God is Worthy of Our Love
We cannot overstate God’s worthiness of being loved. All of nature and Scripture reveal to us the goodness, power, and wisdom of God. When Adam, created out of the sheer goodness of God, awoke in the Garden of Eden, he found himself surrounded by a masterfully crafted world created for his enjoyment, creativity, and well-being. When he found himself alienated from God by his sin, immediately a promise was made to restore him and, beyond all comprehension, restore him in such a manner that his children might draw even closer to God than he had been in his state of innocence. The mystery of the incarnation, the depths of love revealed in the Passion, and the glory promised in the Resurrection all overwhelm us with a profound motive to love God and praise Him with all our hearts.
The Catechism even begins by noting, “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness, freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man.”1 Revelation 4:11 tells us, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” In The Way of Salvation and of Perfection, St. Alphonso Ligouri wrote, “Ah God is so worthy of love, that he is obliged to love Himself with an infinite love; and in this same love, so necessary, but at the same time so delightful, which God bears to himself, consists His beatitude! And shall we not love him?”2
Confusing Love with Feelings
In modern English we misuse the word love as one end of a feelings’ spectrum where like is a milder form, disinterest a midpoint, and loath holds the far end. We express “our love” for a new show or a new restaurant or a new car model as if love were merely a maxed-out feeling of pleasure. St. Francis de Sales, made a Doctor of the Church for his work articulating love of God, would have identified this maxed-out feeling as inferior to real love.
Merriam-Webster defines our word complacency as: “self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies.” However, when St. Francis’s work was first translated into English in the late 1600s, the word simply meant “the state of being pleased, deriving pleasure and satisfaction.” It came from the French word “complacere ‘to be very pleasing.’”3 He wrote, in Treatise on the Love of God, “Complacency [being pleased] is the awakener of the heart, but love is its action; complacency makes it get up, but love makes it walk. The heart spreads its wings by complacency but love is its flight. Love then, to speak distinctly and precisely, is no other thing than the movement, effusion and advancement of the heart towards good[ness].”4
In other words, our degraded definition of love is merely the responding experience of pleasure, elation, or satiation for the things God does for us–His creation, labor, and sacrifices. When mere feeling counterfeits as true love, we miss out on the actual relationship with Him that He longs to form with us.
God Desires True Love
Matthew 22:36-37 reveals God’s deepest desire to share this experience of bonafide love when Jesus is asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” He replies, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and the first commandment.” H. Monier Vinard writes in the introduction to The Way of Divine Love, “[The Sacred Heart of Jesus] is indeed His Heart of flesh… Like all true love, His is consumed by desire for a return in kind…”5 To be pleased with God, to appreciate Him, is not unwelcome, but are we ready to be pleasing to Him in return?
In a private revelation to Servant of God Sister Josefa Menedez, Jesus confided, “Remember My words and trust in them. The one desire of My Heart is to imprison you in It, to possess you in My love, and to make of your frailty and littleness a channel of mercy for many souls who will be saved by your means.”6 St. Mother Teresa knew well that depth of love that God desires from each of us. In her private writings exhorting her sisters, she wrote of Gethsemane and Jesus’s thirst on the Cross, “He prayed and prayed, and then He went to look for consolation, but there was none…I always write that sentence, ‘I looked for one to comfort Me, but I found no one.’ [Psalms 68:21] Then I write, ‘Be the one.’ So now you be that one. Try to be the one to share with Him, to comfort Him, to console Him.”7
Growth in Love of God
The journey of growth in the love of God is nowhere more beautifully or mysteriously presented than the Song of Songs. This poem, inspired by the Holy Spirit, tells the story of a relationship between a maiden and a great king. It reveals a kind of dance between them, growing from a glance of pleased interest to a full surrender of trust–the giving of self into marriage. It is the image of the mystical marriage to which we are all called.
