51. THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST

I. Love is the last and highest service that man can render. All else leads up to love and ends in it. Faith itself is the basis only; it needs to be made perfect by charity, and to receive its practical and efficient form from charity. Jesus Christ is the image and manifestation of the Divinity; we see God in Him, and we love God in loving Him. As man, Our Lord is deserving of all our love, and He possesses in an eminent degree all those qualities which command human love. 1. He has supreme beauty as human and as divine, on earth and in glory, in His person, His character, His life. “Thou art beautiful above the sons of men” (Ps. xliv. 3). 2. His words made the hearts of men burn within them while He was on earth. “Grace is poured forth in Thy lips” (Ps. xliv. 3). We have these words written in the Gospels, and whispered by Him in our souls. 3. The works of Jesus towards men are full of benevolence, generosity, utility, grandeur. 4. His magnificent gifts are another inducement to love Him. He has given us all that we have, and much more than we are as yet able to appreciate. He has given us Himself with all His infinity. None other has bestowed so much. Consider each of these points separately; see how they show the surpassing goodness of Our Lord, how much He deserves from you in return, and how little you have rendered to Him hitherto.

II. Jesus says to you, “My son, give Me thy heart” (Prov. xxiii. 26). Theologians distinguish four expressions of love, or forms of sentiment which we may feel towards God and Jesus Christ. 1. The love of complacency. By this we take pleasure and delight in Our Lord, rejoicing at His goodness and perfections, at His happiness, greatness and glory, at the adoration and love which He receives from so many. 2. The love of benevolence. This consists in wishing well to another. Our good-will can confer nothing on the infinite Son of God; yet we may wish Him to receive all praise and honour from creatures. We may wish that we had the power to do something for Him; and we may actually promote His accidental glory by making Him known to others, and carrying out His will and His work on earth. 3. The love of esteem. We show this by esteeming Jesus, His doctrine, His service, above our own interests, and pleasures, and possessions; by readiness to sacrifice all these for His sake; by saying with the Apostle: “I esteem all things to be but loss . . . and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ” (Phil. iii. 8). 4. The love of desire, by which we aspire after the sight of Our Lord and union with Him, “having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ” (Phil. i. 23). Declare your affection for your Lord in each of these ways, and consider how you can express it effectively in your actions.

III. The love of Our Lord needs to be carefully cultivated and increased by practice. Being invisible to us, He will disappear from our minds unless we take measures to keep Him always before us. 1. We should choose as subjects for our meditations the life, actions, virtues of Jesus Christ, and the interior sentiments of His Heart. 2. We should carefully keep ourselves free from all sin. Sin is the contradictory of Christ, it drives Him from His abode in our hearts, it obscures the vision of the soul, and prevents us from seeing Him and hearing His voice. 3. We should frequently seek the presence and conversation of Christ in prayer, and especially before the altars where He dwells: above all we should unite ourselves with Him as to body and soul in Holy Communion. 4. When we are unable to devote ourselves to lengthened prayer, we may raise our minds to Our Lord by silent remembrance for a moment, and speak to Him in brief ejaculations of love. It is an aid to this if we keep pictures and images of Him where we can often see them. Inquire of yourself whether you take any means to keep alive the love of Jesus in your heart. Resolve to carry out some practices of devotion with this view.