HOW MUCH GOD DESIRES THAT WE LOVE HIM
The redemption acquired by our Saviour is applied to us in as many different ways as there are souls. All the same, love is the universal means of our salvation. It mingles itself everywhere, and without it nothing is salvific as we shall see elsewhere.[1] The cherubim were placed at the entrance to the earthly paradise with a flaming sword (Gn 3:24). It is to teach us that no one can enter the heavenly paradise unless he is pierced with the sword of love. Most assuredly, Theotimus, the gentle Jesus who saved us by his own blood intensely longs for our love so that we are saved for ever. He desires that we be saved so that we shall love him eternally. His love leads to our salvation and our salvation tends to his love. Well, he says, I came to bring a fire to the world, how I wish it were already kindled (Lk 12:49). To proclaim more passionately his ardent desire, he commands us to love him in the following wonderful terms: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment (Mt 22:37-38).
My God, Theotimus, how the divine heart is enamoured of our love! Was it not sufficient that he made public a permission by which he allowed us to love him just as Laban permitted Jacob to love his beautiful [daughter] Rachel and gain her by his service? But, no, he expresses with greater earnestness his passionate love for us. He commands us to love him with all our strength. Thus, neither the thought of his Majesty and our misery which creates such absolute difference and inequality between him and us nor any other reason whatever should prevent us from loving him. By this, he shows us, Theotimus, that it is not for nothing that he has left in us a natural inclination to love him. So that this inclination may not remain idle, he urges us to make use of it by this common commandment. For he does not leave any living person without an abundance of all the means necessary for practising this commandment.
The shining sun touches everything with his life-giving warmth. As if he is a universal lover of lower things, he gives them the required strength to produce their effects. In the same way, divine goodness vivifies all human persons and encourages all hearts to love him without anyone being hidden from its warmth (Ps 19:6)[2] Eternal Wisdom [the word of God] says Solomon, cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice. At the busiest corner she cries out; at the entrance ofthe city gates she speaks: How long O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? Give heed to my reproof; I will pour out my thoughts to you; I will make my words known to you (Prov 1:20-23) This same Wisdom continues in Ezekiel, saying: Let no one say: I am in the midst ofsins, and how can I live again? Oh no! Here is what God says: I am living and as truly I live, I do not want the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from their ways and live (Ezek 33:10-11). Now to live according to God is to love: Whoever does not love abides in death (1 Jn 3:14).
See, then, Theotimus, how much God wants us to love him. He is not satisfied with publicly announcing his intense desire to be loved, so that each one can share in his loving invitation. He even goes from door to door knocking and knocking. He assures that ifanyone opens, he will come to him and eat with him (Rev 3: 20), that is, he will show him all sorts of kindness.
What does all this mean, Theotimus, except that God gives not just enough means to love him and to save ourselves by loving him. It is a rich, large, abundant sufficiency [of means] such as is to be expected from so great a goodness as his. The great apostle tells obstinate sinners: Or do you despise the riches ofhis kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath...(Rom 2:4-5). So, my dear Theotimus, God does not offer just enough means to convert the obstinate but makes use of the riches of his goodness for it. The apostle, as you see, contrasts the riches of the goodness of God to the storing up of malice by the impenitent heart. He says that a malicious heart is so rich in iniquity that it even despises the richness of the divine loving kindness by which God draws him to repentance. Take note, that it is not only the riches of the goodness of God that the obstinate despise but also the riches attracting to repentance. We cannot simply ignore these riches.
Indeed, this rich, plentiful, copious sufficiency of means which God has showered on sinners to love him is seen almost everywhere in Scripture. See this divine lover at the door. He does not knock simply, he continues knocking. He appeals to the soul: Arise my love, my fair one and come away (Song 2:10) and thrust his hand into the opening (Song 5:4) to see if he could open. If he preaches in the streets, he does not speak simply but goes crying out (Prov 1:20-23). This means he continues to cry out. If he calls out that we repent, it seems that he has never repeated it sufficiently: Repent and turn from all your transgressions; otherwise iniquity will be your ruin... Turn, then, and live (Ez 18: 30-32). Turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel (Ez 33:11). Briefly, this divine Saviour forgets nothing to show that his compassion is over all that he has made (Ps 145:9); his mercy triumphs over judgment (Jas 2:13) and his redemption is abundant (Ps 130:7); his love is infinite. As the Apostle says: He is rich in mercy (Eph 2:4). Hence he desires that everyone be saved (1Tim 2:4) and no one be lost.
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[1] Bk 10. Ch.1; Bk 11.
[2] In NRSV, the text is not 18:7 but 19:6 and reads nothing is hid from its heat.