Salesian Literature

Chapter 10:  The saints enjoy closer union with God in heaven, the more they longed for it on earth

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A longing for something makes the enjoyment of it much keener, more piquant; the stronger, more intense, the desire – the more pleasant, delightful, the possession of what we want turns out to be.

 

Heaven alone knows the happiness in store for the heart of a man when he sees the face of God – a sight so long desired, the one sight the soul craves!  Nothing this world has to offer, however prized or sought after, can content the human heart.

 

Alexander, when it seemed that at last he had the whole world in his pocket, overheard some wretched fellow say that there were yet other worlds.  As a child will cry because it is refused an apple, so Alexander (history calls him the Great, but he was sillier than a child) burst into tears; hot and fast they flowed, for he saw little hope of conquering other worlds a she was not yet in complete possession of this one.

 

Clearly, this life could not gratify the cravings of his heart, one world was unable to satisfy him.  Strange, the restlessness of the human heart; but welcome! So I tell myself: “No rest, no peace for me on earth; only the fresh waters of immortality, of the godhead, can quench my thirst, satisfy my longings.”

 

Meanwhile, picture to yourself, with the psalmist, the deer harried by hounds until wind and strength are spent.  So eagerly does it leap into the water it longs for, so earnestly does it submerge to hide itself, apparently it would gladly dissolve and change into water, to enjoy its freshness to the full.  So heaven will seem to us, when our hearts are at one with God!  all those endless desires of ours for what is truly good which were never satisfied in this world – there we shall light upon the source from which they drew such life, such influence.

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