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Vigils Reading

February 7, 2023

On the Love of God3 From a sermon by Alan of Lille

…John says: ‘God is love, and he who dwells in love lives in God, and God in him’. Peter, as well: ‘Above all, have mutual love for one another, for love outweighs a multitude of sins’. And Paul: ‘Love is patient and kind’. Augustine, too: ‘Everything we do without love benefits us nothing, and in vain do we dissipate our energy if we do not have love, that is, God’. Gregory says: ‘The more the heart of the sinner is consumed with the fire of love, the more it is purged of the rust of sins’. From these texts, we must continue thus: Who, even armed with the eloquence of Cicero and filled with all wisdom, can adequately sing the praise of love and expound its virtues? It is love which teaches us to flee enticements, to tread pleasures under foot, to subdue the lusts of the flesh, to despise marks of deference, to crush illicit desires and, finally, to renounce all the blandishments of this life.

On this subject, the Bridegroom declares in the Song of Songs: ‘Set me as a seal upon your heart; set me as a seal upon your arm, for love is as strong as death, and jealousy as cruel as hell’. For death snuffs out the living, and hell does not spare the dead. Love, then, is like death, for just as the one subdues the senses of the flesh, so the other subdues the movements of carnal desire. Envy is cruel as hell, for it obliges those whom a longing for eternity draws inward not only to spit out smooth things, but also to put up with harsh and bitter things in attaining what they love. Love braces the other virtues with the fortifications of its perfection.

Whoever roots himself in love will fail neither to flourish nor to bear fruit, for hi lives so as to be productive. On this matter Isidore says: ‘No reward is of value without the love of charity, and no matter how strongly one believes aright, he cannot come to blessedness without charity’. For such is the power of love that even prophecy and martyrdom are of no avail without it. Of all the virtues, love holds first place. For this reason, the Apostle calls it the chain of perfection, for all the virtues are linked together by the chain of love.

Love God, then, that you may be loved by him, and conduct your life so that you may the more swiftly come to him, for through love you will grasp, possess, and enjoy him. This is the most excellent way, the highway, which straightens winding ways, and clearly indicates the direct ways. This is love which so moved God that it led him from the seat of highest majesty to the lowliness of our mortal nature. It wounded him who could not suffer, it moved him who could not be changed, it bound him who could not be conquered, it made mortal him who is eternal.

If love was able to do so much in God, how much, O man, should it be able to do in you? If God bore so much for man, what shall man refuse to bear for God?
Let it shame a man not to be subject to love, which subjected the Creator of the world to itself. Love does not envy, it does no wrong, but it tears out the root of vice from him in whom it dwells. Love is the source of all virtue; it illuminates the mind, purifies the conscience, rejoices the soul, shows forth God. Pride does not puff up the soul in which love dwells, nor does envy rack it; anger does not destroy it; evil and sadness do not trouble it; lust does not pollute it; gluttony does not inflame it.

Love is always chaste, always pure, always quiet, always kind; strong in adversity, steady in times of prosperity. This is the spiritual cross, and anyone who lays hand on it to take it up and carry it, follows in the footsteps of Christ

3 Alan of Lille. The Art of Preaching. CF 23. Trans. Gillian R. Evans. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, Inc., 1981. 86-89.

 

 

 

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February 7, 2023
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