Chapter XVI

Caritas omnia sperat.

He who loves Jesus Christ hopes for all from Jesus Christ.

Hope makes charity grow, and charity makes hope grow. Certainly hope in the divine goodness makes love for Jesus Christ increase. St. Thomas writes that at the very moment we hope for some good from someone, we begin also to love him: Ex hoc enim quod per aliquem speravimus nobis posse provenire bona, movemur in ipsum sicut bonum nostrum et sic incipimus ipsum amare (S. Thom. 2. 2. q. 40. a. 7). Therefore the Lord does not want us to place confidence in creatures: Nolite confidere in principibus (Ps. CXLV, 2); and he curses whoever trusts in man: Maledictus homo qui confidit in homine (Ier. XVII, 5). God does not want us to trust in creatures, because he does not want us to place our love in them. Hence St. Vincent de Paul said: "Let us beware of relying too much on the protection of men, because when the Lord sees us leaning on them, he withdraws from us. On the other hand, the more we trust in God, the more we advance in loving him." Viam mandatorum tuorum cucurri cum dilatasti cor meum (Ps. CXVIII, 32). Oh, how he runs in the way of perfection whose heart is expanded by confidence in God! Not only does he run, but he flies, because, having placed all his hope in the Lord, he will cease to be weak as he was and will become strong with the strength of God, which is communicated to all who trust in God: Qui confidunt in Domino mutabunt fortitudinem, assument pennas ut aquilae, current et non laborabunt, ambulabunt et non deficient (Is. XL, 31). The eagle, flying high, draws closer to the sun; and so the soul, strengthened by confidence, detaches itself from the earth and draws closer to God by love.

Now, just as hope serves to increase our love for God, so love increases hope; for charity makes us adopted children of God. In the natural order we are the works of his hands, but in the supernatural order, through the merits of Jesus Christ, we are made sons of God and sharers in the divine nature, as St. Peter writes: Ut... efficiamini divinae consortes naturae (II Pet. I, 4). And if charity makes us children of God, consequently it makes us also heirs of paradise, as St. Paul says: Si autem filii, et heredes (Rom. VIII, 17). Now, it belongs to children to dwell in the father's house, and to heirs belongs the inheritance; and therefore charity makes the hope of paradise grow, so that loving souls never cease to cry out to God: Adveniat, adveniat regnum tuum.

Furthermore, God loves those who love him: Ego diligentes me diligo (Prov. VIII, 17); and he lavishes graces on whoever seeks him with love: Bonus est Dominus... animae quaerenti illum (Thr. III, 25). Hence, whoever loves God more, hopes more in his goodness. And from such confidence arises in the saints that unalterable tranquility that keeps them always joyful and at peace even in the midst of adversities; because, loving Jesus Christ and knowing how generous he is with his gifts to those who love him, they trust in him alone and find their rest. This is the reason why the sacred spouse abounded in delights: because, loving no one but her beloved, she leaned on him alone; and knowing how grateful he is to those who love him, she was entirely content. Hence it was written of her: Quae est ista quae ascendit de deserto deliciis affluens, innixa super dilectum suum? (Cant. VIII, 5). How very true is what the Wise Man said: Venerunt autem mihi omnia bona pariter cum illa (Sap. VII, 11): together with charity, every good comes to the soul.

The primary object of Christian hope is God, whom souls enjoy in the blessed kingdom. But let us not think that the hope of enjoying God in paradise is an obstacle to charity; for the hope of paradise is inseparably connected with charity, which in paradise is perfected and finds its full completion. Charity is that infinite treasure which, as the Wise Man says, makes us friends of God: Infinitus enim thesaurus est hominibus quo qui usi sunt participes facti sunt amicitiae Dei (Sap. VII, 14). St. Thomas Aquinas writes that friendship has for its foundation the communication of goods, because friendship being nothing other than a reciprocal love between friends, it is necessary that they reciprocally do good to one another as befits each. Hence the saint says: Si nulla esset communicatio, nulla esset amicitia. This is why Jesus Christ said to his disciples: Vos autem dixi amicos quia omnia quaecumque audivi a Patre meo nota feci vobis (Io. XV, 15). Because he had made them his friends, he had communicated to them all his secrets.

