29 — UNION WITH GOD

Presence of God. — My God, who created me for Yourself, grant that I may return to You and be united to You in love.

Meditation

1 — All of man’s life is a journey of return toward God: from God he came and to God he must return; the more total his return is, so as to become intimate union with God, the more he will have attained the end for which he was created, and thus will be perfect and eternally happy. St. Thomas teaches that a thing is perfect when it attains its end; thus man’s perfection consists in reaching God and uniting Himself to Him, our ultimate end. In union with God man finds all that he can desire; he finds his peace, he finds the fulfillment of his longing for the infinite, of his thirst for love and imperishable happiness: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You” (St. Augustine); in union with God man finds his eternal happiness. The life of heaven is nothing other than this union with God, brought to its ultimate perfection; precisely because he is perfectly united to God, man will then give Him maximum glory, maximum love, and this will redound for man himself in eternal beatitude.

The soul that truly loves God does not resign itself to await heaven to unite with Him, but longs to anticipate this union here below. Is it possible? Yes, because Jesus said it: “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him” (Jn. 14:23); indeed with these words the Lord Himself indicates to us the condition for living united to Him: love. “He who abides in charity abides in God and God in him” (1 Jn. 4:16). Love is the great force that unites us to God even in this life where, imprisoned in matter, we cannot yet enjoy direct contact, the face-to-face vision of Him.

“The end of the spiritual life — says St. Thomas — is that man unite himself to God, which is done through love” (IIª IIae, q. 44, a. 1, co.). With the steps of love — gressibus amoris — we walk toward our ultimate end: union with God. Union of love with God, behold the great ideal that must illuminate and direct our entire life, behold the great goal that, with divine help, we wish to attain even from here below, as far as is possible to our condition as wayfarers.

2 — St. John of the Cross explains wherein consists the union of love with God. It is not a question of substantial union which always exists between God and all created things and through which “He conserves their being in them.” Such species of union is natural and can never fail in any creature, not even in the sinner; instead the union of love is supernatural and is not always verified, but only in souls in grace. “For although God — says the Saint — is always present in the soul and conserves its natural being with His assistance, He does not always communicate to it the supernatural being. This, in fact, is communicated only through love and divine grace, which not all souls possess; and those who are in God’s grace are not so to the same degree, but some have a degree of love more or less intense than others.” And here is the conclusion: “That soul is more united to God which has advanced more in love” (A. II, 5, 3 and 4).

The point of departure for the union of love with God is the state of grace; the point of arrival is the full development of grace, so that the soul remains totally supernaturalized and all its forces, all its will, all its affection concentrate on God, desiring and loving nothing except what God wills and loves. Grace is the life of God in us, life that develops through the progress of love. The more the soul loves, the more grace grows in it; consequently its participation in divine life becomes more profound and leads it to a union with God ever more intense and perfect. Grace and love are the most precious germ of union with God; they place the soul in intimate communion with Him: communion of life, of thought, of will. God always remains God, distinct from the creature; the creature always conserves its personality and yet the soul becomes so permeated with divine life, God so communicates His supernatural being to it that it seems more God than soul (cf. ibid., 7).

Behold the ultimate term of union with God on earth. A most lofty term, but on which it is not rash to fix one’s gaze, since in baptismal grace each of us has received the germ of union with God.

Colloquy

“O Jesus, who will grant me the grace to form one spirit with You? I certainly, O Lord, rejecting the multiplicity of creatures, want only Your unity! O God, You are the only one, the only unity necessary to my soul! Ah, dear Friend of my heart, unite this single poor soul of mine to Your most unique goodness! You are all mine; when shall I be all Yours? The magnet attracts iron and draws it to itself; Lord Jesus, my Lover, be the magnet of my heart: draw, bind, unite forever my spirit to Your paternal breast! Oh, since I am made for You, for what reason am I not in You? Immerse this drop that is my spirit, given to me by You, in the sea of Your goodness, from which it proceeds. Lord, since Your heart loves me, why does it not snatch me to itself, I who desire it so? Draw me, and I shall run after Your attractions to cast myself into Your arms and never move from there for ages of ages. Amen” (St. Francis de Sales).

“O Lord, who will be able to make us understand how advantageous it is to cast ourselves into Your arms and establish with You this pact: I will care for You and You will care for me; You will watch over my interests and I over Yours?

“What am I without You, O Lord? What am I worth if I am not united to You? And where do I end up if I distance myself even a little from You?

“My Lord, my Mercy and my Treasure, what other good can be desired here below except to be so near to You that no division is possible any longer?

“O Lord of my life, draw me to Yourself, but do it in such a way that my will remains so united to Yours that it can never be detached from it” (T.G.P. 4, 8 and 9; 3, 15).