Ave Maria Meditations
I want to put you on guard right now against the danger of sensible love. How often I have heard the objection, “I tell Jesus that I love Him, but I don’t feel it. It seems to me that I am not being sincere.” Not to doubt that you love Him when you feel cold and arid demands great faith, the forgetting of yourself, and a true understanding of sanctity. The greatest saints pass through the dark night of the soul, painful periods of dryness. Yet in those hours of purification, they loved. Love is not sensible piety. Never forget this distinction.
Holiness is a disposition of the soul, of the heart, and, above all, of the world, toward God; the senses may play a role, but that is not necessary. Little Terese writes that dryness was her daily bread, but that she was nevertheless the happiest of creatures. She define sanctity as “a disposition of the heart which makes us humble and small in the arms of God, conscious of our weakness, and confident to the point of audacity in the goodness of our Father.”
Love is the uniting of our will to the will of God. It is abandoning ourselves totally into His hands, as a habitual disposition, even if we feel nothing. When Jesus sees this disposition in our hearts, He looks on us as His cherished children. Is not a father very indulgent toward his child? He finds excuses for his child’s feelings, and he admires the least of his good qualities. Jesus is like this with those who are His children, because they sincerely want to be such.
+ Father Jean du Coeur de Jesus d’Elbee
