Consideration XXXIII — The Love of God

"Nos ergo diligamus Deum, quoniam Deus prior dilexit nos" (1 John 4:19).

Point I

Consider first that God deserves to be loved by you, because He loved you before you loved Him; and He was the first of all to love you. "In caritate perpetua dilexi te" (Jer. 31:3). The first to love you on this earth were your parents, but they did not love you until after they knew you. But before you had your being, God already loved you. Your father was not yet in this world, nor your mother, and God already loved you; indeed the world was not yet created, and God loved you; and how long before the world was created did God love you? Perhaps a thousand years, a thousand centuries before? There is no need to count years and centuries; know that God has loved you from eternity. "In caritate perpetua dilexi te, ideo attraxi te miserans tui" (ibid.). In short, God, from the time He has been God, has always loved you; from the time He has loved Himself, He has loved you too. That holy young virgin St. Agnes had good reason to say: "Ab alio amatore praeventa sum." Whenever the world and creatures asked for her love, she answered: No, world, creatures, I cannot love you; my God was the first to love me; it is just, then, that I consecrate all my love to God alone.

So then, my brother, from all eternity your God has loved you, and solely out of love He drew you from the number of so many men He could have created, and gave you your being and placed you in the world. Out of love for you He also made so many other beautiful creatures, so that they might serve you and remind you of the love He has borne you and that you owe Him. "Coelum et terra," said St. Augustine, "et omnia mihi dicunt, ut amem te." When the saint looked at the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the rivers, it seemed to him that all of them spoke to him and said: Augustine, love God, for He created us for you, so that you might love Him. The Abbot de Rancé, founder of La Trappe, when he looked at the hills, the springs, the flowers, said that all these creatures reminded him of the love God had borne him. St. Teresa likewise said that creatures reproached her for her ingratitude toward God. St. Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi, when she held in her hand some beautiful flower or fruit, felt her heart wounded as by an arrow of love toward God, saying within herself: So my God has thought from eternity of creating this flower, this fruit, so that I might love Him!

Moreover, consider the special love God has shown you in having you born in a Christian land and in the bosom of the true Church. How many are born among idolaters, among Jews, among Muslims, or among heretics, all of whom are lost! Few are those among men who have the fortune of being born where the true faith reigns; and among these few the Lord has chosen you. Oh, what an immense gift this gift of faith is! How many millions of persons are deprived of the sacraments, of sermons, of the examples of good companions, and of all the other helps that exist in our true Church for salvation! And God wished to grant you all these great helps without any merit of yours — indeed, foreseeing your demerits; for when He thought of creating you and granting you these graces, He already foresaw the offenses you were to commit against Him.

Affections and Prayers

O sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, infinite Good, infinite Majesty, You who have so greatly loved mankind, how is it that You are then so despised by mankind? But among these men You, my God, have particularly loved me, favoring me with such special graces as You have not granted to so many others; and I have despised You more than the rest. I cast myself at Your feet, O my Savior Jesus: "Ne proiicias me a facie tua." I would deserve You to cast me away, for the ingratitude I have shown You; but You have said that You cannot cast away a penitent heart that returns to You: "Eum, qui venit ad me, non eiiciam foras" (John 6:37). My Jesus, I repent of having offended You. In the past I did not know You; now I recognize You as my Lord and my Redeemer, who died to save me and to be loved by me. When shall I cease, my Jesus, to be ungrateful to You? When shall I begin to love You truly? Behold, today I resolve to love You with all my heart and to love nothing but You. O infinite Goodness, I adore You for all those who do not adore You, and I love You for all those who do not love You. In You I believe, in You I hope, You I love, to You I offer myself entirely; help me with Your grace. You already know my weakness. But if You have so favored me when I did not love You nor desired to love You, how much more must I hope in Your mercy, now that I love You, nor desire anything else but to love You? My Lord, give me Your love, but a fervent love that will make me forget all creatures; a strong love that will make me overcome all difficulties to please You; a perpetual love that will never be dissolved between You and me. All this I hope through Your merits, O my Jesus; and all this I hope through your intercession, O my Mother Mary.