In 1:6-7, the young maiden recognizes her own unworthiness, timidly glancing toward her beloved. “Do not look at me because I am dark for I was scorched by the sun.” She skirts the perimeter of his world, “where you pasture your flocks and rest them at midday so that I might not be found wandering beside the flocks of your companions.” But the “one whom she loves” invites her in verse eight to “follow the tracks of the flock, and pasture your kids beside the shepherd’s tent.”
Growing in the love of God is not cutting a way through untraveled land, but it is crossing a difficult-to-traverse landscape and it requires our letting go of many burdens. St. Paul, in Hebrews 12:1, tells us, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us…” The Saints, the Good Shepherd’s heavenly flock, have marked the way that we must go. They cheer us on and teach us how to approach Him and how to “lay aside every weight.”
St. Teresa of Avila, writing in The Way of Perfection, cautioned those who would seek this great love with God to approach with humility, “for this King does not allow Himself to be taken except by one who surrenders wholly to Him.”8
Conformity to the Will of God
In Song of Songs 2:10, the bride receives an invitation. “My beloved speaks, and he says to me: ‘Arise, my beloved, my fair one, and come!’” In the Gospels, each disciple is invited by Jesus to, “Follow me.” Following requires an initiation of trust.
Keeping God’s commands, given from His infinite goodness, allows us to cross the perimeter boundary into our beloved’s realm. Leviticus 20:7-8 tells us, “Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am the Lord your God. Keep my statutes, and observe them…” In John 14:15, Jesus affirms this step of trust, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
In Romans 12:1-2, St. Paul explains the further interior steps past the boundary lines, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
In Matthew 19:16-23 the rich young ruler asks Jesus, “Teacher, what must I do to be saved?” Jesus replies he must keep the commandments. The rich young ruler could have said, “I’m doing that! Thank you!” and walked away content. Jesus didn’t volunteer more.
But the man prods, “Which ones?” Jesus clarifies. Again, the young man could have walked away confident in his ability to control his passions, lead with integrity, and use his wealth to care for parents and neighbors. He could have thanked Jesus for the validation.
But the rich young ruler pressed Jesus further.
Finally, Jesus says, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give your money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Instead of walking forward into a deeper relationship of trust, the rich young ruler walks away in grief, unable to let go of his attachments and control.
Detachment from the Created
Letting go of “every weight and sin” feels disorienting and painful. Purgatorial experiences detach us from the unholy as well as harmless ideas, responsibilities, comforts, and even people if they sideline us from dependence on God. The human person, designed for creativity, can craft dozens of brilliant ideas which, if brought to fruition, might draw the praise of mankind, but is every idea worthy of the sacrifice in time, money, and talent it takes to pursue the idea, especially if it takes away from our time seeking God’s perfect will? St. Francis de Sales urged us, “What else are the flowers of our hearts, Philothea, but [apparently] good desires. As soon as they appear we must take a pruning knife to remove from our conscience all dead and superfluous works.”9 He won’t call us to a frenzy of activities that reinforce our pride.
In Matthew 10:37, Jesus states, “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Sr. Josefa Menendez traveled to a convent out of her own country to isolate herself for God. “I began to waver,” she wrote, “at the thought of my mother and sister…of my home, and of the language that I did not understand…However, I made up my mind to leave them all to the Heart of Our Lord, to place them in His care, and every time the remembrance of these much-loved ones returned, I did as I was advised and made an act of love and confidence.”10
St. Gemma Galgani transparently admitted during long-term illness, “The thing that afflicted me most was to have to stay in bed… Jesus made Himself felt rather strongly in my soul and He gave me a severe rebuke…‘It is your bad self-love that makes you resent not being able to do what the others do,’ He said to me, ‘and that causes you so much confusion at seeing that you have to be helped by others. If you were dead to yourself you would not be so disturbed.’”11 She began to focus instead on how Jesus humbled himself as a helpless infant, suffered the Cross, and gives Himself within the Eucharist.