St. Francis de Sales says: "For if, per impossibile, there were an infinite goodness — that is, a God — to whom we did not belong in any way and with whom we could have no union or communication, we would certainly esteem it more than ourselves; hence we could have desires to be able to love it, but we would not love it properly, because love regards union; since charity is a friendship, and friendship has communication for its foundation and union for its end." Therefore St. Thomas teaches that charity does not exclude the desire for the reward that God prepares for us in heaven, but rather makes us regard it as the principal object of our love — namely, God who gives himself to be enjoyed by the blessed — for friendship implies that the friend mutually enjoys the other: Amicorum est, quod quaerant invicem perfrui; sed nihil aliud est merces nostra quam perfrui Deo videndo ipsum: ergo caritas non solum non excludit, sed etiam facit habere oculum ad mercedem (S. Thom. in III Sen. Dist. 29. q. 1. a. 4).

And this is that mutual communication of gifts of which the spouse of the Song of Songs spoke: Dilectus meus mihi et ego illi (Cant. II, 16). The soul in heaven gives itself entirely to God, and God gives himself entirely to the soul insofar as it is capable, according to the measure of its merits. But the soul, knowing its nothingness in comparison with the infinite loveliness of God, and consequently seeing that God has an infinitely greater right to be loved than the soul has to be loved by God, desires the pleasure of God more than its own enjoyment; and therefore it rejoices more in giving itself entirely to God to please him than in God's giving himself entirely to it; and it takes pleasure in God's giving himself entirely to it only insofar as this inflames it to give itself entirely to God with more intense love. It already enjoys the glory that God communicates to it, but it enjoys it in order to refer it back to God himself and thus increase his glory as much as it can. In heaven the soul, on seeing God, cannot but love him with all its strength. On the other hand, God cannot hate one who loves him. But if, per impossibile, God could hate a soul that loves him, and the blessed soul could live without loving God, the soul would sooner be content to suffer all the pains of hell, provided it were permitted to love God even though God hated it, than to live without loving God even if it could enjoy all the other delights of paradise. Yes, because the soul, knowing that God deserves to be loved infinitely more than itself, desires much more to love God than to be loved by God.

Caritas omnia sperat. Christian hope, as St. Thomas teaches with the Master of the Sentences, is defined as a certain expectation of eternal happiness: Spes est expectatio certa beatitudinis. And the certainty arises from the infallible promise of God to give eternal life to his faithful servants. Now charity, since it removes sin, removes at the same time the obstacle to attaining beatitude; and therefore the greater the charity, the greater and firmer it makes our hope. And this hope certainly cannot be an obstacle to the purity of love, because love, as St. Dionysius the Areopagite says, naturally tends toward union with the beloved object. Indeed, as St. Augustine says, love itself is like a golden bond uniting the hearts of the lover and the beloved: Amor est quasi iunctura quaedam duo copulans. And because this union cannot be made from afar, he who loves always desires the presence of the beloved. The sacred spouse, being far from her beloved, languished and begged her companions to make known to him her pain, so that he might come to console her with his presence: Adiuro vos, filiae Ierusalem, si inveneritis dilectum meum, ut nuncietis ei quia amore langueo (Cant. V, 8). A soul that greatly loves Jesus Christ cannot, while living on this earth, fail to desire and hope soon to go to heaven to be united with its beloved Lord.

So then, to desire to go to see God in heaven — not so much for the contentment we shall experience there in loving God, as for the contentment we shall give to God by loving him — is pure and perfect love. Nor does the joy that the blessed experience in heaven in loving God hinder the purity of their love: such joy is inseparable from love; but the blessed are principally pleased far more with the love they bear to God than with the joy they experience in loving him. Someone will say: But to desire a reward is love of concupiscence, not of friendship. But we must distinguish the temporal rewards promised by men from the reward of paradise promised by God to those who love him. The rewards men give are distinct from their persons, since men, in rewarding others, do not give themselves but only their goods. The principal reward, on the other hand, that God gives to the blessed is the gift of himself: Ego... merces tua magna nimis (Gen. XV, 1). Hence to desire paradise is the same as to desire God, who is our last end.

