Letter 30. To a Lady
Wherein he shows how she is to go and adore the Infant jesus; with those kings; being guided by the star of faith; and that she is to offer him the gold of divine love.
I Wrote to your Ladyship this last Advent, of the great favour which our Lord did us, in vouchsafing to come to us, and of the happiness of that soul which disposes himself to receive him. I hope in his mercy, that he is come home to you; and that you have received him with faith and love. And therefore now, there remains no more, but that you offer yourself, in perpetual sacrifice to him, who hath vouchsafed to offer himself to you as a dear guest, and that you imitate the faith and presents which were made by those wise men to the Blessed Infant as soon as they found him out; as you have already imitated them in the care they had to find him. It will do well, that you contemplate how this great lord is so humbled, in that poor open stable, and that manger, where the natural discourse and humane reason of those kings, was fare from thinking that they should find him. But the star which, with us, is Faith, refuses expressly to pass any further on, and declares with most resplendent beams as by so many tongues, that he who is above all reason, and knowledge, lies in a place which is hidden from all discourse of reason; that so we may learn to belceve, that most firmly, whereof we find least certainty.
For if as the star guided them, so they had been guided but by their reason, they would have gone to look for this new borne king in some royal palace; for a person and a place wherein he dwells, are to carry proportion to one another: Our lord vouchsafes to show a great favour to them, upon whom he bestows a star, which is the gift of faith; that so they may seek God, both when he is wrapped up aswell in those swadling-cloutes, in the poverty of his birth, as in the contempt and torment of the death of the Cross; the kings find him in one of thofe places, and the good thief in the other. For both they, and he, had the eyes of Faith, and that made them prostrate themselves all along and adore him, protesting that they were as nothing in his divine presence. For if they had known him but for a temporal king, how great soever he had been, it would have suffized for them, to have done reverence to him, as one man uses to another; but for so great men to prostrate themselves, before an Infant, betokens that they had interior faith, whereby they knew the high Majesty, which lay hid in that Infancy.
But now your Ladyship must be sure, that you appear not empty before this Lord, and that you think not that you give him any thing, if you do not give him your love. Nothing but God is able to make your Ladyship happy; and nothing but yourself is able to keep him contented. This love of his is not joined with any interest which regards himself, or the value of the presents which are made to him; but it is a true and perfect love, which requires an union of hearts. And this is that language, as S. Bernard saith, whereby God, and the soul communicate themselves & speak to one another, in the same tune. If our lord threaten and punish me, I am not to do the same; but my duty will be, to humble myself so much the more, as he doth more exalt himself; but if he love me, I must be like him in that, and I must love him, saying, with the spouse; My beloved to me and I to him.
O great dignity of a creature, which is abled thus to draw, in the self same yoke with his Lord, and may answer him like, for like, for love is that thing, which abases hills, and raises valleys. Offer your love to him; who for love of you, did, though he were so great, become an infant, and being God became man; and shed the blood of circumcision for you, within eight days; as being not content that he had shed tears, for you, when he was borne. Steal not yourself away from this lord, since you are so truly his, lest you grow to be of them, of whom the Prophett jeremy faith; he went like one who runs away with him self. Where are you engaged more deeply? where can you employ yourself more profitably? where can you exalt yourself more highly, then by loving Christ our lord, who loved you, and washed you with his blood, and gives even himself to such a one as love's him, and makes him of a man, grow to be a kind of God.1
Be very careful of yourself in this business, and so that you offer gold to the Infant Jesus; For as a little gold is more worth than a great quantity of other mettle, so a little true love, is more precious, than much copper, and such other metals of fear, and proper interest, or any other succh affects as rise from these. Many are wont to measure themselves by their doing many good works, and they never consider that God respects nothing in them, but only the hart from whence they rise; and that one man shall please God more who doth less good works, than another who doth greater, if he who did the less, have the greater love. Some man by fasting from some one meal, or by giving some very little alms, shall be more pleasing to our lord (as the widow was, than many others who gave great alms) because he doth it with more love than they. And herein appears the greatness of our Lord, since noeseruice which we can do him, how great soever it may be, is great in his sight, if the love of the party be not great. For he who hath need of nothing, and cannot possibly increase at all in riches, or any other good, why should he care for aught which can be given him, but only to be beloved, which is so acceptable a present, as cannot be refused by any. And so much is God in earnest when he requires it of us, as that he punishes with eternal death, the person who grants him not his love.2
What thing is so fare from self love in the desires of any thing, as he who needs no service which can be done him thereby; and who again hath so much desire of any thing as he who so requires a man's love, as to punish him with the torments of hell, who will not give him that love and give it truly, yea, and that so as it may exceed all other love's. And therefore Saint Augustine might say with reason, O lord what account dost thou make of me, since thou commandest, me to love thee; and dost threaten me with huge miseries if I love thee not. Let his be therefore your prime care, to attend to the love of our Lord. For this very purpose, he made himself so very little. For by how much the more he conceals, and as it were dissembles his Majesty, so much more doth he declare his goodness, and thus doth he the more invite our love; which looks more at ease upon the littleness which he took, the upon the greatness which he naturally possessed.
