Colloquy. Address our dear Lord lovingly, joyfully, congratulating Him on His triumph, and begging for a generous spirit of sacrifice in His service.
CONSIDERATION
On the Spirit of Love
The ultimate purpose of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, is to make us serve God in the most perfect manner possible, and therefore in the spirit of love, or charity: “Now there remain faith, hope, and charity; these three, but the greater of these is charity” (I Cor. xiii, 13). Love is the most excellent homage that the creature can render to the Creator. Behold the bee in the springtime issuing from its hive and soaring afar over the sunny fields. It is in quest of honey: Honey is all it cares for. It passes by the velvet pansy, the flaming tulip, and lights with eagerness on the humble clover, because it finds honey there. Thus too some men prize and seek nothing but riches, others only honor, others pleasure, etc.
What can there be in this vast material universe that God would deign to care for? It is love of the human heart. It is His delight to be with the children of men, as He tells us in the Book of Proverbs: “My delights to be with the children of men” (viii, 31). And what does the Lord desire from men? He states it further on: “My son, give me thy heart” (Ib. xxiii, 26); that is, of course, thy love; for the heart of man is the emblem of love. Without love nothing has value in God’s eyes, as the Apostle proclaims so eloquently in his First Epistle to the Corinthians: “If I should distribute all my goods to the poor, and I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing” (xiii, 3). This charity is so pleasing to Heaven because it comes from Heaven; it is Divine: “The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us” (Rom. v, 5). Of course, our love of God is no benefit to Him, no more than the love of a little child for its parents is any profit to them. The infant causes any amount of inconvenience and trouble in the home. Its loving looks and tender caresses are all it can give in return for the kindness shown it; but this is sufficient in the eyes of affectionate parents. We are like infants before the Lord, we can give Him nothing that He stands in need of, all He desires of us is that we love Him; and this very love He turns to our own advantage, for He rewards it most richly.
Besides this reward, there is another advantage derived from loving God, namely that love lightens all burdens of life. Why does a young mother, formerly rapped up in the pursuit of pleasure, now sit so patiently for hours by the bedside of her ailing child, forgetful of all worldly amusements,—except because she loves that infant. Love makes all efforts pleasing; as Thomas à Kempis puts it: Facile equitat quem gratia Dei portat, “He rides along with ease who is borne up by the grace of God.” So if we are animated by the love of God, we rejoice in serving Him, we hunger and thirst after justice. And this cheerful service on our part vastly increases the love God has for our persons; “For God loveth a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. ix, 7).
And thus by the practice of Divine love the bond that unites the human soul with our Blessed Lord grows stronger and stronger. Therefore, while the worldling sees nothing but hardships in the religious state, the inmates of the cloister would consider it the saddest misfortune if they were compelled to leave their happy homes and return to the world.
This love of God is that sacred fire of which Christ said: “I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?” (St. Luke xii, 49). It shone with a most refulgent light when, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Ghost appeared in the form of fiery tongues and filled the minds and hearts of the disciples. And see how the Divine love, then received, transformed the Apostles into new men. Before, they had been very dull of comprehension, some of them asking the Saviour on the day of His ascension whether He was then going to restore the Kingdom of Israel; then they became at once the infallible teachers of the world. Before, they had been cowardly men, locked up in the upper room for fear of the Jews; then they were suddenly changed into heroes, rejoicing, when they had been publicly whipped, that they were allowed to suffer for the name of Jesus. All of them were glad to die for their Lord. Countless martyrs were enkindled with the same fire of love; men, timid women, little boys, tender maidens, astonishing the Pagans by their heroic fortitude.
When the early persecutions were past, thousands of solitaries retired from the allurements of the world, and were led by the spirit of Divine love into frightful solitudes to spend their lives in penance and prayer, thinking of God alone. Every subsequent age in the history of the Church is replete with similar exhibitions of the love of Jesus. Hundreds of thousands of Christians left home and country, and sacrificed their lives to rescue from the hands of Pagans the tomb of the Redeemer. Others, during the Ages of Faith, devoted their riches or their personal labor to erect magnificent cathedrals, and provide a rich supply of gold and silver vases, of precious vestments and ornaments for the house of their beloved Lord.
When the charity of many had grown cold, the Blessed Saviour knew how to rekindle its fires by means of the devotion to His Sacred Heart. He appeared to His humble servant Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque, and said to her: “Behold the heart that has loved men so much, and yet I receive nothing but ingratitude in return.” The whole purpose of this beautiful devotion is to elicit the love of human hearts for their loving Saviour, so as to unite God and men together by the golden bond of love.
To promote this devotion Jesus has been liberal in His promises. For those who practise it fervently He promised that He would be their secure refuge during life and above all in death, that He would bestow a rich blessing on all their undertakings, that by it tepid souls would become fervent, and fervent souls would mount quickly to a high perfection, that He would give to priests the gift of touching the hardest hearts, that He would write in His sacred Heart the names of those who would zealously promote this devotion and He would never allow them to be blotted out.