Letter 45. To a Lady in the time of Advent
HOw busy will your ladyship be, in this holy time, preparing a lodging for that guest, who is coming to you. Me thinks, I see you as earnest, as S. Martha, & yet as quiet as S. Mary Magdalen; that so by your endeavours, both exterior and interior, you may do him service, who is drawing near, since he is so worthy both of the one and of the other, and is, in fine, your lord. O blessed time wherein is represented to us the coming of God in flesh to dwell amongst us, to illuminate our darkness, and to address our feet in the way of peace, and to adopt us for his brethren, and to design us for the enjoying of the same inheritance with himself.1
It is not without cause, that you desire his coming, and that you prepare your hart for his habitation. For this lord was desired long before he came, Agge. and the Prophet called him The desire of all Nations;
and indeed he gives himself to none, but such as desire him. God hears the desire of the poor, for his ears are laid close to the sighing of our hearts, and he cares for nothing else in us but that. To such a hart he comes, and cannot deny himself, as it is said in the Canticles.2
Thou hast wounded my hart, O thou my sister, and my spouse; thou hast wounded my hart, by the cast of one of thine eyes, and by a hair of thy head. Is it possible for any thing to be more tender, then that which is wounded, by the sight of a single eye? Is it possible for any thing to be more weak, then that which is tied fast by one single hair? where now are they, who say, that God is hard to be obtained, that he is rigorous to be dealt with, and insupportable to be endured. We must quarrel with ourselves, since, because we will be looking many several ways, we place not our sight upon God; nor will we shut that eye of ours, which behouldes creatures, that so with all our thought we may consider God alone. He who shoots in a Cross bow, shuts one of his eyes, that he may see better with the other, how to hit the white; & we, the while, will not shut up all that sight of ours, which hinders us from being able to hunt & wound our lord with love.3
Let him recollect, and make sure his love, and let him lodge it in God, whosoever hath a mind to obtain God. For as God is love, so is he only to be hunted, and taken with love; and he will have nothing to do with them, who love him not. And if they say, that they know him already as they ought;
- John. 4. S. John will tell them that they say not true. But our lord who is wounded with an eye, is tied with a hair. For that which love takes, the recollected and reflected thought conserves, that it may not be lost.
And to the end that men might be put into confidence, that they should be able to arrive to almighty God, and that he hath no mind to slip away, he makes himself one of them, and lays himself in the arms of a virgin, swathed up hand and foot, without power to fly from that man, who is disposed to seek him. O celestial bread, which descendest out of the bosom of thy Father, and art laid in the public places of this world, inviting as many as will, that they may come to enjoy thee, and feed upon thee. And who is he who can endure to withhold himself from going to thee, and from receiving thee, since thou givest thyself, upon no harder condition, then only that we be content to hunger after thee? For dost thou peradventure ask more of us, then only that a soul may sigh for thee, and confessing her sins, may receive, and love thee?
Great is the misery of those men, who when bread comes to seek them in their own houses, they choose rather to dye of hunger, then to stoop to take it up. O sloth what a deal of mischief thou dost! O blindness, what a deal of benediction dost thou lose! O sleepiness, what a deal of advantage dost thou steal away! since considering the promise, that whosoever seeks shall find, Mat. 7 & 21 Mark 11. Luc. 11 John. 14. & 16 and he who asks shall obtain, and to him who knocks it shall be opened; it is clear that if we prove not well, the fault is ours.
But what? shall things pass still after this manner? Though God himself is come to cure us, shall we still continue sick? He being at the gate of our hart, crying out and saying, Open to me, O thou my friend, and my spouse, shall we being all wrapped up in vanities, suffer him to stand calling there, and not so much as open him the gate?4
O my soul come hither, and tell me, for I ask thee on the part of God, what, in fine, is that thing, which detains thee, from going all, with all thy forces, after God? What dost thou love, if thou do not love this Spouse of thine? Or rather why dost thou not love him much, who did so mightily love thee? He had no business on earth, but to attend to the love of thee, and to seek thy profit, with his own loss. And what hast thou to do in this world, but to exercise thyself, all, in love of this king of heaven? Dost thou not see, how all that which here thou seest, must have an end, as also all that which thou hearest, which thou touchest, which thou tastest, and wherewith thou dost converse? Dost thou not see, that all this is but cobwebs, which cannot thee, and keep thee warm? Where art thou if thou have not thy being in Jesus Christ our lord? what art thou thinking? what account art thou making? what dost thou seek, out of that only, one, complete God?
