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All the elect then, Theotimus, died in the habit of
holy love; but further, some died even in the
exercise of it, others for this love, and others by
this same love. But what belongs to the sovereign
degree of love is, that some die of love; and then it
is that love not only wounds the soul, so as to make
her languish, but even pierces her through,
delivering its blow right in the middle of the heart,
and so fatally, that it drives the soul out of the
body; - which happens thus.The soul, powerfully
drawn by the divine sweetness of her beloved, to
correspond on her side with his sweet attractions,
forcibly and to the best of her power springs out
towards this longed-for beloved who attracts her,
and, not being able to draw her body after her,
rather than stay with it in this miserable life, she
quits it and gets clear; flying alone, as a fair
dove, into the delicious bosom of her heavenly
spouse. She throws herself upon her beloved, and her
beloved draws and ravishes her to himself.
And as the bridegroom leaves father and mother to
cleave to his dearly beloved, so this chaste bride
forsaketh the flesh to unite herself to her beloved.
Now this is the most violent effect of love in a
soul, and one which requires first a great
offstripping of all such affections as keep the heart
attached either to the world or to the body, so that
as fire, having by little and little separated an
essence from its mass, and wholly purified it, at
length brings out the quintessence, - even so holy
love having withdrawn man's heart from all humours,
inclinations, and passions, as far as may be, does at
length urge out the soul, to the end that by this
death, precious in the divine eyes, she may pass to
eternal glory.
The great S. Francis, who in this subject of heavenly
love ever returns before my eyes, could not possibly
escape dying by love, because of the manifold and
great languors, ecstasies and faintings which his
love of God gave him; but besides this, God, who had
set him forth to the view of the whole world as a
miracle of love, willed that he should not only die
for love but also of love.
For consider, I beseech you, Theotimus, his death.
Perceiving himself upon the point of his departure,
he caused himself to be laid naked upon the ground,
where having received as an alms a habit which they
put on him, he discoursed to his brethren, animating
them to the love of God and the Church, had our
Saviour's passion read, and then with an extreme
fervour began Psalm cxli.: I cried to the Lord with
my voice; with my voice I made supplication to the
Lord; and having
pronounced these last words: Bring my soul out of
prison, that I may praise thy name; the just wait for
me, until thou reward me, he died, - in his
forty-fifth year.
Who sees not, I beseech you, Theotimus, that this
seraphical man who had so earnestly desired to be
martyred and to die for love, died in the end of
love, as in another place I have described?
S. Magdalen having for the space of thirty years
lived in a cave which is yet to be seen in Provence,
having seven times each day had raptures and been
borne up in the air by angels, as though she went to
sing the seven canonical hours in their choir; in the
end, upon a Sunday, she came to Church, where her
dear Bishop, S. Maximin, finding her in
contemplation, her eyes full of tears and her arms
stretched out, communicated her, and soon afterwards
she delivered up her blessed soul, which once again,
for good and all, went to her Saviour's feet, to
enjoy the better part, which she had already made
choice of here below.
S. Basil had contracted a strict friendship with a
physician, a Jew by nation and religion, with the
intention of bringing him to the faith of Jesus
Christ, which nevertheless he could not effect till
such time as, worn out with fastings, watchings and
labours, being upon the point of dying, he inquired
of the physician what opinion he had of him,
conjuring him to speak frankly. The physician did so,
and having felt his pulse: - there is no further
remedy, said he; before the sun sets you will depart
this life. But what will you say, replied the
patient, if to-morrow I shall be alive? I will become
a Christian, I promise you, said the physician.
With this the saint prayed to God, and obtained a
prolongation of his own temporal life, for the good
of his physician's spiritual life, who having seen
this miracle was converted, and S. Basil rising
courageously out of his bed, went to the Church and
baptized him with all his family, then returning to
his chamber and to his bed, having entertained
himself a good space with our Saviour in prayer, he
holily exhorted the assistants to serve God with
their whole heart, and finally, seeing the angels
approach, and pronouncing with an extreme delight
these words: O God I recommend unto thee my soul, and
restore it into thy hands; he died. But the poor
converted physician seeing him thus pass away,
embracing him, and melting into tears over him: - "O
great Basil, said he, indeed if thou hadst willed
thou wouldst no more have died to-day than
yesterday." Who does not see that this death was
wholly of love?
And the Blessed Mother (S.) Teresa of Jesus
revealed after her death that she died of an
impetuous assault of love, which had been so violent
that nature not being able to support it, the soul
had departed towards the beloved object of its
affections.
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