Salesian Literature

Chapter 7  :  The desire magnify God takes our minds off lower pleasures and fixes them on God’s perfections

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Benevolent love makes us want to increase, ever more and more, the satisfaction which we find in God’s goodness.  To bring this about, we are careful to forgo all other delights, to find our delight in God.

 

A religious asked the saintly Brother Giles (one of the earliest and holiest of St. Francis of Assisi’s friars) what he should do to become more pleasing to God.  The answer came in song: “One to one; one to one.”  Eventually the friar went on to explain: “Always give your whole soul, which is indivisible, to God alone, who is also indivisible.”

 

The true lover’s delight is centred on his beloved: that is why St. Paul treated everything else as refused compared with the high privilege of knowing his Saviour (cf. Phil. 3:8); that is why the bride in the Song of Songs thinks only of her beloved: All mine, my true love, and I all his (Cant. 2:16).

 

Once a man falls in love with God like this, no created thing, however excellent, even though it be an angel, can distract him; if he turns to creatures, it is only for advice or help in attaining what his heart is set on.  I met the watchmen who go the city rounds, and asked them whether they had seen my love (Cant. 3:3).

 

That illustrious lover, Mary Magdalene, encountered angels at the tomb (cf. Jn. 20:11-16); surely they addressed her angelically (gently I mean), anxious to allay her sorrow.  Utterly disconsolate as she was, however, she could take no comfort from their kindly greeting, their shining garments, their heavenly bearing, or the wondrous beauty of their features; still weeping, they have carried away my Lord, she said, and I cannot tell where they have taken him.

 

Turning round, she saw her sweet Saviour; but he looked like a gardener, so she was not interested.  Loving thoughts of her Master’s death filled her heart; what need had she of flowers, of gardeners?  Cross, nails and thorns occupied her thoughts; she was looking for her crucified lover.  “If it is you, sir,” she said to the gardener, “if it is you who have carried off my beloved Lord’s body, tell me quickly where you have put him, and I will take him away.”

 

But no sooner did he breathe her name than her grief dissolved into delight: “Rabboni,” she said, “Master!”  Nothing could content her, she could find no delight with the angels – and not even with her Saviour, until he showed himself under the aspect that had first stolen her heart.

 

The three kings could find no satisfaction in the beauty of Jerusalem city, nor in the magnificence of Herod’s court, nor in the brightness of the star; their hearts were seeking a little cave, and the tiny Child of Bethlehem.  The Mother who gives birth to all noble loving (Eccl. 24:24), and her spouse, could not delay among their kinsfolk and acquaintances; they must be off, in anguish of mind (cf. Lk. 2:44-48), seeking one alone who could gratify him.

 

This desire to intensify spiritual gratification curtails all other pleasures, to leave room for more vigorous efforts at achieving that satisfaction towards which God’s benevolence spurs us.

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