HOW LOVE OF GOD CONTROLS OTHER LOVES
The will rules over all the powers of the human spirit. But itself is controlled by the love that it has. The will takes on the nature of that love which controls it. Of all the loves, the love of God has primacy. It has such an authority to command that it is inseparably united and essential to its nature, so that if it is not the master, it ceases to exist and perishes.
Ismael did not receive inheritance with his younger brother Isaac (Gal 4: 30). Esau was destined to serve his younger brother (Rom 9:13). Joseph was reverenced not only by his brothers but also by his father and even by his mother in the person of Benjamin as was forseen in the dreams of his youth (Gn 37: 6-10) There is certainly some mystery in the fact that these younger brothers gained advantage over their elder brothers.
The love of God is indeed the last of all the emotions that are born in the human heart. As the Apostle says, what is natural comes first, then the spiritual (1 Cor 15:46) This last- born inherits all authority. Self-love, like another Esau, is destined to its service. All other movements of the soul, like brothers, pay homage to it and are subject to it. So also, intellect and will, which hold the place of father and mother, are subject to it. Everything is subject to this heavenly love which always wishes to be king or nothing. It cannot live unless it reigns. It cannot reign unless it has complete control.
Isaac, Jacob and Joseph were supernatural children since their mothers Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel were barren by nature. Their mothers conceived them by the loving kindness of God. So they were made masters of their brothers. Similarly, divine love is a miraculous child. The human will is unable to produce it unless the Holy Spirit pours it out into our hearts. As it is supernatural, it should preside and rule over all our emotions, even over our understanding and will.
There are other supernatural movements like fear, piety, fortitude, hope, just as Esau and Benjamin were supernatural children of Rebecca and Rachel. All the same, divine love, being the child of promise (Gal 4:28), is the master, heir and superior of all these. In fact, it is on account of it that heaven is promised to humans. Salvation is shown by faith, is prepared by hope but it is given only to charity. Faith shows the way to the promised land like the column of cloud and fire. It means that there is both light and darkness in faith. Hope nourishes us with the manna of sweetness, but charity introduces us into it [salvation]. It is similar to the Ark of the covenant which makes us pass over the Jordan, that is, over Judgment Day. The Ark will remain in the midst of the people in the land of heaven. Promised to the true Israelites, there remains no more need for the column of faith as a guide or the manna of hope as food.
Divine love dwells in the highest and most exalted region of the human spirit. There it offers sacrifices and holocausts to God, just as Abraham offered his son (Gen 22:2). Our Lord immolated himself on the summit of Mount Calvary. Thus from this highest place, divine love may be accepted and obeyed by His people, that is, all the powers and emotions of the soul which He governs with unparalleled gentleness. Love has no convicts, no slaves. It leads all to obedience by a charming strength since nothing is so strong as love, and nothing so lovable as its strength.
The virtues are in the soul to regulate its movements. Charity, being the first of all the virtues, rules and moderates all of them. “The first in each species of things serves as a rule and measure for all the rest"[Aristotle]. Besides, God in creating man in his image and likeness wills that, just as in Himself so too in the human person, everything must be regulated by love and for love.