Chapter IV

How greatly we are obliged to love Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ as God deserves all our love in himself; but by the love he has shown us, he has placed us, so to speak, under a necessity of loving him at least out of gratitude for all he has done and suffered for us. He loved us greatly so as to be greatly loved by us. Ad quid amat Deus, nisi ut ametur? wrote St. Bernard. And before him Moses said: Et nunc, Israel, quid Dominus Deus petit a te, nisi ut timeas Dominum Deum tuum... et diligas eum? (Deut. X, 12). Therefore the first commandment he gave us was this: Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo (Deut. VI, 5).

And St. Paul says that love is the fullness of the law: Plenitudo legis est dilectio (Rom. XIII, 10). Plenitudo — the Greek text says complexio legis — the fulfillment of the law is love. But who, at the sight of a crucified God dying for love of us, could resist loving him? Those thorns, those nails, that cross, those wounds, and that blood cry out too loudly, seeking from us that we love him who has loved us so much. A single heart is too little to love this God so enamored of us. To repay the love of Jesus Christ, another God would need to die for love of him. "Ah, why," exclaimed St. Francis de Sales, "do we not cast ourselves upon Jesus crucified, to die on the cross with him who willed to die there for love of us?" Indeed the Apostle makes it known to us that Jesus Christ willed to die for all of us to this end: that we should no longer live for ourselves, but only for the God who died for us: Pro nobis mortuus est Christus, ut et qui vivunt iam non sibi vivant sed ei qui pro ipsis mortuus est (II Cor. V, 15).

Here applies what Ecclesiasticus commends: Gratiam fideiussoris ne obliviscaris, dedit enim pro te animam suam (Eccli. XXIX, 20). Do not forget your surety who, to pay for your sins, chose to pay with his death the penalty you owed. Oh, how greatly Jesus Christ is pleased when we often remember his Passion! And how it grieves him when we neglect to think of it! If someone had endured insults, beatings, and imprisonment for a friend, how hurt he would be to learn that his friend never thinks of it, and does not even wish to hear it mentioned! On the other hand, how pleased he would be to know that his friend speaks of it always with tenderness and never ceases to thank him! So Jesus Christ is greatly pleased when we remember with grateful love his sufferings and the death he endured for us.

Jesus Christ was the desire of all the ancient patriarchs; he was the desire of all nations, when he had not yet come to this earth. How much more, then, should he be our sole desire and our only love, now that we see he has already come, and we know all he has done and suffered for us, even to dying crucified for love of us?

To this end he instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist on the day before his death, and he commanded us that whenever we should feed on his most sacred flesh, we should remember his death: Accipite et manducate: hoc est corpus meum... hoc facite in meam commemorationem etc. Quotiescumque enim manducabitis panem hunc... mortem Domini annuntiabitis (I Cor. XI, 24, 26). Hence Holy Church prays: Deus qui nobis sub Sacramento mirabili Passionis tuae memoriam reliquisti etc. And further sings: O sacrum convivium, in quo Christus sumitur, recolitur memoria Passionis eius etc. From this we may understand how greatly Jesus Christ is pleased with those who often meditate on his Passion, since he left himself sacramentally on our altars precisely so that we might have a continual and grateful memory of what he suffered for us, and so our love for him might always increase. St. Francis de Sales called Mount Calvary the mount of lovers. It is impossible to remember that mount and not love Jesus Christ, who willed to die there for love of us.

O God, why do men not love this God who has done so much to be loved by them! Before the Incarnation of the Word, man might have doubted whether God truly loved him; but after the coming of the Son of God, and after he died for love of men, how can we still doubt it? Man, says St. Thomas of Villanova, look upon that cross, those sufferings, and that bitter death that Jesus Christ endured for you: after such and so many witnesses of his love, you can no longer doubt that he loves you and loves you greatly: Testis crux, testes dolores, testis amara mors quam pro te sustinuit. And St. Bernard says that the cross and every wound of our Redeemer cry out to make us understand the love he bears us.

