Chapter 65
THE FIFTEENTH SHOWING
iW that we be comforted in surpassing joy. That He showed in these words: "Yon shall come up above and you shall have
Me for your reward. You shall be completely filled with joy and bliss."
It is God's will that we fix the point of our thought in this blessed sight as frequently as we can, and that we keep ourselves in it for as long a time as we can with His grace. For this is a blessed contemplation for the soul that is led by God, and very much to His glory for the time that it lasts.
When we fall again into ourselves by heaviness and spiritual blindness, and feel spiritual and bodily pains through our fragility, it is God's will that we know that He has not forgotten us. That is what He means in these words, saying them for our comfort: "You shall never again have any kind of pain, any kind of sickness, any kind of thing to displease you, or any defect in your will. You shall continually have joy and bliss without end. Why, then, should it distress you to suffer a while, since it is My will and for My glory?"
It is God's will that we accept His arrangements and His comforting as greatly and strongly as we can take them. Also,
He wills that we accept our periods of waiting and our discomforts as lightly as we can take them, and that we should count them as nothing. For the more lightly we take them and the smaller the price we set on them, for love, the less pain we shall have in the feeling of them and the greater the thanks and reward we shall have for them.
Chapter 65 He who chooses God for love, with reverent meekness, is certain to be saved; this reverent meekness, says the Lord, is marvelously great and the self is marvelously little; it is God's will that we fear nothing but Him; for the power of our enemy is taken into the hand of our friend; and therefore all that God does shall be a great delight to us.
And thus I understood that any man or woman who deliberately chooses God in this life, for love, may be sure that he is loved without end, with an endless love that shapes that
THE REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE
grace in Him. For He wills that we keep this trustfully: that we are as secure in our hope of the bliss of heaven while we are here, as we shall be in security when we are there. And always, the more delight and joy we take in this security, with reverence and meekness, the better it pleases Him.
For, as it was shown, the reverence that I mean is a holy, courteous awe of our Lord, to which meekness is knitted. By it a creature sees the Lord as marvelously great and the self as marvelously small. These virtues are endlessly received by those God loves.
This reverence can now be seen and felt in its measure by the gracious presence of the Lord, when He is present.
This presence is most desired in all things, for it brings about that marvelous security in true faith and certain hope by the greatness of charity, in an awe that is sweet and delectable.
It is God's will that I see myself as much bound to Him in love as if He had done for me everything that He has done.
And this is how every soul should think in regard to its lover; that is to say, the charity of God makes in us such a unity that, when it is truly seen, no man can separate himself from any other. And thus each soul ought to think that God has done for Him all that He has done.
This He showed to make us love Him and become like Him and fear nothing but Him. For it is His will that we know that all the power of our enemy is locked in our friend's hands.
Therefore the soul that knows this certainly will fear nothing but Him Whom it loves. All our other fears it counts among passions, bodily sickness and imagination.
Therefore, though we are in so much pain, woe and discomfort that it seems to us we can think of absolutely nothing except the misery we are in or that we feel, as soon as we can, we pass lightly over it and count it as nothing. And why? Because God wills to be known. For if we know Him and love
Him and reverently stand in awe of Him, we shall have patience and peace and dwell in great rest, and all that He does will be a great delight to us. This our Lord showed in these words: "Why, then, should it distress you to suffer a while, since it is My will and for My glory?"