GRATIFYING LOVE GIVES OUR HEARTS TO GOD AND MAKES US EXPERIENCE A LASTING DESIRE FOR ITS ENJOYMENT
The love we have for God takes its origin from the first satisfaction which our heart experiences. As soon as it becomes aware of divine goodness, it begins to tend towards it. We increase and strengthen this first satisfaction by means of the practice of love, as we have explained it in the previous chapters.[1] Then we draw into our hearts the divine perfections. We rejoice in divine goodness by the delight we take in practising this first aspect of loving contentment. The sacred spouse expresses it by saying: My Beloved is mine (Song 2:16). This gratifying love is in us who have it. But it does not cease to be in God in whom we take it. So it is a mutual self-gift between divine goodness and us. Thus, by this gratifying love we delight in the goods that are in God as if they were ours. Since divine perfections are much stronger than our spirit, they enter into it [our spirit] and possess it mutually. Hence we say that not only God is ours by this gratifying love but also we are his (Song 2:16).
The herb aproxis, as we have said elsewhere,[2] has a very great attraction to fire. Although it is at a distance from it, at its sight, it attracts the fire to itself. It begins to burn. It is kindled not so much by the heat as by the light of the fire present to it. When it is united with the fire by this attraction, then if it could speak, could it not say: My beloved fire is mine. I have attracted it to myself. I rejoice in its flames. But I am also his, since I drew it to myself. It transforms me into itself as it is the stronger and the nobler. He is my fire and I am his herb. I attract it. It burns me. Similarly, we place our heart in the presence of divine goodness. We draw its perfections [into us] by the delight gratifying love takes in them. Then we can truly say: Divine goodness is eternally mine since I rejoice in its perfections. I am all his as his joys take hold of me.
By gratifying love, our soul, like Gideon’s fleece (Judg 6: 37-38), is wholly filled with the heavenly dew. This dew belongs to the fleece because it fell upon it. The fleece belongs to the dew because it is soaked with it and receives its value from it. Which belongs more to one or the other, the pearl to the oyster or the oyster to the pearl? The pearl belongs to the oyster which attracted it to itself. But the oyster belongs to the pearl which makes it valuable and precious. Gratifying love makes us possess God, drawing into us his perfections. It makes us possessed by God, binding us to and focusing us on the perfections.
By this gratifying love, we satisfy our spirit. It is in such a way that we do not cease to desire to gratify ourselves still more. Tasting divine goodness, we wish to relish it all the more. In satiating ourselves, we like always to eat just as in eating we feel satisfied. The Prince of the Apostles [St. Peter] had written in his first letter that the ancient prophets had revealed graces which were to be abundant among Christians. Among other things were the passion of our Lord and the glory which was to follow it by the resurrection of the body as well as the exaltation of his name. Finally, he concluded that the angels themselves desire to contemplate the mysteries of the redemption of this divine Saviour. He says: the angels desire to contemplate him (1Pet 1:10-12). How are we to understand that the angels see the Redeemer and in him all the mysteries of our salvation, and still desire to see him? Indeed, Theotimus, they see him always. It is with such a pleasant and charming sight that the gratifying love they have in them [mysteries] delights them without taking away the desire. It makes them desire without taking away their delight. The enjoyment is not lessened by the desire. But it is perfected, just as their desire is not suppressed. Instead, it is intensified by the enjoyment.
The enjoyment of a good which always satisfies is never flawed. It renews itself and blossoms unceasingly. It is always affectionate, always desirable. The continuous delight of those who love heavenly realities[3] causes a desire of enduring satisfaction. Likewise unceasing desire for them creates in them a satisfaction that is always desired. A finite good brings desire to an end once it begins to give enjoyment. Once enjoyment ceases, desire returns. It [a finite good] cannot be possessed and desired at the same time. But the infinite good makes us feel desire in possession and possession in desire. It has the means of gratifying the desire by its presence. It can always make the desire alive by the immensity of its excellence. It nourishes desire in all those who possess it with a desire always content and a satisfaction that is always desirous.
Theotimus, think of those who keep the herb sciticum[4] in their mouths. It satisfies them to such an extent that they never feel hunger or thirst. All the same, it nourishes them so deliciously that they never lose appetite. When our will has encountered God, it reposes in him. It takes supreme delight in him. Nevertheless, it does not cease to make the movement of its desire. Just as it desires to love, so too it loves to desire. The repose of the heart does not consist in remaining immovable but in having no need of anything. It does not consist in having no movement at all but in having no need of moving at all.
The lost spirits[5] have an eternal movement without any mingling of peace. We humans who are on our pilgrimage have sometimes rest and sometimes movement in our affections. The blessed spirits always have peace in their movements and movement in their rest. Only God has rest without movement because he is supremely pure substantial act. In the ordinary condition of this mortal life, we do not have rest in our movements. However, when we follow the practices of eternal life, in other words, when we make acts of holy love, we find some rest in the movement of our affections. We also find some movement in the repose of gratifying love which we have in our Beloved. In this way we receive some foretaste of future happiness to which we aspire.
If it is true that the chameleon lives on air, whenever it goes in the air, it has what it needs to nourish itself.[6] If it moves from place to place, it is not to look for something to eat but for taking exercise within the air which is its food as fishes in the sea. Those who desire God in possessing him do not desire him to search for him. But they desire to exercise this affection within the good itself which they are enjoying. For the heart does not make this movement of desire as if seeking the enjoyment in order to have it, since it has this enjoyment already. Instead, it is as if it is expanding itself in the enjoyment which it has. This is not for obtaining the good but for refreshing itself and keeping it up. This is not for enjoying it but for rejoicing in it. Thus, we walk and move to go to a beautiful garden. On reaching it, we do not cease to walk and move about. This is not for coming there but to stroll and pass the time in it. We have walked to go to enjoy the beauty of the garden. We stroll to delight in the enjoyment of it.
Seek the eternal with great courage, without ceasing to seek always his face again (Ps 105:4).[7]
We always seek him whom we always love, says the great St. Augustine. Love seeks what it has found not to have it but to have it always.
Theotimus, the human spirit which practises gratifying love continuously cries out in its sacred silence: It is enough for me that God is God ; His goodness is infinite; his perfection is immense. Whether I live or die, it matters little for me. For my dearly Beloved lives eternally a life fully triumphant. Even death cannot sadden the heart of the one who knows that his supreme love is living. It is enough, for the soul that loves him whom it loves more than itself is filled with eternal goods. This is because it lives more in the God it loves than in the body it vivifies. Thus it does not live for itself but its Beloved lives in it (Gal 2:20).
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[1] See, Bk I Chs 4, 5 etc
[2] Introduction to the Devout Life, Pt III. Ch. 18 The plant aproxis secrets an oil that vaporizes at night; this vapour will burn in the presence of a naked light, without harming the plant. Kerns, TLG, p.187
[3] Des celestes amoureux literally: of the heavenly lovers
[4] Pliny in his book History Of Nature tells about the plant sciticum. It is a creeper which contains a very pleasant oil. See also IDL, Pt. IV, Ch. 13.
[5] St. Francis de Sales seems to refer here to the lost angels.
[6] Chameleons feed on insects. Sometimes, they open their mouths and breathe, which gives the appearance of feeding on air.
[7] The NRSV has: Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually (Ps 105:4).