14 — CHASTITY OF HEART

Presence of God. — O Lord, teach me how pure my heart must be to be admitted to Your intimacy.

Meditation

1 — The heart of the person consecrated to God must be “an enclosed garden, a sealed fountain” (Cant. 4, 12), that is, it must admit no affection that is not that of God or ordered to God. This, obviously, does not exclude either love of neighbor in general, nor due affection toward one’s family, but it excludes all that is purely natural love. In other words, the affections of a soul consecrated to God must all be supernaturalized, that is, it must love creatures in relation to God, because they are His and belong to Him. When, instead, in its affections it lets itself be guided by human motives: sympathy, interest, desire to satisfy the heart with some drop of sensible love, then it does not love creatures in order to God, but loves them in order to itself, for the satisfaction it finds there: its love is not supernatural, but human. And human affections devastate the heart consecrated to God, like the little foxes of which the Canticle speaks devastate vineyards.

After breaking for love of God the sacred ties of blood, after renouncing a family of one’s own, it is great foolishness to let the heart be bound by creatures that have no right to it, by affections that have nothing sacred in them. Before them one must respond with Agnes’ fortitude: “God has placed a sign on my face, that I admit no lover outside of Him. To Him alone do I keep faith” (BR).

“It is a pity - cries St. John of the Cross - to see certain souls that, while... they are full of spiritual treasures..., nevertheless, because they lack the courage to finish with some small... attachment or affection, never go forward and never arrive at the harbor of perfection... The Lord has granted them to break much thicker cords of affection... and they then, not wanting to detach themselves from a trifle... neglect to reach so great a good” (A. I, 11, 4-5).

2 — God is jealous of the heart consecrated to Him and does not admit it to His intimacy as long as He finds it occupied by some affection that hinders it from concentrating in Him all the love of which He has made it capable. “God

• says St. Teresa of Jesus - forces no one: He accepts whatever is given Him, but He does not give Himself entirely except to those who give themselves entirely to Him” (Lt. 28, 12). “God does not want a divided heart: He wants all or nothing” (T.M. Sp. p. 187).

If one does not arrive at total gift of the heart, it will be impossible to enjoy divine intimacy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt. 5, 8), Jesus said: this vision, this enjoyment of God is in some way anticipated, even here below, for one who knows how to reserve for Him the integrity, the purity of heart. St. Thomas says: “A heart free from thoughts and affections foreign to God is like a temple sacred to the Lord, in which already in this world we can contemplate Him” (Commentary on St. Matthew). The pure heart is like the eye limpid and clear, it knows how to comprehend God, it knows how to penetrate the depths of His infinite mysteries. Precisely for this reason theologians teach that to the beatitude “blessed are the pure of heart” corresponds the gift of understanding, by means of which the Holy Spirit makes the soul capable of an intus legere, of reading within, that is, of penetrating divine things. The more one loves, the more one desires to know the beloved person, and not only externally, but intimately, being made partaker of his thoughts, his secrets, and one willingly renounces every other satisfaction in order to attain this.

If you want to know your God, if you want to enter into His intimate and profound friendship, you must offer Him a pure heart, empty of every human affection. “Do not present yourself to creatures, if you wish to behold in your soul the pure and simple face of God; but make your spirit empty and very detached from them, and you will walk in divine splendors” (J.C. S.C. I, 25).

Colloquy

O Jesus, ineffable sweetness, change into bitterness for me all the consolations of earth, because I do not want creatures to have even an atom of my heart. If I knew that one single fiber of my being vibrates for a human affection, I would be ready to cut it off and cast it far from me, at the price of any suffering.

But You know how great my weakness is and how, in certain moments of desolation, emptiness, and abandonment, I feel the temptation to go ask creatures for a little affection, for understanding. “Oh then, I beg You, grant that in earthly friendships I may find only bitterness! Otherwise, with a heart like mine, I would let myself be taken and have my wings clipped” (cf. T.B.G. St. 4).

O Lord, enlighten my heart in its most hidden folds, in its most intimate recesses, and if in it You find any thread of affection that is not for You, show it to me and grant me the grace to break it forever.

You want all, and I want to give You all. And besides, giving You all my heart I only give back to You what is already Yours, because it is You who gave it to me, because I would not be capable of loving, had You not infused in me a spark of Your infinite charity. O Lord, it is most just that this spark return to You, be spent in loving You back, infinite Love, who drew me from nothing and made me capable of loving You in return. And raising itself to You, coming into contact with You, immense Hearth of charity, my little love will grow beyond measure and will be able to pour itself out upon earth, embracing all creatures in the benevolence of a pure supernatural love, to lead them to You, their principle and their end.

O Jesus, guardian of virgins, guard my heart and make it so pure and transparent that it may be made worthy to see the splendor of Your Face.

I still do not know You, my Lord, because, still wishing to love and savor creatures, my interior eye does not have the limpidity necessary to contemplate You. And because I do not know You, I do not love You as I should and enjoy little of You. See, then, how great my need is! Come Yourself to purify my heart, that I may know You fully and, fully knowing You, may truly love You with all my strength.