WE LOSE HOLY LOVE IN AN INSTANT
The love of God, which takes us as far as contempt of self, makes us citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem. The love of self, which moves us as far as contempt of God, makes us slaves of the Babylon of hell. It is true that only little by little we come to this contempt of God, but no sooner this happens than immediately, in a moment, holy charity leaves us, or to put it better, it is completely destroyed. Yes, Theotimus, it is in this contempt of God that mortal sin consists. A single mortal sin drives out charity from the soul since it breaks the link uniting it with God, which is obedience and submission to his will. If the human heart is cut in two, it cannot remain alive. So also charity, which is the heart of the soul and the soul of the heart, can never be wounded without being killed. Similarly, it is said that pearls formed by heavenly dew are destroyed, should a single drop of salt water enter their shells.[1] Our soul, in truth, does not leave the body little by little, but in a moment, once the weakness of the body is so great that it can no longer exercise its vital functions. In the same way, at the moment the heart is so disturbed by its passions that charity can no longer be queen there, it is left and abandoned by charity. Charity is so noble that if it ceases to be queen, it ceases to exist.
The habits which we acquire by our human actions alone are not destroyed by a single contrary act. No one will call a man intemperate for one single act of intemperance; nor will a painter be called unskillful for having failed once in his art. We acquire all such habits by the influence of many repeated acts. So also we lose them by not using their acts for a long time or by numerous contrary acts. But charity, Theotimus, the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts (Rom 5:5) in a moment, as soon as the conditions required for this outpouring are found in us. It is also for sure taken from us in an instant, as soon as we turn away our will from the obedience we owe to God. Thus we complete our consent to the rebellion and disloyalty to which temptation urges us.
Charity grows, it is true, increasing from degree to degree and from perfection to perfection. This happens in the measure in which we make place for it by our good works or by our participation in the Sacraments. But it does not decrease by a lessening of its perfection. If we lose the least part of it, we lose all of it. In this it resembles the masterpiece of Phidias, so famous among the Ancients. It is said that this great sculptor made at Athens an ivory statue of Minerva, twenty-six cubits [fourty feet] high. On her shield, he had represented the battles of the Amazons and the giants. He had also carved there his own face with such skill that even a small part of it could not be removed, Aristotle tells us, “without the whole statue crumbling to pieces." This work, brought to perfection by joining together piece to piece, would be destroyed in an instant if one small part of the artist’s face was removed. In the same way, Theotimus, the Holy Spirit, having placed charity in a soul, makes it grow by adding one degree to another and one perfection of love to another. Yet, the determination to prefer the will of God to all things is the essential point of sacred love, and that in which the image of eternal love, that is, of the Holy Spirit is represented. And so one cannot take out a single piece without the whole of charity being immediately destroyed.
This preferences for God to all things is the dear child of charity. Agar, who was only an Egyptian, seeing her son in danger of death, did not have the courage to stay with him but left him saying, I cannot see this child die (Gen 21:16). Is it extraordinary then that charity, daughter of heavenly sweetness and delight, cannot bear to see the death of her child, which is the determination never to offend God? While our free-will is deciding to consent to sin and by the same means to put to death this holy determination, charity dies with it, saying in its last sigh, No. Never will I see this child die. To conclude, Theotimus, the precious stone called prassius loses its luster in the presence of any poison. So also the soul loses in an instant its splendour, its grace and its beauty, which consist in holy love, at the entrance and presence of any mortal sin. Hence it is written that the soul that sins shall die (Ezek 18:4).
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[1] See Book III, Chapter 3