Loving the Creator, not merely the created, even means letting go of consolations. In Song of Songs 3:1-2, the bride finds herself alone. “I sought him whom my soul loves…I called but he gave no answer…” Sr. Josefa experienced many moments where, just like the bridegroom, Jesus seemed to slip away: “…my soul was in such a state of coldness and aridity that I had to force myself to say even a few words.”12 St. John of the Cross called this the Dark Night of the Soul, a soul-state where we learn to love with no other incentive, no other idol, no other focus, not even enjoyable emotion. The more we let go of the things of this world, the more God is pleased to step in as the architect of our individual restoration in grace.
Mental Prayer and Devotion to the Passion of Christ
The practice of mental prayer, so recommended by the saints, allows us to ponder the mysteries of the faith more deeply and provides the space to encounter the reality of who God is and who we are. It brings the scenes of the gospel to life in a way that develops a deeper understanding of our own faults and the virtues we must cultivate. By meditating specifically on the Passion of Christ, we not only grow in empathy and gratitude but also develop a more profound love of God and a greater commitment to live out the virtues He exemplified.
St. Teresa of Avila wrote, “Mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with Him who we know loves us. The important thing is not to think much but to love much and so do that which best stirs you to love. Love is not great delight but desire to please God in everything.“13
God longs for us to disclose all our hopes and fears, share our dreams, and confide in Him our troubles. By mentally placing ourselves at the Passion of Christ, we interiorly bring ourselves–our creativity, our labor, our suffering, our concerns, souls we encounter–beneath the Cross. St. Paul writes in Philippians 1:9-11, “And for this I pray: that your love may increase ever more and more in knowledge and full insight to enable you to discover what is really important, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, filled with the fruits of righteousness that come through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.”
Humility
James 4:6 reveals, “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” As we move away from the sins and solaces of this world, we naturally become more and more dependent upon God. James goes on to say in 13-16, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.’ Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.”
His words seem severe in our posh Western lifestyle, but will our lifestyle be our undoing? Humility recognizes our dependence on God, His mercy, and His will for our lives in all things.
In visions, Jesus repeatedly assured Sr. Josefa Menendez of His love for humility. “You see how I have willed to make myself small, Josefa? It is in order to help you, too, to become very little. If I have humbled Myself to such an extent, it is only to teach you likewise to humble yourself.’”14 On another occasion, he assured her, “Love Me in your littleness; this will console Me,”15 On still another, he explained, “The fact that I have chosen a soul does not mean that her faults and miseries are wiped out. But if in all humility that soul acknowledges her failings and atones by little acts of generosity and love, above all, if she trusts Me, if she throws herself into My Heart, she gives Me more glory and does more good to souls than if she had not fallen. What does her wretchedness matter to Me, if she gives Me the love that I want?”16
In Sacred Scripture, the books of Samuel tell the story of David, the weakest of his family chosen by God to be king. David repeatedly sins and repents, always lamenting his inability to be righteous. Still, he marvels in God’s love in 2 Samuel 7:18-20: “Who am I, Lord God, and what is my lineage…Who can truly consider himself sufficiently worthy to be the recipient of such love, Lord God? What more can David say to you, Lord God, since you know everything about your servant?” In the New Testament, Paul would bring David up in Acts 13:22, stating, “…[God] said, ‘I have found David, the son of Jesse, to be a man after my own heart. He will carry out my every wish.’”
The Blessed Sacrament
“‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh…’” This wedding reading from Genesis 2:23 expresses how a couple’s interests merge within the Sacrament of Marriage, the most sacred expression of trust. One flesh means what hurts one, hurts both; what helps one, helps both.