In this great mystery of human Redemption, we must consider the thought and care Jesus Christ took to find different ways of making us love him. Had he wished to die to save us, it would have sufficed for him to die along with the other children slain by Herod; but no, before dying he chose to live for thirty-three years a life full of hardship and suffering, and in this life of his, to draw us to love him, he wished to appear before us in many different forms. First he let himself be seen as a poor infant born in a stable, then as a young man in a workshop, and finally as a condemned criminal executed on a cross. But before dying on the cross he wished to take on various other forms worthy of compassion, all to make himself loved: he wished to be seen in the garden in agony and bathed in a sweat of blood; then in the praetorium of Pilate, torn by scourges; then treated as a mock king with a reed in his hand, a purple rag on his shoulders, and a crown of thorns on his head; then dragged through the public streets to his death with the cross on his shoulders; and finally on Calvary, hung upon three iron nails. Does a God who chose to suffer so many torments and to devise so many ways to win our love deserve to be loved by us or not? Father John Rigoleuc used to say: "I would do nothing but weep with love for a God whom love has led to die for the salvation of men."

Magna res amor, says St. Bernard. A great and precious thing is love. Speaking of divine wisdom, which is holy charity, Solomon called it an infinite treasure, for whoever has charity is made a sharer in the friendship of God: Infinitus enim thesaurus est hominibus, quo qui usi sunt participes facti sunt amicitiae Dei (Sap. VII, 14). The Angelic Doctor St. Thomas says that charity is not only the queen of all virtues, but that wherever it reigns it draws all the other virtues in its train, directing them all to unite us more closely with God; but charity properly is that which unites us to God, as St. Bernard says: Caritas est virtus coniungens nos Deo. And Scripture declares many times that God loves those who love him: Ego diligentes me diligo (Prov. VIII, 17). Si quis diligit me... Pater meus diliget eum, et ad eum veniemus, et mansionem apud eum faciemus (Io. XIV, 23). Qui manet in caritate in Deo manet et Deus in eo (Io. IV, 16). Behold the beautiful union that charity works: it unites the soul with God. Moreover, love gives strength to do and to suffer every great thing for God. Fortis ut mors dilectio (Cant. VIII, 6). St. Augustine writes: Nihil tam durum, quod non amoris igne vincatur: there is nothing so difficult that it cannot be overcome by the fire of love; for, says the saint, in that which we love, either we do not feel the labor, or the labor itself is loved: In eo quod amatur aut non laboratur aut labor amatur.

Let us hear what St. John Chrysostom says about what divine love works in those souls where it reigns: "When the love of God has taken possession of a soul, it produces in it an insatiable desire to work for the beloved; so that, no matter how many and how great the works it performs, and how much time it spends in his service, all seems to it as nothing, and it is always grieved at doing so little for God; and if it were permitted to die and be destroyed for him, it would be content. Hence it always considers itself useless in all that it does; for love teaches it what God deserves, and in that clear light it sees all the defects of its actions, and so draws from everything confusion and sorrow, knowing how low its efforts are for so great a Lord."

Oh, how mistaken, says St. Francis de Sales, are those who place holiness in anything other than loving God! "Some," writes the saint, "place perfection in austerity, others in almsgiving, others in prayer, others in the frequent reception of the sacraments. For my part, I know no other perfection than that of loving God with all one's heart; for all other virtues without love are but a heap of stones. And if we do not enjoy this holy love perfectly, the fault is ours, because we do not finish giving ourselves entirely to God."

One day the Lord said to St. Teresa: "Everything that does not please me is vanity." Oh, if only everyone understood this truth! Porro unum est necessarium. It is not necessary to be rich in this world, to win others' esteem, to lead a comfortable life, to hold offices of dignity, to have the reputation of a scholar; the only thing necessary is to love God and do his will. For this end alone he created us and preserves our life, and only in this way can we be admitted to paradise. Pone me ut signaculum super cor tuum, ut signaculum super brachium tuum (Cant. VIII, 6). So says the Lord to every soul that is his spouse: Place me as a seal upon your heart and upon your arm, so that you may direct all your desires and all your actions to me; upon your heart, so that no love may enter there but mine; upon your arm, so that in all you do you may have no other end but me. Oh, how well does one run toward perfection who in every action looks only upon Jesus crucified and desires nothing but to please him!

