On Loving God IV: 11
On Loving God IV: 11
And we can accept the affirmation if one adds: "I was mind ful of the Lord and delighted."100 It is indeed right that they who do not find pleasure in the joys of this life may think of those to come and they who refused to be consoled by the abundance of changing things, may delight in thoughts of eternity. This is the generation of those who seek the Lord, who do not seek for their own advantage101 but for the face of the God of Jacob.102 In the meanwhile, memory is a plea sure for those who seek and long for God's presence, not that they are completely satisfied but that they may long all the more for him that they might be filled.103 Thus he testifies that he himself is food: ''Who eats me, will hunger for more."104
Whoever is nourished by him says: ''I shall be satisfied when your glory appears."105 Blessed are they who go hungry now and thirst for justice, for they alone will be satisfied some day.106 Woe to you, false and corrupt generation! Woe to you, foolish, stupid people,107 who scorn his memory yet dread his presence! Not even now do you want to be freed from the hunter's net, since they who want to make money in this life, fall into the devil's net.108 Even then, you cannot avoid the harsh words. 109 O the harsh and cruel sentence: "Depart ac cursed into everlasting fire."110 Less harsh and less awful are the words brought to our mind each day in the memorial of the Passion: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life everlasting."111 That is, he who meditates on my death and, following my example, mortifies his members which be long to this earth,112 has eternal life;113 meaning, if you share in my sufferings, you will partake of my glory.114 Many shrink
100. Ps 76:4.
101. 1 Cor 13: 5.
102. Ps 23:6.
103. Cf. Mt 5:6. See Conv 26; OB 4: 100-101; CF 43.
104. Sir 24:29.
105. Ps 16:15.
106. Mt 5:6.
107. Jer 4:22; 5:21.
108. Ps 90:3; 123:7; 1 Tim 6:9. Cf. Conv 14; OB 4:88-89; CF 43.
109. Cf. Jn 6:61.
110. Mt 25:41.
1 1 1. Jn 6: 55. The reference is undoubtedly to the daily celebration of the Mass.
112. Col 3:5.
113. Jn 3:36.
114. Rom 8: 1 7.
On Loving God IV: 12 back at these words and abandon him,1'5 saying by their re actions: "This expression is too hard, who can listen to it?"116
The generation which did not regulate its heart, whose spirit is not in good faith with God117 speaks this way and, setting its hopes on futile riches,118 feels oppressed by the message of the Cross,119 and judges the memory of the Passion a burden.
How will it ever bear the weight of these words in his presence:
"Depart accursed into the everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels?"120 This stone will crush him on whom it falls.121 However, the righteous generation122 will be blessed, for as with the Apostle, either present or absent,123 it seeks to please God. They will hear: "Come you blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you since the beginning of the world."124
Then the generation which did not regulate its heart125 will learn too late how easy was Christ's yoke in comparison with this sorrow and light was his burden126 from which they with drew their stiff necks127 as if it were a rough and heavy load. O wretched slaves of Mammon,128 you cannot glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ129 and at the same time trust in hoards of money or chase after gold130 and taste how sweet is the Lord.131 As a result, you will no doubt find him severe when present, since you failed to remember him when absent.
12. On the other hand, the faithful soul sighs deeply for his presence, rests peacefully when thinking of him, and must
115. Jn 6:67; 18:6.
116. Jn 6:61.
117. Ps 77:8.
118. 1 Tim 6:17.
119. 1 Cor 1:18.
120. Mt 25:41.
121. Mt 21:44.
122. Ps 111:2.
123. 2 Cor 5:9.
124. Mt 25:34
125. Ps 77:8.
126. Mt 11:30.
127. Deut 9:13; 31:27.
1 28. Mt 6: 24.
129. Gal 6:14.
130. 1 Tim 6:17.
131. Ps 33:9.
On Loving God IV: 13 glory in the degradation of the Cross132 until it is capable of contemplating the glory of God's revealed face.133 Thus
Christ's bride and dove134 pauses for a little and rests amidst her inheritance after receiving by lot,135 from the memory of your abundant sweetness,136 Lord Jesus, silver-tinted wings,137 the candor of innocence and purity, and she hopes to be filled with gladness at the sight of your face,138 where even her back will glitter like gold139 when she is introduced with joy into the splendor of the saints.140 There she will be enlightened by rays of wisdom. Now she may glory and say: "His left hand is under my head and his right hand embraces me.''141 His left hand is symbolic of his unsurpassable charity which made him lay down his life for his friends,142 while his right hand por trays the beatific vision which he promised them and the joy of his majestic presence. The vision of God which makes us resemble him, and its incalculable delight are rightly figured by the right hand, as the Psalmist joyfully sings: "In your right hand are everlasting joys.''143 In the left hand is well placed that admirable, memorable, and always to be remem bered love, because the bride reclines on it and rests until evil is past.144
13. In this way the Bridegroom's left hand is rightly under the bride's head, so that, as she leans back, her head is sup ported on it, meaning the intention of her mind, lest bending down it should be enticed by carnal and worldly desires.145
Because "the corruptible body weighs down the soul and the earthly dwelling preoccupies the mind busy with many
132. Gal 6:14.
133. 2 Cor 3:18. Cf. OS 4:3; OB 5:357; CF 37.
134. Song 5: 1-2.
135. Ps 67:14.
136. Ps 144:7.
137. Ps 67:14.
138. Ps 15:11.
139. Ps 67:14.
140. Ps 109:3.
141. Song 2:6.
142. Jn 15:13.
143. Ps 15:11.
144. Ps 56:2.
145. Gal 5:16; Tit 2:12.
On Loving God V:14 thoughts."146 What else is achieved by meditating on such great and so undeserved mercy, such gratuitous and so proved a love, such unexpected condescension, undaunted mildness, and astonishing kindness? What else, I insist, will all these carefully considered qualities achieve if they do not, in a wonderful way, captivate the mind of him who, completely freed from all unworthy love, considers them and attract it deeply so that it despises in comparison whatever cannot be desired without despising them? Then the bride surely runs more eagerly in the odor of their perfumes.147 She loves ar dently, yet even when she finds herself completely in love, she thinks she loves too little because she is loved so much. Nor is she wrong. What can requite so deep a love by so great a lover?
It is as if a tiny grain of dust148 were to gather all its strength to render an equal love to the Divine Majesty who anticipates its affection and is seen entirely bent on saving it. Finally,
"God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son" 149 was no doubt spoken of the Father; and the words "He gave himself up"150 were undoubtedly meant of the Son. It is said of the Holy Spirit: "But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will make you remember all I have said to you."151 God there fore loves, and loves with all his being, for it is the whole
Trinity that loves, if the word whole can be said of the infinite, the incomprehensible, or indeed of a simple being.
V. 14. Whoever meditates on this is, I believe, sufficiently aware why man ought to love God, that is, whence God de serves to be loved. On the other hand, the infidel has neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit because he has not the Son.152
"He who honors not the Son, honors not the Father who sent 146. Wis 9:15. This is a favorite quotation of Bernard, see Gra 37, 41 (OB
3:192-193, 196; CF 19); Conv 30 (OB 4:106; CF 43); Pre 59 (OB 3:292; CF 1:148); etc.
147. Song 1:3.
148. Is 40:15.
149. Jn 3:16.
150. Is 53:12.
151. Jn 14:26.
152. 1 Jn 5:12; cf. 2 Jn 9.