Sixth Day
« Our God is a consuming fire."1 " Our God," wrote St. Paul, " is a consuming fire — that is, a fire of love which destroys, which transforms into itself whatever it touches. The mystic death ot which St. Paul spoke yesterday becomes very simple and sweet to souls who yield themselves up to the action of its flames within the depths of their beins They think far less of the work of destruction and detachment left to them to accomplish
I Gal. ii. 20. § Heb. xn. 29.
than of plunging into the furnace of love burning within them, which is the Holy Ghost Himself — the love which in the Blessed Trinity is the bond between the Father and the Son. Such souls enter by a living faith, in simplicity and peace ; they are raised by Him above all things, and above all sensible devotion, into the " sacred darkness " and transformed into the divine Image. They live " in fellowship "2 with the three adorable Persons Whose life they share.
" I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I, but that it be kindled ?"f The Master Himself here tells us of His longing to see the fire of love ignited. All our works and labours are as nothing in His sight : we can give Him nothing, nor can we satisfy His one desire of enhancing the dignity of our soul. Nothing so pleases Him as to see it increase, and nothing can so enhance it as its becoming, in some sort, equal with God. This is why He exacts the tribute of its love, the property of love being to put, as far as possible, the lover and the beloved upon a par. The soul which possesses such love appears upon a kind of equality with Jesus, because their mutual love makes them share all in common. "I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever 1 have heard of My Father, I have made known unto you. "J But to attain to this love the soul must have first surrendered self entirely ; the will must be sweetly lost in that of God, so that the inclinations and faculties may be moved in and by love alone. " I do all by love : I suffer all with love." Then it is filled, absorbed, and protected by love.
It has found the secret of growing in love wherever it may be. Even in its intercourse with the world and amid the cares of this life, it can truly affirm : " My sole occupation is love."
Footnotes
Chapter 6 of 10