OUR DESIRE TO EXTOL AND GLORIFY GOD SEPARATES US FROM LOWER PLEASURES AND MAKES US ATTENTIVE TO DIVINE PERFECTIONS
Benevolent love, hence, makes us desire to increase in us more and more the delight we have in divine goodness. To realize this increase, the human spirit carefully deprives itself of all other pleasures. This is for the sake of practising more vigorously delight in God. A religious put this question to the devout Brother Giles, one of the first and most holy companions of St. Francis [of Assisi]: “What should I do to be more pleasing to God?" He replied to him, singing: “One to one, one to one." Soon after, he explained it: “Give to God, who is one, your whole soul, which is one." The soul flows out by the joys. The variety of pleasures distracts it and prevents it from applying attentively to the joy it should take in God. The true lover has no pleasure except in the thing loved. Thus all things appeared to be filth and mud to the glorious St. Paul in comparison with his Saviour (Ph 3:8). The sacred spouse is wholly for her Beloved. My dear Friend belongs wholly to me and I belong entirely to him (Song 2:16).
A soul in this love meets with creatures. They may be very excellent. They may be angels. Even so, it does not remain with them. If it does so, it is only in so far as it will be helped and assisted [to grow] in this desire. Tell me, then, she says to them, I implore you, have you not seen he who is the friend of my soul (Song 3:3). The glorious lover Magdalene met angels at the tomb (Jn 20:11-16). Surely, they spoke to her in an angelic manner, that is to say, very gently to calm the anxiety which she felt. On the contrary, utterly distressed as she was, she could not take any delight. She could not find any comfort either in their gentle words or in the splendour of their robes, or in the heavenly gracefulness of their bearing or in the ever so lovable beauty of their faces. Fully covered with tears, she says: They have taken away my Lord, I do not know where they have laid him. Turning back, she saw her Saviour. He looked like a gardener. Her heart was unable to find any contentment in him. Full of love for the death of her Master, she does not wish to have any flowers; as a consequence, [she does not desire] the gardener. She has within her heart the cross, the nails, the thorns. She searches for her Crucified: Ah, my dear master gardener, she says, perhaps, have you planted my beloved who is dead among your flower plants? He is like a lily crushed and withered amidst your flowers. Tell me soon, and I will carry him away. As soon as he called her by name, she melted away in joy. Ah, God, she says, my Master. Indeed, nothing can satiate her. She finds no joy in the angels, not even in her Saviour. She is happy only if he appears in the form in which he had delighted her heart.
The kings [the Magi] cannot take delight in the beauty of the city of Jerusalem nor in the splendour of Herod’s court nor in the brightness of the star. Their heart seeks the little cave and the little infant of Bethlehem. The Mother of beautiful love (Sir 24:18)[1] and her spouse[2] [St. Joseph] cannot linger among relatives and friends. They always go in sorrow seeking the unique object of their delight (Lk 2:44-48). The desire to increase delight cuts off all other pleasures. This is to practise all the more earnestly that to which divine benevolence urges us.
To glorify all the more this supreme Beloved, the human spirit goes on always searching his face, (Ps 27: 8; 105:4). I mean, with an attention always more diligent and fervent. It goes on taking note of all the special characteristics of the beauty and perfections which are in him. The soul makes constant progress in this pleasant search for motives. These motives could always urge it to rejoice more and more in the unfathomable goodness [of God] which it loves. Thus David enumerates in detail the works and wonders of God in many of his celestial Psalms. The bride in the Song of Songs (Song 5: 10-16) puts in order like an army in array (Song 6:10) all the perfections of her Spouse, one after the other. It is to stir her spirit to delight in order to glorify more highly his excellence. It is for still subjecting all other spirits to the love of her most lovable Friend.
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[1] NRSV numbering
[2] Literally, the spouse of most holy love