St. Alphonsus Liguori: Daily Meditations for the Week after the Ascension

[Stone]

Wednesday Within the Octave of Ascension

Morning Meditation

DIVINE LOVE STRENGTHENS US.

“Fortis est ut mars delectio.”

Love is strong as death-{Cant. viii. 6). As there is no created power that can resist death, so with the soul that loves God there is no difficulty that love cannot overcome. O my Jesus, send Thy Holy Spirit that He may come and strengthen me to do and suffer something for Thy love before death overtakes me.


I.

Fortis est ut mars delectio. Love is strong as death.

As there is no created power than can resist death, so to the soul that loves God, there is no difficulty which yields not to love. When the soul that loves would please its Beloved, love overcomes all losses, contempt, and sorrows: “Nothing is so hard but that it may be conquered by the fire of love.” This is the most certain mark by which to know whether a soul really loves God, its being as faithful to Him when things are adverse as when they are prosperous. St. Francis of Sales says: “God is just as amiable when He chastises us as when He consoles us, because He does both from love.”

O God of my soul, I say that I love Thee, and yet what do I do for Thy love? Nothing. It is a sign, therefore, that I either do not love Thee, or love Thee too little. Send, therefore, O Jesus, the Holy Ghost upon me, and come and strengthen me to do and to suffer something for Thy love before death overtake me. Suffer me not, O Lord, to depart out of this life cold and ungrateful, as I have hitherto been. Give me strength to love sufferings, on account of the many sins by which I have deserved hell. O my God, Who art all goodness and all love, Thou desirest to dwell in my soul, from which I have so often expelled Thee; come and take possession of it; dwell within it and make it all Thine own.


II.

When God afflicts us the most in this life, He loves us the most. St. John Chrysostom considered St. Paul bound in chains more happy than St. Paul rapt to the third heavens. Hence the holy Martyrs, in the midst of their torments, rejoiced, and give thanks to God for the great favour He conferred upon them in allowing them to suffer for His love. And the other Saints, when tyrants were wanting to afflict them, became their own tormentors by the penances which they imposed upon themselves, in order to please God. St. Augustine says: “He who loves, either does not feel the labour, or the labour itself is loved.”

I love Thee, O my Lord; and if I love Thee, Thou art with me, as St. John assures me: He that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him-(I John iv. 16). Since, therefore, Thou art with me, increase the flames, the chains of Thy love, that I may neither desire, nor seek, nor love any other but Thee, and thus bound by Thy love, may never separate myself from Thee any more. I desire, O Jesus, to be Thine, to be all Thine. O Mary, my Queen and advocate, obtain for me love and holy perseverance.

Spiritual Reading

GOING TO HOLY COMMUNION

Of all the Sacraments the adorable Sacrament of the altar is the most excellent. The other Sacraments contain the gifts of God, but the Holy Eucharist contains God Himself. Hence St. Thomas says that the other Sacraments have been instituted by Jesus Christ to prepare men either to receive or to administer the Blessed Eucharist, which, according to the holy Doctor, is the consummation of the spiritual life; because from this Sacrament is derived all the perfection of the soul. For all perfection consists in a union with God; and of all the means of uniting the soul to Him there is none better than Holy Communion by which, as Jesus Christ Himself has said, the soul becomes as it were one thing with Him, He that eateth my flesh . .. abideth in me and I in him -(Jo. vi. 57). Hence St. John Chrysostom says that Jesus has given His Body to us under the species of bread that we may become one thing with Him. And St.Cyril of Alexander teaches that as two pieces of wax melted together become one, so we, by Holy Communion, are similarly united with Jesus Christ.

Our Saviour instituted this Sacrament under the form of food to show that, as corporal food is changed into our flesh, so this heavenly Bread becomes one thing with us; but with this difference, that earthly food is converted into our substance, while this divine Bread transforms those who eat into Jesus Christ. This is the reason why Rupert makes our Lord say: “Eat, and you shall be by grace what I am by nature.” And this is what our Lord deigned to say one day to St. Augustine: “I will not be changed into you, but you shall be changed into me.” The principal effect of this Sacrament is to preserve in the soul the life of grace. Hence, it is called bread; for as earthly bread supports corporal life, so this heavenly Bread preserves the life of the soul which consists in the grace of God.

