Salesian Literature

Chapter 1  :  God’s commandment to love him more than anything

​

The very prince of the universe is man, the crowning point of man is his heart, of the heart is love, and the perfection of love is charity.  That is why love of God is the goal, the crowning point, the be-all and end-all of the universe.

 

There you have the secret of the sublimity and pre-eminence of the commandment of charity which the Saviour calls the greatest of the commandments, and the first (Mt. 22:38).  Like sunlight it gives splendour and dignity to all the divine laws, to everything God ordains, to the whole of sacred Scripture.

 

Charity is the goal and reference point of all things.  Whatever does not lead to eternal love, leads to eternal death.  Great commandment! – the perfection of its practice continues into eternity; in fact that is exactly what it is – eternal life.

 

Believe me, Theotimus, this law of love is an attractive one.  There was no need of invitation to urge us, of commandment to impel us.  But no – God, in his goodness, commands us to love him, lest his greatness, or our littleness, or some other pretext should hold us back.  If we could but fathom it, how grateful we should be to the supreme goodness for not only allowing us, but even commanding us to love him!

 

Suppose God has forbidden men to love him … how generous hearts would yearn, would strive to win permission!  David braved the danger of a fierce battle to win the king’s daughter (cf. 1 Kgs. 18:25); what more could Jacob have done to wed Rachel (cf. Gen. 29:18), or the chieftain of Sichem to gain Dina’s hand in marriage? (cf. Gen. 34)  Hell would be heaven, could the damned cherish any hope of ever loving God; heaven would be hell, could the saints fear every being deprived of charity.

 

This commandment is delightfully appealing, God knows!  If he gave it to the damned, they would be instantly freed from their greatest misfortune; while the saints in heaven are only there because they keep it.  Charity, how engaging our souls find it!  Blessed for ever be God for so carefully commanding us to love him – though his love is so desirable, so necessary to our happiness, that we should only be wretched without it!

​

Back to Top

​