92. I M mini; Honestly with God — Sermon for the Feast of St. Barbara, or for that of any Virgin

Synopsis — Love true or false shown by inner motives — Also love selfish or disinterested — Love is tested by adversity — Also by seeming abandonment by God — The keenest pain is needed to show tlie best love — All other virtues flow out of love.

SECOND SERMON FOR THE TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY

AFTER TRINITY.

I sleep, and my heart watcheth. — Cant, v, 2.

The more that a loving soul is loved by God, the more restless does it become. It is a trait of love never to be content to be inactive. Love does a great work in a man ; and if it does not work it is not love. The noblest part of a man is his heart, and of this, love takes possession. That heart will know no rest until it loves God and honors and thanks and praises Him perfectly. Such is its joy ; for loving the Beloved is dearer to it than its own self.

Now it is necessary to distinguish between true love and false love. This is shown by the three traits of a true living and growing love. These are observed in the will, in the intention, and in the desires of the soul. For a man must will and intend, and desire nothing whatso ever, interiorly or exteriorly, except that he love God purely and exclusively. He must refer all that he has, all that he does, to God alone; and for the reason that God is good, and that out of His goodness He made us and redeemed us by His blood. And he must thank God for the many other good things He has done us and daily continues to do us, yea, and will forever continue to do us — which spirit of thanksgiving is a yet better gift. Behold how love can have no rest or respite, but incessantly goes on, watching every chance to thank God and to praise Him, wishing to respond to His love for us, in however feeble a manner.

But this is not all. Our loving servitor will not only always keep God in view and love Him, but all creatures will be dear to him for God's sake. Besides, for God's sake he suffers all kinds of oppression and opposition. He forsakes all irregularities of life and conduct for God's everlasting honor; himself alone he never seeks under any pretext, whether in matters temporal or external. And by temporal things, we mean all desires likely to lead to sinful pleasures; for by nature, a man holds beautiful things dear and those that attract the senses, or in any wise minister joy to us. Mark well, that a loving soul is bounden to overcome all this with an eager zeal. The need of doing so is soon learned, if one will but carefully consider his life in the activity of the bodily senses, and in what things his affections are likely to go beyond his control.

The lover of Christ who aspires to be perfect, must differ from beginners in this holy love. For beginners many spiritual comforts are lawful, such as sweetnesses of devotion, and a smooth course of spiritual experience. Not so the more perfect soul; for he must seek nothing for self, no, not even what comes to him in spiritual guise. Pure love accepts nothing whatsoever for self alone; it will rest in no interior joy, nor cleave to any spiritual comfort. For this would be to put one's trust more in God's gifts than in God Himself, which is straight against upright and clean and perfect love. And it is because some men fail to practise this rightly ordered love, that God often withdraws these same gifts from them. Their souls are presently left dry, they can no longer think of God or spiritual things, and a miserable dullness settles upon them. This happens in order that they shall learn to fly to God in perfect abandonment of all spiritual joy, serve Him alone in faith, hope, and love, putting self to death. They must learn to suffer the loss of all spiritual taste. They must rely upon God's self alone, resting wholly in His goodness, thinking only of His boundless mercy; for out of that comes forth His gift of virtue to us and our power to accept it.

It is also a quality of purified love, that a soul shall have as faithful a love for God in this state of desolation as in the time of sensible grace. If this be not the case, then it is manifest that one sets greater store by the gift of God than by God Himself: this is to commit gluttony with God's grace. It is, to be sure, for our own gain that we are practising self-denial of joy in God's gifts; but nevertheless this must be without consciousness of self-interest. We must seek God's graces, His sweetness, His goodness, for an end beyond themselves, namely, to arrive by their means at the possession of the interior, spiritual good that is God's very self. He dwells in our inmost soul ; and once we have gained Him there, we can come forth to the outward life of truest virtue, practising it in a spirit of detachment. Thus it is that one first gains possession of God.

Yet we must not forget that a good man may lawfully desire devotional sweetness, according to his needs, or for God's honor, or to fit him the better for the salvation of other men's souls ; for these gifts make one more zealous for virtue. That is a motive of reasonable self love; and a reasonable enjoyment of any good thing, spiritual or bodily is not to be blamed.

You must also know that for a beginner in the way of love it is lawful to seek for devotional sweetness, so that he may the sooner die to all the sweetness of sin. He thus learns how good and sweet it is to seek God and Him alone, to cleave to Jesus alone, to renounce all the vanity of this earthly life, and all its sinful desires. Thus does he learn to relish God in his devout practises. But when God has thus gifted these souls with spiritual joy, after a while He lessens it; and then the time has come to enter on the way we have herein previously treated of. For while men still hanker after the devotional sentiments which are withdrawn from them, treating them as they do, as if they were the truest spiritual good, they can never attain to what is in very deed the truest spiritual good. Nor can they in that way advance a single step in true virtue. They are under self-deception ; they do not really know themselves nor their sinfulness; they cannot appreciate what is or what is not permitted them ; nor can they detect and resist the temptations incident to the spiriual life. Will some of these souls the end is falling helplessly into grave sins. Now all this concerns those transitory spiritual favors, which pure and watchful love of God must not allow itself to seek after.

Listen to this: pure love must not over eagerly seek after certain eternal good things, such as the glory which shall be the heavenly reward of our good works. It is unbecoming pure love of God, it is unbecoming perfect virtue, to seek anything for itself but God alone. Ii loves and desires everything, all work, all rest, all suffering, with ;i single mind for God's glory. God gives heaven, He takes heaven away ; He saves, He damns: pure love has nothing to do with all this, only hoping to be saved. Pure love has God's honor at heart and God's will : He knows best what to will and to do. Whatsoever He wills, that He loves, and His love is the best love. Yea, this loving soul, if it stand right in this case, would not cease to love God, to advance His glory, to practise His highest virtues, even if it thought (if such a thing were permitted or possible, which it is not), that He would condemn it to hell, there to punish its vices, never to forgive its sins. This thought (however practically impossible), would but stimulate it to greater virtue, for it seeks itself in nothing, it thinks only of God's eternal glory in all things: such a one thus rightly observes God's first and greatest commandment.

The contrary is the case with beginners, for their love is that of the hireling, and is mixed with anxious thoughts about the future, saying: If I could hope for no reward for my labors and penances, I would not do them. To beginners this is allowed, but not to. genuine lovers. God's first commandment says that we must love God above all things, even above ourself. Whosoever will acquire this love, let him search his inner soul, let him scrutinize his outward conduct. In whatsoever thought, word or deed he finds himself falling short of this pure love, let him heartily set about his improvement. Let him aspire constantly to attain to love true and pure. In due time thou shalt have good fruit, thou shalt practise many virtues. Act otherwise, and thou shalt remain in thy defective love until God brings thee out of it, and leads thee to watchful and living love, lest thou fallest asleep in guilty ignorance. God guide us to true love. Amen.