Salesian Literature

Chapter 3  :  Wholehearted love of God does not exclude a love of other things

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The use of the word “whole” admits of no exceptions.  Nevertheless a man may be wholly devoted to God, wholly devoted to his father or mother, and to his sovereign, and to the state, to his children, to his friends; while he is everything to each, he may still be everything to everybody.  His duty of being wholeheartedly at the service of the each individual does not run counter to the duty he has of being wholly devoted to the others.

 

We give ourselves wholeheartedly by love, and the wholeheartedness of our giving depends on the depth of our love.  Therefore we are most at God’s disposal when we love his divine goodness more than anything else.  If we have once given ourselves to God, then we are to love nothing that could alienate our hearts from him; only what is opposed to God can do that.  God does not take it amiss when we love other things besides him, as long as we maintain the reverence, the submission due to him.

 

In heaven, of course, God will be everything to us, not just a part.  Still, everyone will not see him equally, nor love him equally; but each will see and love him in proportion to the individual capacity for glory which God’s providence has allotted to each.  We shall all of us equally enjoy the fullness of God’s love; but the capacity for that fullness will not be the same in each one.

 

If there are such different degrees of love in heaven, where the command Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart (Deut. 6:5; Mt. 22:37) is so perfectly observed, small wonder there are tremendous differences on earth!

 

Not only do some of those who love God with all their hearts love him more, and others less, but even one and the same individual many a time outdoes himself in this supreme activity of loving God above all things.  Surely it is common knowledge that we can grow in charity – that in their last stages the saints are crowned with a more perfect love than when they took their first steps.

 

All true lovers are alike in giving themselves to God with their whole heart, their whole strength; but they are dissimilar through giving themselves in various ways and by different means – some give themselves wholeheartedly, with all their strength, less perfectly than others.  One man gives himself wholeheartedly by martyrdom, another by virginity, another by poverty, another through the active life, another through the contemplative life, another by the cure of souls.  The wholehearted self-giving of all these people is through the keeping of the commandments, yet there is less perfection about the gift of some than others.

 

Our love for God draws its value from the perfection and sublimity of the motives for which we love him – because he is the supreme infinite goodness, because he is God.  One spark of this love is worth more, is stronger, more to be prized, than any other love a human heart can know.

 

Charity, while it is alive in the soul, reigns supreme and holds sway over all the emotions, leading the will to put God before everything else without delay, without exception, without reserve.

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