On Loving God X:27 29
On Loving God X:27 29 This is the third degree of love: in it God is already loved for his own sake.
THE FOURTH DEGREE OF LOVE: MAN LOVES HIMSELF FOR THE
SAKE OF GOD
X. 27. Happy the man who has attained the fourth degree of love, he no longer even loves himself except for God. "O
God, your justice is like the mountains of God."252 This love is a mountain, God's towering peak. Truly indeed, it is the fat, fertile mountain.253 "Who will climb the mountain of the Lord?"254 "Who will give me the wings of a dove, that I may fly away to find rest?"255 This place is made peaceful, a dwelling-place in Sion."256 Alas for me, my exile has been lengthened."257 When will flesh and blood, 258 this vessel of clay,259 this earthly dwelling,260 understand the fact? When will this sort of affection be felt that, inebriated with divine love, the mind may forget itself and become in its own eyes like a broken dish,261 hastening towards God and clinging to him, becoming one with him in spirit,262 saying: "My flesh and my heart have wasted away; O God of my heart, O God, my share for eternity."263 I would say that man is blessed and holy to whom it is given to experience something of this sort, so rare in life, even if it be but once and for the space of a mo ment. 264 To lose v our self, as ifj/ou no longer existed, to cease completely to experience yourself, to reduce yourself to nothing is not a human sentiment but a divine experience.265
If any mortal, suddenly rapt, as has been said, and for a moment is admitted to this, immediately the world of sin266 envies him, the evil of the day disturbs him,267 the mortal body weighs him down, the needs of the flesh bother him,
260. Wis 9: o.
261. Ps 30:13.
26Z 1 Cor 6:17.
263. Ps 72:26.
264. Cf. Gra 15; OB 3:177; CF 19.
252. Ps 35:7.
253. Ps 67:16.
254. Ps 23:3.
255. Ps 54:7.
256. Ps 75:3.
257. Ps 119:5.
258. Mt 16:17.
259. 2 Cor 4:7, 265. Cf. Phil 2: 7.
266. Gal 1:4.
267. Mt 6:34.
On Loving God X:28 the weakness of corruption offers no support, and sometimes with greater violence than these, brotherly love calls him back.
Alas, he has to come back to himself, to descend again into his being, and wretchedly cry out: "Lord, I suffer violence,"268 adding: "Unhappy man that I am, who will free me from this body doomed to death?"269
28. All the same, since Scripture says God made everything for his own purpose,270 the day must come when the work will conform to and agree with its Maker. It is therefore nec essary for our souls to reach a similar state in which, just as God willed everything to exist for himself, so we wish that neither ourselves nor other beings to have been nor to be except for his will alone; not for our pleasure. The satisfaction of our wants, chance happiness, delights us less than to see his will done in us and for us, which we implore every day in prayer saying: ". . .your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. . ,"271
O pure and sacred love! O sweet and pleasant affection! O pure and sinless intention of the will, all the more sinless and pure since it frees us from the taint of selfish vanity, all the more sweet and pleasant, for all that is found in it is divine. It is deifying to go through such an experience. As a drop of water seems to disappear completely in a big quantity of wine, even assuming the wine's taste and color;272 just as red, molten iron becomes so much like fire it seems to lose its primary state; just as the air on a sunny day seems transformed into sunshine instead of being lit up; so it is necessary for the saints that all human feelings melt in a mysterious way and flow into the will of God. Otherwise, how will God be all in all273 if something human survives in man? No doubt, the substance remains though under another form, another glory, another power.
When will this happen? Who will see it? Who will possess it?
When shall I come and when shall I appear in God's pres268. Is 38:14.
269. Rom 7:24.
270. Prov 16:4; cf. Rev 4:11.
271. Mt 6:10.
272. Here again Bernard is taking his inspiration from the Mass where placing a TtCr mt° thC ChaliCC °f Wine haS an imPortant signification.
On Loving God X: 29-XI:30 ence?"274 O my Lord, my God, "My heart said to you: my face has sought you; Lord, I will seek your face."275 Do you think I shall see your holy temple?276
29. I do not think that can take place for sure until the word is fulfilled: "You will love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength,"277 until the heart does not have to think of the body and the soul no longer has to give it life and feeling as in this life. Freed from this bother, its strength is established in the power of God. For it is impossible to assemble all these and turn them toward God's face as long as the care of this weak and wretched body keeps one busy to the point of distraction. Hence itJsuui_a^.piritual and immortal., b o.dy^xalni,an.d pi e as ant , , snbj in everything, that the soul hopes to aUain thq foprttL-degre e of love, or rather to be possessed byii;,for it is in God's hands to give it to whom he wishes, it is not obtained by human ef forts. I mean he will easily reach the highest degree of love when he will no longer be held back by any desire of the flesh or upset by troubles as he hastens with the greatest speed and desire toward the joy of the Lord.278 All the same, do we not think the holy martyrs received this grace, at least partially, while they were still in their victorious bodies? The strength of this love seized their souls so entirely that, despising the pain, they were able to expose their bodies to exterior tor ments. No doubt, the feeling of intense pain could only upset their calm; it could not overcome them.
XI. 30. But what about those souls which are already sepa rated from their bodies? We believe they are completely en gulfed in that immense ocean of eternal light and everlasting brightness.
THE CONDITION OF SOULS AFTER DEATH BEFORE
THE RESURRECTION
But if, which is not denied, they wish that they had received their bodies back or certainly if they desire and hope to re277. Mk 12:30.
278. Mt 25:21, 23.
274. Ps 41:3.
275. Ps 26:8.
276. Ps 26:4.