It’s no coincidence Catholic vows are said before the Eucharistic Altar where Christ gives Himself as a Bridegroom. In Song of Songs 8:6, the Bridegroom sings, “Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal upon your arm. For love is as strong as death…” In Rev. J.B. Scheurer’s Sermons on the Blessed Sacrament, he writes, “And so it comes, dearly beloved, that heaven worships now the nature of man indivisibly united with the Godhead, and earth adores the Deity, joined inseparably to our humanity, in the Person of the Incarnate Word. Hence is our worship and theirs but one; one in object, one in value, one in sentiment, one, if possible, in form.17
Our love of God grows when we recognize this unity within the Eucharist, a union of Divinity and Humanity set before us as an icon of love revealing the mystery of His desire for us. But most importantly it is set before us as a nourishment of love, that we may be truly drawn into this unity. Not only the Divine Nature united with one Human Nature, but through this Sacrament of Love, the Divine Nature draws each one of us up into the Eternal Unity of the Blessed Trinity.
Suffering and the Way of Divine Love
At the end of Song of Songs (8:11-12), the Bride speaks of Solomon’s vineyards, his work, and declares in free will, “But my own vineyard is mine to give.” When Jesus invites us to carry our cross, He invites us–trusts us–to work with Him. We can freely join our Bridegroom in His spiritual warfare to free men from sin and say like the bride in Song of Songs 6:8, “Before I realized it, my desire had placed me in a chariot beside my prince.”
The deepest love on earth is participating in the sufferings of Christ to labor with Him for the Glory of God and the salvation of souls. 1 Peter 4:3 speaks of this, “Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, you should arm yourselves also with the same intention. For anyone who has suffered in the flesh has finished with sin and for the remainder of life on earth must be ruled not by human passions but by the will of God.” As in marriage, one flesh means what hurts one, hurts both; what helps one, helps both. St. Paul wrote in Colossians 1:24, “I find great joy at present in suffering for you, and in my own body I am completing the sufferings that still must be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church.”
Sr. Josefa Menendez’s biography The Way of Divine Love chronicles her growth in trust through increasing suffering. Jesus Himself, in visions, explained redemptive suffering to her, how her suffering affected her soul and the souls of many others He longed to save.18 As in Song of Songs 8:13-14, the Bridegroom asks her, “O you who dwell in the gardens, my companions are listening for your voice; let me hear it.” Sr. Josefa’s voice became her suffering. “I understood that I must direct all my energies to this, for that is how I shall learn to deny myself in everything, and however small the act is, it will still be pleasing to His Sacred Heart…Oh, what a Heart is that of my Jesus!”19 Her voice answered back with the Bride, “Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag upon the spice-filled mountains.” She suffered so much as a victim soul she could confirm St. Paul in Romans 8:17, “And if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, provided that we share his sufferings so that we may also share his glory.”
Living in Love
In St. Peter Eymard’s essay, “The End of the Work,” he writes, “How neglected is Jesus…and alas! how great is the number of those lukewarm souls! Pleasure, amusement, visits, dinner parties, the theater, business cares, fill up all their time and absorb all their affections…how few, even of these, love Him for Himself alone! …How many serve Jesus only as mercenaries and only as far as obligation and strict duty demand!”20 Jesus waits for us, longing for us, to unite our hearts to His heart. The Catechism tells us, “He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church.”21 In Revelation 22:17, we are told, “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Let each listener say, “Come!” Let everyone who thirsts come forward…” Will we follow and learn to trust in Him in all ways? Will we “be the one [to comfort Him],” as St. Mother Teresa exhorted?
Ultimately, growing in the love of God means choosing God’s Divine Will and sacrificing our own. The God who can create anything by the mere wisp of a thought only lacks one thing: our free gift of love in return. To rejoice in our sufferings for the love of Christ and the salvation of souls is the highest expression of this pure love. Our Lord Himself honors this as the highest of the beatitudes in Matthew 5:11-12, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven…”
- Libreria Editrice Vaticana, and Usccb. Catechism of the Catholic Church, English Updated Edition. United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, 2020. P 7
↩︎ - de Ligouri, Alphonsus. The Complete Works of Alphonsus Ligouri. Translated by Eugene Grimm, vol. II, Brooklyn, USA, Redemptorist Fathers, 1926. XXII vols. P 309 ↩︎
- complacency | Etymology of complacency by etymonline.” Etymonline, 9 February 2018, https://www.etymonline.com/word/complacency. Accessed 2 October 2024.
