Salesian Literature

Chapter 6  :  Loving God more than anything is common to all lovers

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God’s true lovers know many varied degrees of love.  For all that, a single commandment of charity binds each one equally, and in general, with an identical obligation, even though it may be kept in different ways, with an endless variety of perfections.  No two souls in this world, any more than the angels in heaven, ever love to exactly the same extent.

 

However, we are faced with the question: to what degree of love does God’s commandment oblige all of us equally, in everything, always?

 

The commandment of charity is more often expressed in terms of predilection than love.  Although dilection is a form of love, it introduces the idea of choice; the word itself conveys that meaning, as St. Thomas points out[1].  This commandment binds us to love God beyond all else, as the sweetheart is chosen from among ten thousand – according to the beloved Sulamite in the Song of Songs (Cant. 5:10).  This is the love which is to have the first place in our hearts and reign over our passions.  God demands this of us: of all our loves his must be the dearest, the supreme love of our hearts; it must be the deepest, filling our whole souls; it must be the most wholehearted, making use of all our faculties; and it must be the strongest, to which we give ourselves with might and main.  Since it is a love by which we chose and set God upon the throne of our hearts.  It is a love involving the highest choice, or a choice embracing the highest love.

 

Love of God is a love what knows no equal, for God’s goodness is a goodness beyond compare.  Listen, then, Israel: there is no Lord but the Lord our God, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with the love of thy whole heart, and thy whole soul, and thy whole mind, and thy whole strength (Deut. 6:4-5).

 

Since God alone is Lord, since his goodness is infinitely great, infinitely above all goodness, he must be loved with a love that is nobler, stronger, more perfect than any other.  This is the love that gives God the place of honour in our hearts, that makes us value so highly the blessing of being pleasing to him, that we prefer and care for God before all things else.

 

Surely you can see that the man who loves God in this way has devoted his whole soul and his whole strength to God.  Always and for ever, no matter what happens, he will prefer God’s good grace to all things, ever ready to forego the whole world to maintain his love for God.

 

After all, it is that love of perfection, that perfection of love, which is demanded of the whole human race and of each individual as soon as he reaches the use of reason.  It is alone sufficient for the salvation of each man, alone essential for the salvation of the whole race.

 

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[1]  Summa Theologica, 1.2.q.26, a.3.

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