|
Love, as we have said, is no other thing than the
movement and outflowing of the heart towards good by
means of the complacency which we take in it; so that
complacency is the great motive of love, as love is
the great movement of complacency.
Now this movement is practised towards God in this
manner. We know by faith that the Divinity is an
incomprehensible abyss of all perfection, sovereignly
infinite in excellence and infinitely sovereign in
goodness. This truth which faith teaches us we
attentively consider by meditation, beholding that
immensity of goods which are in God, either all
together by assembling all the perfections, or in
particular by considering his excellences one after
another; for example, his all-power, his all-wisdom
his all-goodness, his eternity, his infinity.
Now when we have brought our understanding to be
very attentive to the greatness of the goods that are
in this Divine object, it is impossible that our will
should not be touched with complacency in this good,
and then we use the liberty and power which we have
over ourselves, provoking our own heart to redouble
and strengthen its first complacency by acts of
approbation and rejoicing.
"Oh!" says the devout soul then, "how beautiful
art thou, my beloved, how beautiful art thou! Thou
art all desirable, yea, thou art desire itself! Such
is my beloved and he is my friend, O ye daughters of
Jerusalem.(1) O blessed be my God for ever because he
is so good! Ah! whether I die or whether I live, too
happy am I in knowing that my God is so rich in all
goodness, his goodness so infinite, and his infinity
so good!"
Thus approving the good which we see in God, and
rejoicing in it, we make the act of love which is
called complacency; for we please ourselves in the
divine pleasure infinitely more than in our own, and
it is this love which gave so much content to the
Saints when they could recount the perfections of
their wellbeloved, and which caused them to declare
with so much delight that God was God.
Know ye, said they, that the Lord he is God. O
God, my God, my God, thou art my God. I have said to
the Lord: Thou art my God. Thou art the God of my
heart, and my God is my portion for ever.(2) He is
the God of our heart by this complacency, since by it
our heart embraces him and makes him its own: he is
our inheritance, because by this act, we enjoy the
goods which are in God, and, as from an inheritance,
we draw from it all pleasure and content; by means of
this complacency we spiritually drink and eat the
perfections of the Divinity, for we make them our own
and draw them into our hearts.
Jacob's ewes drew into themselves the variety of
colours which they observed. So a soul, captivated by
the loving complacency which she takes in considering
the Divinity, and in it an infinity of excellences,
draws into her heart the colours thereof, that is to
say, the multitude of wonders and perfections which
she contemplates, and makes them her own by the
pleasure which she takes in them.
O God! what joy shall we have in heaven, Theotimus,
when we shall see the well-beloved of our hearts as
an infinite sea, whose waters are perfection and
goodness! Then as stags, long and sorely chased,
putting their mouths to a clear and cool stream draw
into themselves the coolness of its fair waters, so
our hearts, after so many languors and desires
meeting with the mighty and living spring of the
Divinity, shall draw by their complacency all the
perfections of the well-beloved, and shall have the
perfect fruition of them by the joy which they shall
take in them, replenishing themselves with his
immortal delights; and in this way the dear spouse
will enter into us as into his nuptial bed, to
communicate his eternal joy unto our souls, according
as he himself says, that if we keep the holy law of
his love he will come and dwell within us.
Such is the sweet and noble robbery of love,
which, without uncolouring the well-beloved colours
itself with his colours; without disrobing him
invests itself with his robes, without taking from
him takes all that he has, and without impoverishing
him is enriched with all his wealth; as the air takes
light, not lessening the original brightness of the
sun, and the mirror takes the grace of the
countenance, not diminishing that of him who looks in
it.
They became abominable, as those things were which
they loved,(3) said the Prophet, speaking of the
wicked; so might one say of the good, that they are
become lovely as the things they have loved.
Behold, I beseech you, the heart of S. Clare of
Montefalco: it so delighted in our Saviour's passion
and in meditating on the most holy Trinity, that it
drew into itself all the marks of the passion, and an
admirable representation of the Trinity, being made
such as the things it loved. The love which the great
Apostle S. Paul bore to the life, death and passion
of our divine Saviour was so great that it drew the
very life, death, and passion of this divine Saviour
into his loving servant's heart; whose will was
filled with it by dilection, his memory by
meditation, and his understanding by contemplation.
But by what channel or conduit did the sweet Jesus
come into the heart of S. Paul?
By the channel of complacency, as he himself
declares, saying: God forbid that I should glory,
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.(4) For if
you mark well, there is no difference between
glorying in a person and taking complacency in him,
between glorying and delighting in, save that he who
glories in a thing, to pleasure adds honour; honour
not being without pleasure, though pleasure can be
without honour.
This soul, then, had such complacency, and
esteemed himself so much honoured in the divine
goodness which appears in the life, death and passion
of our Saviour, that he took no pleasure but in this
honour. And it is this that made him say, God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ; as he also said that he lived not
himself but Jesus Christ lived in him.
|