The Eucharist is, according to the Council of Trent, the divine medicine that purifies the soul from venial faults, and preserves it from mortal sins. Like a stream of water, this Sacrament extinguishes the ardour of the passions by which we are consumed. Let him in whose soul the flame of some particular passion is kindled approach Holy Communion, and he will find the passion altogether, or at least in a great measure, destroyed. “If any of you,” says St. Bernard, “does not experience so frequent or so violent motions of anger, of envy, or of lust, let him give thanks to the Body of the Lord that produces fruit in his soul.” The angelic Doctor teaches that the Communion gives us strength to overcome all the attacks of the devil. “It repels every assault of the demons.” St. John Chrysostom asserts that when we receive the Holy Eucharist, the devils are put to flight, and the Angels fly to our assistance. Moreover, this Sacrament infuses into the soul great interior peace, a strong inclination to virtue, and a great willingness to practise it, and thus renders it easy to walk in the path of perfection.

Holy Communion, as St. Thomas teaches, infuses divine charity into the heart. Jesus Christ protested that He came into the world for no other purpose than to kindle in our souls the holy fire of divine love. I come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?-(Luke xii. 49). The Venerable Father Olimpio, of the Order of Theatines, used to say, that there is no Mystery of Redemption more apt to inflame us with the love of Jesus Christ. than the Sacrament of the altar in which He gives Himself entirely to us, and pours forth all His love. Hence, speaking of the institution of this Sacrament, St. John says: Jesus knowing that his hour was come that he should pass out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, loved them unto the end-(John xiii. i). He loved them to the end, that is, according to the commentators, he loved them to the utmost of His power. Hence the Council of Trent said that in this Sacrament Jesus “poured forth, as it were, all the riches of His divine love towards man.” Holy Communion has been called by St. Thomas “the Sacrament of love”; and by St. Bernard “the love of loves.” St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi used to call the day of Communion “the day of love”; and would say that a soul after Communion might exclaim with Jesus dying on the Cross: It is consummated! For after having given Himself to me, God has nothing more to give me; nor can I desire anything else from Him.

Evening Meditation

THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST

VI.-THE MEANS OF AVOIDING LUKEWARMNESS AND ATTAINING PERFECTION

I.

We must begin quickly, and not wait for the morrow. Who knows whether we shall afterwards find time or not! Ecclesiastes counsels us: Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly-(Eccles. ix. 10). What thou canst do, do it quickly, and defer it not; and he adduces the reason, why: For neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge shall be in hell, whither thou art hastening. Because in the next life there is no more time to work, nor free-will to merit, nor prudence to do well, nor wisdom or experience to take good counsel by, for after death what is done is done. A nun of the convent of Torre de Specchi in Rome, whose name was Sister Bonaventura, led a very lukewarm kind of life. There came a Religious, Father Lancisius, to give the spiritual exercises to the nuns, and Sister Bonaventura, feeling no inclination to shake off her tepidity, began to listen to the exercises with no good will. But at the very first sermon, she was won by Divine grace, so that she immediately went to the feet of the Father who preached, and said to him, with at tone of real determination, “Father, I wish to become a saint, and quickly a saint.” And, by the assistance of God, she did so; for she only lived eight months after that event, and during that short time she lived and died a Saint.


II.

David said: And I said, now have I begun-(Ps.lxxvi. ll). So likewise did St. Charles Borromeo speak: “Today I begin to serve God.” And we should act in the same way as if we had hitherto done no good whatever; for indeed, all that we do for God is nothing, since we are bound to do it. Let us therefore each day resolve to begin afresh to belong wholly to God. Neither let us stop to observe what or how others act. They who become truly saints are few. St. Bernard says: “One cannot be perfect without being singular” If we would imitate the common run of men, we should always remain imperfect, as for the most part they are. We must overcome all, renounce all, in, order to gain all. St. Teresa said: “Because we do not come to the conclusion of giving all our affection to God, so neither does He give all His love to us.” Oh God, how little is all that is given to Jesus Christ, Who has given His Blood and His life for us! ” However much we give,” says the same Saint, “is but mire, in comparison of one single drop of Blood shed for us by our Blessed Lord.” The Saints know not how to spare themselves, when there is a question of pleasing a God Who gave Himself wholly, without reserve, on purpose to oblige us to deny Him nothing. St. Chrysostom wrote: “He gave all to thee, and kept nothing for Himself.” God has bestowed His entire Self upon thee; there is, then, no excuse for thee to behave reservedly with God. He has even died for us all, says the Apostle, in order that each one of us may live only for Him Who died for us: Christ died for all; that they also who live may not now live to themselves, but unto him who died for them-(2 Cor. v. 15).