THE LONGING WHICH GOES BEFORE WILL GREATLY INCREASE THE COMMUNION OF THE SAINTS WITH GOD
The longing that goes before enjoyment sharpens and refines our feeling of it. If the longing has been more earnest and stronger, the possession of the things longed for is more pleasant and delightful. O Jesus! My dear Theotimus, what a joy for the human heart to see the face of God, a face so much desired, a face that is the only desire of our souls. Our hearts are thirsty, and cannot be quenched by the pleasures of this mortal life. The most sought after among such pleasures, if they are moderate, do not quench our thirst. If they are extreme, they choke us. However, we always desire them to be extreme. They are never such without being excessive, intolerable, and harmful.
One dies ofjoy as well as of sorrow. But joy is more powerful to harm us than sadness. In fact Alexander [the Great] conquered the whole [known]world. He heard a miserable fellow saying that there are still many other worlds [besides this one]. Like a little child crying for an apple he has been refused, this Alexander whom the world calls the Great, is more foolish than a little child. He begins to weep and shed bitter tears because he cannot conquer the other worlds. This is because he still did not have complete possession of himself. He who possessed the world more fully than anybody else is little satisfied. He weeps for sorrow that he cannot have other worlds as his possession. It is the foolish argument of a miserable person who makes him imagine this. Tell me I pray, Theotimus, does not this show that the thirst of his heart could not be satisfied in this life and that this world is not enough to quench his thirst?
O admirable but loving concern of the human heart! O my soul, be for ever without rest or peace whatever, on this earth, till you had seen the fresh water of immortal life and the all holy God. Only they can quench your thirst and satisfy your desire.
In the meantime, Theotimus, you imagine with the Psalmist that a deer harassed by hounds has neither breath nor legs. As it plunges itself into the water that it has sought, with what ardour it presses itself and dives into the water. It seems that it would like to dissolve and turn into water so as to enjoy more fully this coolness. Oh what a union of our heart to the God of heaven above! These infinite desires of the true good will never be satisfied in this world. We shall find in heaven the living and mighty source.
Then, surely you have seen a little child who is hungry, clinging tightly to its mother’s side and attached to her breast. It presses so eagerly to this sweet fountain of desired and pleasant drink. It seems that it wants to thrust itself fully into the maternal breast or else draw and suck the whole breast into its own. So also our soul pants with an extreme thirst for true good when it encounters its inexhaustible source in the Divinity. O true God, what a holy and sweet fervour to be united and joined to those fruitful breasts of all goodness. This in order that our soul may be buried in it or that it may come entirely into us.