17th Sunday after Pentecost 7.9.08 Love of God
"I prefer the monotony of obscure sacrifice to all ecstasies. To pick up a pin for love can convert a soul." So said St Therese of Lisieux. How could it be so?
What is important is not so much the action as the intensity of love with which it is performed.
Some fortunate souls are capable of mystical experiences of God. They are taken up into ecstacy when they pray. They experience wonderful feelings at such times.
But every saint and spiritual writer warns against making those experiences the centre of attention. What should be at the centre is the desire to please God, not just what is pleasant to ourselves.
Thus if to pick up a pin is my duty that day, or some other task, and if I do it with the motive of pleasing God, then the action takes on a spiritual value far beyond its physical usefulness.
So much of life is dull and routine. If we could learn that what we do in those routine motions of the day can be turned into spiritual conquest, then there is consolation in that.
It is why we do things, even more than what we do. If the thing I do is good and I do it for love of Him then it merits extra grace – reward for one thing, but also grace to achieve other good, such as the conversion of a soul.
This is how to be good without really trying! If we periodically consecrate all that we are about to do (eg in the Morning Offering) for the glory of God, and we then do those things with the prevailing intention – then grace is being accumulated, and we are doing a lot of good for the world.
If that is what He wants and you do it for love of Him then you are doing a great thing.
The command to love God is tailored to our capacity. God does not expect us to love Him as He loves Himself in the Blessed Trinity, but to love Him as much as we can acording to our limitations.
Loving God becomes: get the next thing you do right. And then the one after that, and so on. Avoid one sin, make one act of reparation, do one act of generosity etc. If we do these things we are loving God at that moment.
To do the will of God in that moment is pleasing to Him. Whatever He wants, even suffering, if I do that patiently. If He wants it then I want it, not at first perhaps but I come to want it. I value my opinion more than His to start with but I let His will take hold and that is big spiritual progress.
Even with the mystics, it is actually much harder to put up with a neighbour’s annoying habits than to pray. And more pleasing to God if we come through such tests.
Don’t confuse how you feel when you pray with how much you love God. You love Him as much as you are trying to please Him. Your prayer may be dry and not leave you feeling any better, but if you are sincere in wanting to please Him the prayer will be pleasing to Him and you will have succeeded in loving Him.
This is one reason He lets us feel dryness, to push us to that extra level of understanding, so that we do not seek just high feelings all the time.
Everything comes back to what pleases Him, even if it does not please me. Then eventually it does please me as well, because I have become one with Him.
So we look for pins to pick up! Well, any task, if it is a good thing to do, we do it for love of Him. And we can convert our neighbours in the process.
