THE PRACTICE OF WHAT HAS BEEN SAID IN THE PRECEDING CHAPTER
Theotimus, let us purify then as much as we can all our intentions. Since we are able to spread over all the acts of the virtues the sacred motive of divine love, why shall we not do so? As the situation requires we will reject all kinds of vicious motives, such as vainglory and self-interest. We will consider all the good motives that we may have for undertaking the action which presents itself, in order to choose that of holy love, the most excellent of all, to pour it overall the others and soak them in it. For example, if I desire to expose myself courageously to the dangers of war, I can do it considering various motives. The natural motive for this action is that of strength and bravery, to which it pertains to undertake dangerous exploits according to reason. Besides this I can have various other motives, such as that of obeying the ruler I serve, that of love for the people, that of magnanimity which makes me glad at the greatness of this action. Coming now to the action, I enter the foreseen peril for all these motives together. To raise them all to the level of divine love, and to purify them perfectly, I will say in my soul with all my heart: “O eternal God, you are the most dear love of my affections. If courage, obedience to my ruler, love of country and magnanimity were not pleasing to you, I would never follow their movements which I now feel. Since these virtues please you, I welcome this opportunity of practising them. I wish to follow their tendency and prompting only because you love them and you want it."
It should be clear to you, my dear Theotimus, that by this reflection of the spirit we perfume all the other motives with the fragrance and holy sweetness of love. We follow them not in their quality of motives simply virtuous, but in their quality of motives willed, accepted, loved and cherished by God. According to Aristotle, a person who steals in order to get drunk is more a drunkard than a thief. Therefore the one who practises courage, obedience, love of country and magnanimity to please God, is more a divine lover than courageous, obedient, patriotic and magnanimous. In fact, in this action, his whole will terminates and is absorbed in the love of God. He uses all the other motives only to arrive at this end. We do not say that we are going to Lyons but to Paris, when we go to Lyons only in order to get to Paris. Nor do we say that we are going to sing but that we are going to serve God, when we go sing only to serve God.
If sometimes we are touched by some particular motive, as for example we come to love chastity on account of its lovely and such delightful purity, at once we must pour out over this motive that of Divine love, in this manner: “O most honourable and pleasing innocence of chastity, how worthy of love you are since you are loved so much by the Divine Goodness." Then, turning towards the Creator: “Ah! Lord, I ask only one thing of you. It is what I seek in chastity: to see and practise in it your good pleasure and to take the delight you take in it." When we begin the practice of virtues we should often say with all our heart: “ Yes, eternal Father, I will do it, for so has it seemed good in your sight from all eternity (Mt 11:26).
In this way we are to enliven all our actions with his heavenly good pleasure, loving the nobility and beauty of virtue principally because it is pleasing to God. There are some, my dear Theotimus, who love excessively the beauty of certain virtues, not only without loving charity but even with contempt of charity. Origen, surely, and Tertullian loved the purity of chastity so much that for it they broke the greatest laws of charity. One of them [Origen] chose to commit idolatry rather than suffer the terrible wicked act by which the persecutors wanted to defile his body. The other [Tertullian] separated himself from the most chaste Catholic Church, his Mother, to establish the chastity of his wife according to his own fancy. Who does not know that there were certain “poor men of Lyons" who praising begging excessively became heretics and changed from beggars to lying rascals? Who does not know of the folly of the Enthusiasts, Messalians, Euchites who put aside charity to exalt prayer? Who does not know that there were heretics who to exalt charity towards the poor put down charity towards God ascribing, as St. Augustine testifies, the whole salvation of humankind to almsgiving. And this though the holy Apostle cries out that whoever gives all his possessions to the poor, and does not have charity, it profits him nothing (1 Cor 13:3).
The holy Sulamitess says, God has set over me the standard of his charity (Song 2:4). Love, Theotimus, is the standard in the army of virtues. They must all gather around it. It is the only flag under which our Lord, who is the true general of the army, makes them fight. Let us therefore bring all the virtues to the obedience of charity. Let us love particular virtues but principally because they are pleasing to God. Let us love excellently the more excellent virtues, not because they are excellent but because God loves them more excellently. Thus will holy love give life to all the virtues, making all of them full of love, lovable and lovable above all things.