His wisdom lies hidden by his being made an Infant who could not speak. His power is also bound up by certain swathing-cloathes, and he endures bitter cold. And all this to the end, that the more of his other attributes he hides from us, the more he may declare his love to us; that so we also may love him the more, as we find him to have suffered more for us. It is certain that to see him tremble with cold doth kindle us much more, then if we saw him well, and warmly clad, and if he felt no pain. And therefore he shall do very ill, who denies him his love, since it was bought at so much cost of this Infant; and after the rate thereof, will it cost that man who shall deny to give it.
He who offers this love, offers the boloca●st with the marrow to our lord, as David saith. For as fire burns up a whole beast; so doth love consume the whole man, both within & without. The fire of true love, will not endure that the straw of exterior vanities should remain unburnt. How shall that man be able to love pomps and shows who cordially love's the Infant Jesus, being laid in a poor manger, if it be true that love must make lovers like to one another. It is a great blessing and light, which makes us able to see God here belove, that so we may know how to walk for the pleasing of his divine Majesty. And since he walks in a very contrary way to that of the world, let us resolve to make our choice of that guide, whom we mean to follow; since we cannot walk in both; and since the world runs headlong upon error, and since Christ our Lord is the truth which saves such as believe and follow it.3
John. 14 And let his holocaust have marrow in it, for marrow is a soft thing, and doth soon melt. And so doth that hart which love's our lord; and whether the matter concern the service of the same lord, or else the good of a man's neighhour, such a one will not express either dryness, or harshness, but sweet mildness, be also hath care to keep his love as safe, as the marrow is within the bone. But before you can arrive to that marrow, it is guarded first by the skynue, and then by the flesh, and lastly by the bone itself. The man who love's, places all things which he possesses, and desires, before that which he love's; that he may sooner lose all that, then that the person beloved by him should once be touched. And he hath a strong and firm purpose as if it were made of iron not to venture the love of our lord, though it should cost him whatsoever he either is, or may ever be.
Such gold as this it is, which you must offer to the Infant, who is borne so poor; and you must open your treasures, for that purpose, as those kings did. For if this hart be not opened, which is the treasure-howse, all the labour is lost. For in that case whatsoever it be, which is offered, is not gold but counterfeit stuffer; & he takes the best to himself, and gives the worst to Almighty god. Open therefore your hart, and convey the Infant newly borne into it, since that hart alone life's, in which he is. And since he is of so little weight, do not lay him down; but wear him in your bosom, like that handful of Myrrh, whereof the spouse speaks. Converse with him with all reverence because he is God;4
and yet take courage to communicate freely with him, because he is an Infant; for within he hath his hart as serene, and sweet, as you may well conceive by his exterior appearance. Take heed you let him not fall, for he must be kept with great care; but if your love be not great, you will either forget him quickly, or else lay him soon aside, as thinking that he weighs too much. And so that you negotiate with him in such sort, as that you give not over, till you perceive by good conjectures, that both you love him, and are beloved by him. For till a soul feel this, it ever life's in fear, and sadness, and as under the burden of a law, but when it comes to this pass; there is nothing which can easily trouble it, when it considers that God love's it, and it love's God. I beseech him that it may so happen to your Ladyship. Amen.5
Footnotes
Chapter 13 of 57