Let us rouse up ourselves at last, & break of this bad sleep; Let us awake, for it is broad day, since Jesus Christ our lord who is the light, is come. Let us do the wooks of light, since there was time wherein we did the works of darkness. O that the memory of that time, wherein we know not God, might sèrue us now for sharp spurs, to make us run greedily after him. O that we could run, O that we could fly, O that we might burn, and be transformed, into him. What must a creature do, when he sees his creator made man, and all for love of him alone? who ever heard of such a love as this, that one loving another, should by love be converted into that other. It is true that God loved us, when he made us after his Image; but a fare greater work it was to make himself after our image. He abases himself to us, that he may exalt us to him. He makes himself man, that he may make us Gods. He descends from heaven, that he may carry us thither in his company; and in fine he died, that he might give us life. And now shall it be possible that in the midst of these things, I should lie sleeping and without any sense of gratitude for so great love? O lord illuminate mine eyes, that they may not sleep in such a death as this And thou who hast done us this great favour, give us also a right feeling of it. For otherwise, the greater the benefit is, the more hurt it will do us in the end.5
O Lord open thou mine eyes, that they may consider thee, descending out of the bosom of thy father; and entering into that of thy virgin mother, that I may give thee great thankes for this benefit. Make me able to humble myself for thee. Make me able to consider thee lying in a manger, instead of a bed, crying out, through could & being oppressed with poverty; & make me learn thereby, how to cast all delicacy fare from me. Make thy tears & sighs show & sound themselves forth in mine ears, that so they may mollify my hart, & that so it may deliver itself cover, as wax, to every inclination of thy will. And do not thou permit, that God should weep, and that man should have no feeling of it; for I know not at which of these two things, we might wonder most.
Seal up, O lord, thy words in my soul, that I may never sinne against thee. Let the blood which thou didst shed for me, be gathered up into my hart, and be thou all, my only love, that so thou mayst not repent thyself, of all these great afflictions, which thou enduredst for me. It is I, whom thou soughtst, and whom thou seekest still; and for me thou hast made all those tiltings, and triumphs, and shown forth all thy liveries, and undergone all that cost. Let me never see myself belonging to any other than thee, since thou hast deserved me so well.
Come Madam, let that hart of yours, now prepare itself for God is upon the point of being borne; and he hath neither house, nor bed, wherein to lie. Let your hart be all inflamed with love, for the Infant suffers much cold. And yet if your hart be but even so much as luke warm this Infant with his cold, will give it greater heat. For how much the more cold he suffers for us, so much the more love, he shows to bear us; & where I find myself to be more beloved, there am I obliged more to love.
Exteriorly he suffers cold, and yet, through the great love he bears us, he can endure no ; but he lies naked as soon as he is borne, & naked they lay him upon the Cross, because in his birth, & in his death, he shown the greatest excess of love.
Madam, you must provide a cradle wherein you may rock him a sleep, which signifies the repose of contemplation, and see that you tend, and treat him well, for he is the son of a great high king, and he is the son also of a virgin, and he takes much gust to lodge himself in the hart of virgins; for the meat he eats is flesh, which is crucified & dead. And because he hath a great deal of poor people, amongst his kindred, whom yet he love's dearly well, you must be also sure to love them, for they are the brethren of our creators. As soon as he is borne in your hart, you must take care to nurse him; and I beseech him to keep and save you, for his mercy's sake. Amen.
Footnotes
Chapter 20 of 57