I wish here to raise a doubt that may easily come to the mind of a soul that loves God and seeks to conform itself in all things to his holy will. If its eternal damnation were ever revealed to such a soul, is it obliged to accept it in order to conform to the will of God? No, teaches St. Thomas; indeed, he says that one sins if he consents to it, because he would consent to live in a state that is united with sin and contrary to his last end given by God, who does not create souls for hell, where they hate him, but for paradise, where they love him; and therefore he does not will the death even of the sinner, but wills that all be converted and saved. The holy Doctor says that the Lord wills no one to be damned except for sin; and therefore if one consented to his own damnation, he would not be conforming his will to the will of God, but to the will of sin: Unde velle suam damnationem absolute non esset conformare suam voluntatem voluntati divinae, sed voluntati peccati (S. Thom., De verit. q. 3. a. 8). But if God, foreseeing the sin of someone, had made the decree of his damnation, and such a decree were revealed to him, is he bound to consent? Not even then, says the Angelic Doctor in the place cited; for he should understand that revelation not as an irrevocable decree but as made per modum comminationis — as a threat, conditioned on his persisting in sin.

But let everyone strive to drive from his mind such grim thoughts, which serve for nothing but to cool confidence and love. Let us love Jesus Christ as much as we can here below; let us sigh every moment to go and see him in paradise, to love him there perfectly; and let this be the principal object of all our hopes — to go there and love him with all our strength. We do indeed have, even in this life, the precept of loving God with all our strength: Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, et ex tota anima tua, et ex omnibus viribus tuis (Luc. X, 27); but the Angelic Doctor says that this precept cannot be perfectly fulfilled by men on this earth. Only Jesus Christ, who was both man and God, and the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was full of grace and free from original sin, perfectly fulfilled it; but we, miserable children of Adam, infected by sin, cannot love God without some imperfection, and only in heaven, when we see God face to face, shall we love him — indeed, shall we be compelled to love him — with all our strength.

Here, then, is the goal toward which our desires, all our sighs, all our thoughts, and all our hopes must tend: to go and enjoy God in paradise so as to love him with all our strength and to rejoice in the joy of God. The blessed do indeed enjoy their happiness in that kingdom of delights, but their principal joy, which absorbs all other pleasures, will be that of knowing the infinite happiness enjoyed by their beloved Lord — since they love God immensely more than themselves. Every blessed soul, because of the love it bears to God, would be content to lose all its joys and suffer every pain, provided that God should not lack — if ever he could lack — the slightest particle of the happiness he enjoys. Hence, seeing that God is infinitely happy and that his happiness can never diminish for all eternity, this is its entire paradise. Thus is understood what the Lord says to every soul in giving it possession of glory: Intra in gaudium Domini tui (Matth. XXV, 21). The joy does not enter the blessed, but the blessed enters into the joy of God — since the joy of God is the object of the joy of the blessed. So the good of God will be the good of the blessed, the riches of God will be the riches of the blessed, and the happiness of God will be the happiness of the blessed.

As soon as a soul enters heaven and sees, uncovered, by the light of glory, the infinite beauty of God, it will find itself wholly seized and consumed by love. Then it happens that the blessed soul is happily lost and submerged in that infinite sea of divine goodness. Then it forgets itself, and intoxicated with the love of God, it thinks of nothing but loving its God: Inebriabuntur ab ubertate domus tuae (Ps. XXXV, 9). The intoxicated think no more of themselves; and so the blessed soul thinks only of loving and pleasing the beloved. It desires to possess him entirely, and already possesses him entirely without fear of being able to lose him; it desires to give itself wholly to him for love at every moment, and already obtains this, since at every moment it gives itself wholly to God without reserve; and God embraces it with love, and so embraced holds it and will hold it for all eternity.