This, then, must be our entire care: to acquire a true love for Jesus Christ.

The masters of the spiritual life describe the signs of true love. Love, they say, is fearful — and its fear is nothing other than to displease God. It is generous, for trusting in God it is not dismayed at undertaking any great work for his glory. It is strong, since it conquers all evil appetites, even amid the most violent temptations and the darkest desolations. It is obedient, because it immediately seeks to carry out the divine inspirations. It is pure, since it loves God alone, and solely because he deserves to be loved. It is ardent, for it would wish to set everyone on fire and see them consumed with divine love. It is intoxicating, making the soul live almost outside itself, as though it no longer saw, heard, or had any senses for earthly things, intent only on loving God. It is unitive, binding the will of the creature closely to the will of the Creator. It is full of longing, for it fills the soul with desires to leave this earth and fly to unite itself perfectly with God in the blessed homeland, in order to love him there with all its strength.

But no one teaches better what are the marks and the practice of true charity than the great preacher of charity, St. Paul. In his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter XIII, he says first that without charity man is nothing, and nothing profits him: Et si habuero omnem fidem, ita ut montes transferam, caritatem autem non habuero, nihil sum. Et si distribuero in cibos pauperum omnes facultates meas, et si tradidero corpus meum, ita ut ardeam, caritatem autem non habuero, nihil mihi prodest. So if someone had such faith as to move mountains, as St. Gregory the Wonder-Worker did, but lacked charity, he would be worth nothing. If he distributed all his goods to the poor, if he even voluntarily suffered martyrdom, but without charity — that is, if he did so for any end other than to please God — it would profit him nothing. Then St. Paul shows us the marks of true charity, and at the same time teaches us the practice of those virtues that are the daughters of charity; and he continues: Caritas patiens est, benigna est: caritas non aemulatur, non agit perperam, non inflatur, non est ambitiosa, non quaerit quae sua sunt, non irritatur, non cogitat malum, non gaudet super iniquitate, congaudet autem veritati: omnia suffert, omnia credit, omnia sperat, omnia sustinet.

In the present book, therefore, we shall consider these holy practices, both to see whether the love we owe Jesus Christ truly reigns in us, and also to understand in which virtues we must chiefly exercise ourselves in order to preserve and increase this holy love within us.

Affections and Prayers

O most lovable and most loving Heart of Jesus, wretched is the heart that does not love you! O God, you died on the cross for love of men, abandoned by every comfort, and yet men live so forgetful of you?

O divine love! O human ingratitude! O men, men, look upon the innocent Lamb of God who agonizes on that cross and dies for you, to pay divine justice for your sins and so to draw you to his love. See how at the same time he prays to the Eternal Father to pardon you. Look upon him and love him.

Ah, my Jesus, how few are those who love you! Wretched me, for I too lived so many years forgetful of you, and therefore offended you so greatly. My dear Redeemer, it is not so much the punishment I have deserved that makes me weep, as the love you have borne me.

O sufferings of Jesus, O shame of Jesus, O wounds of Jesus, O death of Jesus, O love of Jesus, fix yourselves in my heart, and may your sweet memory remain there forever, continually wounding me and setting me on fire with love.

I love you, my Jesus; I love you, my supreme good; I love you, my love, my all; I love you and I wish to love you always.

Ah, do not allow me to leave you and lose you again.

Make me entirely yours; do it by the merits of your death. In this I firmly trust.

And I also trust greatly in your intercession, O Mary. My Queen, make me love Jesus Christ, and make me love you too, my mother and my hope.