find rest in this world, or until thou attainest the refreshing waters of eternal life, which alone can quench thy thirst and satisfy thy longings! °

Contemplate the hart of which David sings, weary with the chase, breathless, spent, plunging into the water, as though he would lose himself in its refresh-

. Ps, Ixxxvii. 2.

The VISION OF GOD. Il3 ing: depths. Even so our heart, ever unsatisfied in this life in its infinite longings, rushes to God, its Living, satisfying Fount, in the next. There, as the famished babe cleaves to its mother’s breast as though it would fain absorb it, so our panting soul cleaves to God as though to be for ever absorbed in Him, and He in us!

When we look upon anything, it is not actually united to our eyes, albeit present to them, but: it conveys a certain image to them, which we call the sense of sight. So when we hear something, that sound is only united to our intelligence by the very subtle sense which we call hearing. Yet even the: impressions of these senses arrive at our understanding by very manifold and varied processes. They begin with the external sense, passing on to that which is internal, then to the fancy, thence to the active understanding, and finally attain that which is passive, until by dint of all these stages they become purified, subtilised, and refined, so that from being merely sensible: they become intelligible.

Whatever we see and hear in this mortal life is seen: and heard after this fashion, even matters of faith. For, even as the mirror does not contain that which we behold therein, but only a representation thereof, which being retained by the mirror, produces in its turn a representation on the retina of the eye; so the word of faith does not contain that which it announces, but only represents it, and that representation of Divine things produces another, which our understanding, through God’s Grace, accepts and receives as representing His Holy Truth, and our will embraces and rejoices

therein as a profitable and most excellent thing. So that by this means the truths set forth in God’s Word are represented to the understanding as a mirror represents natural objects to the eye; wherefore S. Paul likens believing to seeing through a glass." But in Heaven it will be far otherwise. There the Godhead will unite Itself to our intelligence without any intermediate sense or representation; It will join Itself thereto with such a very conscious Presence as will more than supply this. How great will be that blessedness wherein the human intelligence is united for ever to its Supreme Object, no longer in a dim representation, but in very Presence, in the fulness of Its Divine Truth and Majesty! We shall be as the very offspring of the Godhead, fed of Its Substance; and even as a mother feeds her babe not only with her milk, but that directly from her breast, so God our Father will not merely feed our intelligence with His Own very Substance, but He will Himself apply it to our understanding, no longer through any manner of representation, but direct, so that His Eternal: and Paternal Substance is at once species and object to that understanding. And thus there will be a most gracious fulfilment of the promises, “I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her;”? “Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her .. . that ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory... . Ye shall suck .. . and be dandled upon her knees.”3

Nor is this merely a promise; we have the first fruits thereof in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, that perpetual feast of Heavenly Grace, since therein we receive the Lord’s Blood in His Body, and His Body in the Blood; which are applied to us, His Substance to our substance, that we may know how He will apply His Divine Essence to us in the feast THE ETERNAL BIRTH OF THE SON OF GOD I15 of Eternal Glory. Not but that we really receive it now, only hidden under the sacramental species, _ whereas in Heaven He will give Himself to us unveiled, and we shall see Him Face to face as

He is.

The Son, be merciful to my weakness!

We shall see God then, Face to face, beholding the Divine Essence in a very real Presence, with all Its Infinite Beauty, Power, Goodness, Wisdom and all other perfections, We shall realise the infinite knowledge of His Own Beauty which the Father has from all eternity, and which He expressed by the Word, Which, comprehending and representing all the Father’s Perfection, could be no other than One with Him in the Godhead, the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal. Thus we behold the external and glorious generation of the Divine Word, by which He was eternally born in the Image and Likeness of God, a real and natural Likeness, without external accidents, inasmuch as all that is of God is substance, while all is interior, not exterior. Of one Substance with the Father; the Godhead, Glory, and Majesty all one, the Persons distinct. For how could God the Son be the true Image of His Father, if He did not possess the Father’s Perfections? and how could He possess Infinite Perfections without being Himself Infinitely Perfect? and how could He be Infinitely Perfect, unless He were God? and how could He be God, and not be One with the Father?

So, then, God the Son is One with the Father in Substance, not confounding the Persons; He is of the Father, not made nor created, but begotten. The Father spoke, and the Word was. “The dew of Thy Birth is of the womb of the morning.”.

When S. Bernard was a boy at Chatillon-sur-Seine, he was waiting one Christmas Eve in church for the service to begin, and falling asleep, he beheld a very clear vision of the Birth of the Son of God, “coming forth as a Bridegroom out of His chamber”? and so mightily was he filled with joy and spiritual delight thereat, that henceforth, albeit continually sucking up the honey of Divine consolation, the Christmas solemnities had ever a very special attraction and meaning for him. Now if a mere mystical vision of the temporal Birth of the Son of God could so greatly kindle the heart of a child, what will it be when our hearts, enlightened by Heaven’s Own Light, shall see the Eternal Generation of the Son of God, Light of light, Very God of Very God! Surely the soul so favoured will be drawn with incomprehensible attraction to that wondrous Grace, and will abide for ever inseparably united to It.