Point II

But not only has God given us so many beautiful creatures — He was not satisfied until He went so far as to give us even Himself. "Dilexit nos, et tradidit semetipsum pro nobis" (Gal. 2:20). Accursed sin had made us lose divine grace and paradise, and had made us slaves of hell; but the Son of God, to the amazement of heaven and nature, willed to come to earth to become man, in order to redeem us from eternal death and obtain for us the grace and paradise we had lost. What a marvel it would be to see a monarch made a worm for love of worms! But infinitely greater ought to be our marvel at seeing a God made man for love of men. "Exinanivit semetipsum, formam servi accipiens, et habitu inventus ut homo" (Phil. 2:7). A God clothed in flesh! "Et Verbum caro factum est" (John 1:14). But the marvel grows in seeing what this Son of God then did and suffered for our love. A single drop of His blood, a single tear, a single prayer of His would have sufficed to redeem us, since this prayer, being that of a divine Person, was of infinite value, and therefore sufficient to save the whole world and infinite worlds. But no, says Chrysostom, what sufficed for our redemption did not suffice for the immense love this God bore us: "Quod sufficiebat redemptioni, non sufficiebat amori."

He not only wished to save us, but because He loved us greatly, He wished also to be greatly loved by us; and therefore He chose a life entirely full of sufferings and contempt, and a death the most bitter of all deaths, in order to make us understand the infinite love with which He burned for us. "Humiliavit semetipsum, factus obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis" (Phil. 2:8). O excess of divine love, which all men and all angels will never be able to comprehend! I say "excess" because such it was called by Moses and Elijah on Tabor, when they spoke of the passion of Jesus Christ: "Dicebant excessum quem completurus erat in Ierusalem" (Luke 9:31). "Excessus doloris, excessus amoris," says St. Bonaventure. If the Redeemer had not been God, but a mere friend and relative of ours, what greater sign of affection could He have shown us than to die for us? "Maiorem hac dilectionem nemo habet, ut animam suam ponat quis pro amicis suis" (John 15:13). If Jesus Christ had had to save His own Father, what more could He have done for love of Him? If, my brother, you had been God and the creator of Jesus Christ, what more could He have done for you than sacrifice His life in the midst of a sea of contempt and suffering? If the vilest man on earth had done for you what Jesus Christ has done, could you live without loving him?

But what do you say? Do you believe in the Incarnation and the death of Jesus Christ? You believe it and you do not love Him? And can you think of loving anything other than Jesus Christ? Perhaps you doubt whether He loves you? He, says St. Augustine, came to earth to suffer and die for you for this very purpose — to make you know the immense love He bears you: "Propterea Christus advenit, ut cognosceret homo quantum eum diligat Deus." Before the Incarnation, man could have doubted whether God loved him tenderly; but after the Incarnation and the death of Jesus Christ, how can he doubt it any longer? And what greater tenderness could He have shown you of His affection than in sacrificing His divine life for you? We have grown accustomed to hearing the words creation, redemption, a God in a manger, a God on a cross. O holy faith, enlighten us.

Affections and Prayers

O my Jesus, I see that You have done all You could to make it necessary for me to love You; I see that I have tried, by my ingratitude, to put You under the obligation of abandoning me. May Your patience, which has so long endured me, be forever blessed. I would deserve a hell just for myself, but Your death gives me confidence. Ah, make me truly know the claim that You have, O immense Good, to be loved, and the obligation I have to love You. I already knew that You, my Jesus, had died for me, and yet how could I, O God, have lived so many years forgetful of You? Oh, if I could begin life again from the start, I would wish, my Lord, to give all those years to You. But the years do not return; ah, grant that at least this remaining life I may spend entirely in loving You and pleasing You. My dear Redeemer, I love You with all my heart; ah, increase this love in me; always remind me of what You have done for me, and do not allow me to live any longer ungrateful to You. No, I will resist no more the lights You have given me. You wish to be loved by me, and I wish to love You. And whom shall I love if I do not love a God who is infinite beauty, infinite goodness? A God who died for me? A God who with such patience has endured me, and instead of punishing me as I deserved, has changed punishments into graces and favors? Yes, I love You, O God worthy of infinite love, and I sigh for nothing else, nor seek anything else, but to live entirely occupied in loving You, and forgetful of everything that is not You. O infinite charity of my Lord, come to the aid of a soul that longs to be entirely Yours.

Come to my aid, O great Mother of God Mary, with your intercession; pray to Jesus to make me entirely His.

Point III

The marvel grows in seeing the desire Jesus Christ had to suffer and die for us. "Baptismo autem habeo baptizari" (so He went about saying while He lived), "et quomodo coarctor usquedum perficiatur" (Luke 12:50). I must be baptized with the baptism of My own blood, and I feel as if dying with desire that My passion and death come quickly, so that man may soon know the love I bear him. This was also what made Him say on the night before His passion: "Desiderio desideravi hoc pascha manducare vobiscum" (Luke 22:15). Therefore, says St. Basil of Seleucia, it seems that our God cannot be satisfied with loving men: "Hominum amore nequit expleri Deus."