So then, in heaven the soul is united entirely to God and loves him with all its strength, with a consummate and perfect love which, although finite — since the creature is not capable of infinite love — is nevertheless such as to make it fully content and satisfied, so that it desires nothing more. God, in turn, communicates and unites himself entirely to the soul, filling it with himself insofar as it is capable according to its merits; and he unites himself to it, not merely through his gifts, lights, and loving attractions, as he does with us in this life, but through his very essence. Just as fire penetrates iron and seems to transform it entirely into itself, so God penetrates the soul and fills it with himself; so that, although it does not lose its being, it comes to be so filled and absorbed in that immense sea of the divine substance that it is as though annihilated and no longer existed. This was the happy lot that the Apostle implored for his disciples: Ut impleamini in omnem plenitudinem Dei (Eph. III, 19).

And this is the last end that the Lord in his goodness has given us to attain in the other life. Hence, until the soul arrives at union with God in heaven, where perfect union takes place, it cannot have here on earth its full repose. It is true that the lovers of Jesus Christ find their peace in conforming to the divine will; but they cannot find in this life their full repose, because this is obtained by attaining the last end — which is to see God face to face and to be consumed by divine love. And as long as the soul does not attain this end, it is restless and groans, and sighing says: Ecce in pace amaritudo mea amarissima (Is. XXXVIII, 17).

Yes, my God, I live in peace in this valley of tears, because this is your will; but I cannot help feeling an inexpressible bitterness, seeing myself far from you and not yet perfectly united with you, who are my center, my all, and my full repose.

And therefore the saints, although they burned with love for God on this earth, did nothing but sigh for paradise. David exclaimed: Heu mihi, quia incolatus meus prolongatus est! (Ps. CXIX, 5). Satiabor cum apparuerit gloria tua (Ps. XVI, 15). St. Paul said of himself: Desiderium habens... esse cum Christo (Phil. I, 23). St. Francis of Assisi said: "So great is the good I await that every pain is a delight to me." These were all acts of perfect charity. The Angelic Doctor teaches that the highest degree of charity to which a soul can ascend in this life is the intense desire to go and be united with God and to enjoy him in heaven: Tertium autem studium est, ut homo ad hoc principaliter intendat, ut Deo inhaereat et eo fruatur, et hoc pertinet ad perfectos qui cupiunt dissolvi et esse cum Christo (S. Thom. 2. 2. q. 24. a. 9). But this enjoying of God in heaven, as we have said, consists not so much in the soul's receiving the enjoyment that God gives it there, as in enjoying the enjoyment of God, loved by the soul far more than itself.

The greatest pain of the holy souls in purgatory is the desire they have to possess God, whom they do not yet possess. And this pain will especially afflict those souls who in life had little desire for paradise. Indeed, Cardinal Bellarmine says that in purgatory there is a certain prison called carcer honoratus, where some souls suffer no pain of the senses but only the privation of the sight of God. Of this many examples are related by St. Gregory, the Venerable Bede, St. Vincent Ferrer, and St. Bridget.

And this pain is given not for sins committed, but for coldness in desiring paradise. Many souls aspire to perfection and yet are too indifferent about going to see God or continuing to live on this earth. But eternal life is too great a good, which Jesus Christ has merited for us by his death, so that he then punishes those souls who had little desire for it during their lives.

Affections and Prayers

O God, my Creator and my Redeemer, you created me for paradise, you redeemed me from hell to lead me to paradise, and I so many times, by offending you, have renounced paradise to your face and been content to see myself condemned to hell! But may your infinite mercy be forever blessed, which, as I hope, by pardoning me so many times has snatched me from hell. Ah, my Jesus, that I had never offended you! Oh, that I had always loved you! It consoles me that I still have time to do so.

I love you, O love of my soul; I love you with all my heart; I love you more than myself.

I see that you want me saved, so that I may love you for all eternity in that kingdom of love. I thank you, and I beg you to assist me in the life that remains to me, in which I wish to love you greatly, so as to love you greatly then for eternity.

Ah, my Jesus, when will that day come when I shall see myself free from the danger of ever losing you again, and consumed with love for you at the uncovered sight of your infinite beauty, so that I shall be compelled to love you? O sweet compulsion! O happy, O beloved, O longed-for compulsion, which will free me from every fear of displeasing you and constrain me to love you with all my strength!

My conscience frightens me and says to me: How can you aspire to paradise? But your merits, my dear Redeemer, are my hope.

O Queen of paradise, Mary, your intercession is all-powerful before God; in you I trust.