Discover how to advance in God’s love with Saint Alphonsus Liguori as your guide. The following excerpt was taken from The School of Christian Perfection.
We shall now consider the means of advancing in the love of God. St. Teresa says that it is an extraordinary grace for a soul to be called to the perfect love of God. To these happy souls, you, dear reader, belong. In order, however, to dedicate yourself entirely to the love of your Divine Spouse, as He desires you to do, you must courageously make use of the means conducive to that end.
1. An Ardent Desire for Perfect Love
The first means is an ardent desire for this perfect love. With such a desire you have already taken a considerable step. God distributes His graces in abundance to those only who hunger and thirst for them, as the Blessed Virgin says in her wonderful hymn of praise, the Magnificat: “He hath filled the hungry with good things.” (Luke 1:53). But this desire is absolutely necessary for us, for otherwise we should never persevere in our efforts to obtain the treasure of the love of God. We take little or no pains in striving to obtain that for which we have little or no desire. On the other hand, all trouble is light and sweet when our efforts are prompted by an ardent desire. Hence it is that Our Lord calls those blessed who have not merely a desire, but a hunger—that is to say, a great desire—for holiness: “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after justice.” (Matt. 5:6).
2. Renouncing all Love Apart from God
The second means of obtaining the perfect love of God consists in renouncing all love that does not refer to God. God desires to possess our hearts alone and will tolerate no rival. St. Augustine relates that the Roman Senate willingly acknowledged the 30,000 gods of the pagans, while they refused to worship the God of the Christians, because He was a jealous God who wished to be adored alone. Our God was right in claiming exclusive adoration, because He alone is the only true God. Accordingly, if we wish to arrive at the perfect love of God, we must banish from our heart every attachment that has not God for its object. The ardent St. Francis de Sales said: “If I knew that in my heart there was a single fiber that was not from God, in God, and for God, I would immediately tear it out.” As long as the heart is not free from earthly inclinations, the love of God can find no entrance there; but as soon as it is detached from creatures the fire of divine love is enkindled and grows continually stronger. Therefore St. Teresa used to say: “Separate your heart from creatures and seek God; you will surely find Him then.” Father Segneri the Younger wrote one day to a pious friend: “Divine love is a beneficent robber who takes from us all earthly inclinations, so that the soul can say to her beloved Spouse: What do I wish but Thee alone.” St. Francis de Sales expresses himself in a similar manner: “The pure love of God consumes in the heart all that is not God, to turn everything into love, for all that man does for God is love.”
“I count all things but as dung,” says St. Paul, “that I may gain Christ.” (Phil. 3:8). When the love of God has entered our hearts, we place no longer any value on what the world esteems: “If a man shall give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing.” (Cant. 8:7). “If a house is on fire,” says St. Francis de Sales, “they throw everything out the window.” As soon as a heart is inflamed with the love of God it seeks to divest itself of everything earthly so as to love nothing but God. Does God ask too much when He desires the soul to love nothing but Him? “No,” says St. Bonaventure, “God is infinitely amiable and supremely good, deserving of our undivided love; He is perfectly right when He desires that a heart which He has created, should belong to Him alone; and since He has given Himself in sacrifice for us, He has acquired a still greater claim to our undivided love.”
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This article is taken from a chapter in The School of Christian Perfection by Saint Alphonsus Liguori which is available from TAN Books.