↩︎ - de Sales, Francis. Treatise on the Love of God. Grand Rapids, Michigan, Benziger Brothers, 1884. Copyright Christian Classics Ethereal Library, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/desales/love.html. Accessed 06 09 2024. P 78
↩︎ - “The Message of the Sacred Heart to the World.” Jesus Maria site, http://www.jesusmariasite.org/content/menendez/Josefa-Menendez-Way-of-Divine-Love-Book1of3.pdf. Accessed 5 September 2024. P 19 ↩︎
- “The Message of the Sacred Heart to the World.” Jesus Maria site, http://www.jesusmariasite.org/content/menendez/Josefa-Menendez-Way-of-Divine-Love-Book1of3.pdf. Accessed 5 September 2024. P 111 ↩︎
- Teresa, Mother. Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta. Edited by Brian Kolodiejchuk, Random House Publishing Group, 2009. P 260-261 ↩︎
- St. of Avila, Teresa. The Way of Perfection. Translated by E. Allison Peers, 1991 ed., Image Books Doubleday, 1964. P 117 ↩︎
- De Sales, St Francis. Introduction to a Devout Life. Catholic Book Publishing Corporation, 2013. P 22 ↩︎
- “The Message of the Sacred Heart to the World.” Jesus Maria site, http://www.jesusmariasite.org/content/menendez/Josefa-Menendez-Way-of-Divine-Love-Book1of3.pdf. Accessed 5 September 2024. P 32
↩︎ - https://www.stgemmagalgani.com/2008/11/autobiography-of-saint-gemma-galgani.html
↩︎ - “The Message of the Sacred Heart to the World.” Jesus Maria site, http://www.jesusmariasite.org/content/menendez/Josefa-Menendez-Way-of-Divine-Love-Book1of3.pdf. Accessed 5 September. P 82 ↩︎
- The Collected Works of St. Teresa of Avila, Volume 1. Translated by Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD and Otilio Rodriguez, OCD. Washington, DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1976. P 96 ↩︎
- “The Message of the Sacred Heart to the World.” Jesus Maria site, http://www.jesusmariasite.org/content/menendez/Josefa-Menendez-Way-of-Divine-Love-Book1of3.pdf. Accessed 5 September 2024. P 140-141 ↩︎
- http://www.jesusmariasite.org/content/menendez/Josefa-Menendez-Way-of-Divine-Love-Book1of3.pdf P 45 ↩︎
- “The Message of the Sacred Heart to the World.” Jesus Maria site, http://www.jesusmariasite.org/content/menendez/Josefa-Menendez-Way-of-Divine-Love-Book1of3.pdf. Accessed 5 September 2024. P 20 ↩︎
- Scheurer, J.B. Sermons on the Blessed Sacrament : and especially for the Forty hours’ adoration. New York, Benzinger Brothers, 1900. P 18 ↩︎
- “The Message of the Sacred Heart to the World.” Jesus Maria site, http://www.jesusmariasite.org/content/menendez/Josefa-Menendez-Way-of-Divine-Love-Book1of3.pdf. Accessed 5 September 2024. P 98 ↩︎
- “The Message of the Sacred Heart to the World.” Jesus Maria site, http://www.jesusmariasite.org/content/menendez/Josefa-Menendez-Way-of-Divine-Love-Book1of3.pdf. Accessed 5 September 2024. P 42 ↩︎
- https://archive.org/details/sentinelofblesse00newyuoft/page/48/mode/2up P 49 ↩︎
- Libreria Editrice Vaticana, and Usccb. Catechism of the Catholic Church, English Updated Edition. United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, 2020. P 7 ↩︎