How could it be but that the Father, beholding the Infinite Beauty and Excellence of His Essence in His Son, and the Son beholding the Father as the Source whence that Beauty rises, must be united in an Infinite Love? But this Love is not like the love of creatures, either mutual or to their Creator. The love of creatures comes from manifold emotions; that of the Godhead is the influence of one Breath of Father and Son, and from that inspiration the Holy Spirit proceeds. David says, “Behold, how good and joyful a thing it is, brethren, to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down unto the beard, even unto Aaron’s beard, and went down to the skirts of his clothing.”² And if human love is so beautiful and glorious a sight, what will it be to behold the mutual Love of the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?

S. Gregory Nazianzen says that the great love and friendship between him and S. Basil was renowned all over Greece; and Tertullian records that even the heathen marvelled at the more than brotherly love of the early Christians. How marvellous, how glorious, then, the Eternal Love of the Godhead! Surely we shall be lost in the depths of wonder and marvel in the contemplation of that most glorious beatific vision!

Thus our human intelligence will behold the

Divine Essence without intermediary or veil, but not without some strengthening light enabling it to perceive and face so great and dazzling a Glory. The bat has sight suited for the dim twilight, but could not bear the brightness of noonday; and so we can perceive God’s natural truths, and even to some extent His Supernatural Graces, by the light of faith, but we cannot attain to the vision of His Very Self. Therefore in His Eternal Love and Wisdom He prepares ‘our mental capacity, strengthens and renders it fit to receive a vision so far exceeding our natural capabilities. The sun only reaches our eyes when veiled by its rays; but the illustration fails, in that whereas the natural sunshine dazzles our feeble sight, the sunshine of God’s Glory will so strengthen and perfect our spiritual gaze that we shall be able to fix it upon Him in all His brightness without being blinded thereby.”

Just as God has given us the light of reason whereby to see Him as the Author of nature, and the light of faith by which to know Him as the Source of grace, so He will give us the light of glory by which to behold Him as the Fountain of eternal life and blessing; a Fountain Which we shall not then behold afar off as now by faith, but Which we shall see by the light of glory, and into Which we shall be plunged for ever. Pliny says that those divers who seek pearls fill their mouths with oil before plunging into the sea, so that by means of its spread they may see more clearly beneath the waters. And when the happy soul plunges into the ocean of God’s Essence, He will shed the sacred light of glory around, so that it shall see clearly amid “the light which no man can approach unto,”? and thus by the brightness of His Own Glory we shall be enabled to scan the brightness of the Godhead. “With Thee is the well of Life, and in Thy Light we shall see light.”

Now this light of glory will regulate the sight and contemplation of the blessed, and according as we have less or more of that holy brightness, we shall see less or more clearly and blessedly that Godhead

Sundry DEGREES OF UNION 11g wherein .we shall attain to various degrees of glory. All souls in Paradise will behold all that Godhead, but none will behold It in Its entirety. For God, being One and Indivisible, cannot be seen, unless it be all seen; but inasmuch as God is Infinite, limitless, boundless in His Perfections, no capacity save His Own, which is Infinite, can entirely comprehend or perceive that Goodness which is Infinitely Essential and Essentially Infinite.

The visible sun, which is finite and limited, is all seen by us who gaze; but it is never totally seen by one or all. So with all our senses. Of many who listen to sweet music, while all hear, some do not hear so well, or with so great delight as others, according as their perceptions are more or less delicate. The manna of old was sweet to all who ate it, yet diversely so according to their appetites, while none fully tasted it, because it had as many flavours as there were tastes among the Israelites. So in Heaven we shall see and enjoy the Godhead fully, but none will see or enjoy Him wholly, for His Infinity will ever possess infinitely more excellence than we have capacity to appreciate; and we shall find joy and rest in knowing that however fully we satiate every longing of our heart in the enjoyment of His Boundless Goodness, still there must ever remain an infinitude of perfection which none save God Himself can ever know or comprehend.

Thus the fish enjoy the vast space of ocean, yet none ever see all shores, or shoot through all waters. Birds have the vast atmosphere at will, but none has ever winged its way through all space. So our souls will swim in the boundless ocean, or fly through the measureless space of the Divine Presence in infinite bliss, but their capacity for bliss must ever remain immeasurably below the Infinitude of that Presence.

They will marvel alike at the Infinite Beauty they behold, and at the depths thereof which are beyond their ken. How marvellous is that they see! yet how far more marvellous that which they see not! Yet they are absolutely satisfied with that which they behold, and content therewith, the knowledge of that which they cannot attain to being a mere subject of further admiration and adoration to them as they fall down and worship the Infinite Beauty of their Infinite

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