Half-Hours With The Saints and Servants of God/Part 1: 1. On the Love of God
HALF-HOURS
WITH THE
SAINTS AND SERVANTS OF GOD.
1. - On the Love of God.
"This only take care of with all diligence, that you love the Lord your God."
[St. Francis de Sales was born at the Castle of Sales, in the diocese of Geneva, August 21, 1567.
Leigh Hunt, the most charming of our modern essayists, has left us an interesting article in his "London Journal " (February 4, 1835) on this grand saint and doctor. He says that, " like Fenelon, he was a sort of angel of a gentleman; a species of phoenix which, we really must say, the French Church seems to have produced beyond any other."
After the death of Bishop Granier, Francis was appointed Bishop of Geneva. This was on the 8th of December 1602.
He continued to discharge all the duties of a saintly prelate till the year 1622, when he died of an apoplexy, at Lyons, December 28, aged fifty-six, leaving several religious works, collected in two volumes folio. He was canonised in 1665.
For his Life, &c, see Marsollier, Moreri, Disct. Hist., Butler, &c. &c]
Love is strong as death (Cant viii. 6): since both equally separate the soul from the body and all terrestrial things, the only difference is, that the separation is real and effectual when caused by death, whereas that occasioned by love is usually confined to the heart.
I say usually, because divine love is sometimes so violent that it actually separates the soul from the body, and, by causing the death of those who love, it renders them infinitely happier than if it bestowed on them a thousand lives.
As the lot of the reprobate is to die in sin, that of the elect is to expire in the love and grace of God, which is effected in several ways.
Many of the Saints died, not only in the state of charity, but in the actual exercise of divine love. St Augustine expired in making an act of contrition, which cannot exist without love; St. Jerome, in exhorting his disciples to charity and the practice of all virtues; St. Ambrose, in conversing sweetly with his Saviour, whom he had received in the Holy Eucharist; St. Antony of Padua also expired in the act of discoursing with our Divine Lord, after having recited a hymn in honour of the ever-glorious Virgin; St. Thomas of Aquinas, with his hands clasped, his eyes raised to heaven, and pronouncing these words of the Canticles, which were the last he had expounded: " Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field." (Cant vii. n).
All the apostles, and the greater number of the martyrs, died in prayer. Venerable Bede, having learned the hour of his death by revelation, went to the choir at the usual hour to sing the evening office, it being the feast of the Ascension, and at the very moment he had finished singing vespers, he expired, following his Guide and Master into heaven, to celebrate His praises in that abode of rest and happiness, round which the shades of night can never gather, because it is illumined by the brightness of the eternal day, which neither dawns nor ends.
John Gerson, Chancellor of the University of Paris, remarkable for his learning and virtue — of whom Sixtus of Sienna said, "that it is difficult to decide whether the vein of piety, which runs through his works surpasses his science, or whether his learning exceeds his piety" — after having explained the fifty properties of divine love mentioned in the Canticles, expired at the close of three days, smiling, and pronouncing these words of the same sacred text: "Thy love, O God, is strong as death" (Cant. viii. 6).
The fervour and ardour of St. Martin at the hour of his death are remarkable. St. Louis, who has proved himself as great a monarch among the Saints as an eminent saint among kings, being attacked by the plague, ceased not to pray, and after receiving the viaticum, he extended his arms in the form of a cross, fixed his eyes on heaven, and, animated with love and confidence, expired in saying with the Psalmist: "I will come into Thy house, O Lord; I will worship towards Thy holy temple, in Thy fear" (Ps.v. 8).
St. Peter Celestine, after having endured the most cruel and incredible afflictions, seeing the end of his days approach, began to sing like the swan, and terminated his song with his life, by these words of the last Psalm: "Let every spirit praise the Lord" (Ps. cl. 5).
St. Eusebia, surnamed the Stranger, died kneeling in fervent prayer. St. Peter the Martyr yielded his last sigh in writing (with his finger, which he had dipped in his blood) the articles of the faith for which he sacrificed his life, and in saying: "Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit " (Ps. xxx. 6).
The great apostle of the Indies and Japan, St. Francis Xavier, expired holding a crucifix, which he tenderly embraced, and incessantly repeated in transports of love: "O Jesus! the God of my heart!"
an early age he showed a predilection for the religious state. He united the functions of missionary with that of preacher during the space of twenty-seven years, with a zeal truly apostolic. This indefatigable religious and saintly director, worn out with hard work and austerities, yielded up his soul to God in the year 1694, aged seventy.]
The saintly Father Segneri tells ,us that the sure way of gaining heaven, without much cost, is by making frequent acts of the love of God, and by accustoming ourselves to do everything with the intention of pleasing Him.
We shall no longer be tempted to complain that we cannot undertake such great things as we so much admire in others.
God is content if we do all we can to love Him in our sphere of life, and He asks for nothing more. You sometimes regret that you cannot practise great austerities, which no doubt are due to Him for our past sins.
Supply for these in another way, replace those fastings and watchings by fervent acts of love; He requires nothing more.
You are engaged here below in temporal affairs; domestic cares, perchance, occupy your time. Well, do all these with the intention of pleasing Him, and God will be as content as if you had undertaken the worthy functions of an apostolate.
By what way, do you think, did the Saints attain to the perfection of holiness? It was less by their heroic actions than by the great love they showed in performing their lesser duties. Our Saviour does not praise Mary Magdalen for having done much, but for having loved much. Magdalen had not then practised austerities, but the love of Jesus had filled her heart with torrents of tears.
P. Segneri.
Meditations.