Ah, my Jesus, men do not love You because they do not think about the love You have borne them. O God, a soul that considers a God who died for its love, and with such desire to die in order to show it the affection He bore it — how is it possible that it can live without loving Him? "Caritas Christi urget nos" (2 Cor. 5:14). St. Paul says that not so much what Jesus Christ did and suffered, but the love He showed us in suffering for us, obliges us and almost forces us to love Him. Considering this, St. Lawrence Justinian exclaimed: "Vidimus sapientem prae nimietate amoris infatuatum!" We have seen a God who for our sake has almost gone mad from the excess of love He bears us. And who would ever believe it, if faith did not assure us, that the Creator willed to die for His creatures? St. Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi, in an ecstasy she had while carrying an image of the Crucified in her hands, called Jesus Christ precisely this: Mad with love. "Yes, my Jesus," she said, "You are mad with love." And this is exactly what the pagans said when the death of Jesus Christ was preached to them — they considered it a madness impossible to believe. So the Apostle attests: "Praedicamus Christum crucifixum, Iudaeis quidem scandalum, gentibus autem stultitiam" (1 Cor. 1:23). And how, they said, could a God most blessed in Himself, who needs no one, have descended to earth, become man, and died for love of men His creatures? This would be the same as believing that a God had gone mad for love of men. But yet it is of faith that Jesus Christ, the true Son of God, for love of us gave Himself up to death: "Dilexit nos et tradidit semetipsum pro nobis" (Eph. 5:2).

And why did He do it? He did it so that we might live no longer for the world, but solely for that Lord who willed to die for us. "Pro omnibus mortuus est Christus, ut et qui vivunt, iam non sibi vivant, sed ei qui pro ipsis mortuus est" (2 Cor. 5:15). He did it so that by the love He showed us, He might win for Himself all the affections of our hearts. "In hoc Christus mortuus est, et resurrexit, ut mortuorum et vivorum dominetur" (Rom. 14:9). Hence the saints, considering the death of Jesus Christ, thought it little to give their lives and everything for love of so loving a God. How many nobles, how many princes left their relatives, riches, homelands, and even kingdoms, to shut themselves in a cloister to live solely for the love of Jesus Christ! How many martyrs sacrificed their lives to Him! How many young virgins, renouncing marriage with the great, went joyfully to their death, to render some recompense for the love of a God who died for them! And you, my brother, what have you done until now for the love of Jesus Christ? Just as He died for the saints — for St. Lawrence, for St. Lucy, for St. Agnes — so He died also for you. At least, what do you intend to do in the life that remains to you, which God grants you so that you may love Him? From this day forward, look often at the image of the Crucified, and looking at it, remember the love He has borne you, and say within yourself: So You, my God, have died for me? Do at least this (I say), and do it often; for doing so, you will not be able to help feeling sweetly compelled to love a God who has loved you so much.

Affections and Prayers

Ah, my dear Redeemer, it is true: I have not loved You because I have not thought about the love You have borne me. Ah, my Jesus, I have been too ungrateful to You; You gave Your life for me with the most bitter of all deaths, and I could have been so ungrateful as not even to think of You? Forgive me; I promise You that from this day forward, my crucified love, You shall be the sole object of my thoughts and of all my affections. Ah, when the devil or the world presents me with some forbidden fruit, remind me, my beloved Savior, of the sufferings You endured for my love, so that I may love You and offend You no more. Ah, if a servant of mine had done for me what You have done, I would not have the heart to displease him. And I have had the heart so many times to turn my back on You, who died for me. O beautiful flames of love, you who obliged a God to give His life for me — come, inflame, fill my whole heart, and destroy all my affections for created things. Ah, my beloved Redeemer, how is it possible that whoever considers You either in the manger of Bethlehem, or on the cross on Calvary, or in the Sacrament on the altars, should not fall in love with You? My Jesus, I love You with all my soul. In the years that remain to me of life, You shall be my only good, my only love. Enough of the unhappy years I miserably lived forgetful of Your passion and Your love. I give myself entirely to You, and if I do not know how to give myself as I should, take me Yourself, and reign over my whole heart. "Adveniat regnum tuum." Let it be the servant of nothing else but Your love; let it speak of nothing else, treat of nothing else, think of nothing else, sigh for nothing else but loving You and pleasing You. Assist me always with Your grace, that I may be faithful to You. In Your merits I confide, O my Jesus.

O Mother of beautiful love, make me love this Son of Yours greatly, who is so lovable and who has loved me so much.