God is love; love isn't necessarily God - C S Lewis

St. John’s saying that God is love has long been balanced in my mind against the remark of a modern author (M. Denis de Rougement) that “love ceases to be a demon only when he ceases to be a god”; which of course can be re-stated in the form “begins to be a demon the moment he begins to be a god.” This balance seems to me an indispensable safeguard. If we ignore it the truth that God is love may slyly come to mean for us the converse, that love is God. I suppose that everyone who has thought about the matter will see what M. de Rougemont meant. Every human love, at its height, has a tendency to claim for itself a divine authority. Its voice tends to sound as if it were the will of God Himself. It tells us not to count the cost, it demands of us a total commitment, it attempts to over-ride all other claims and insinuates that any action which is sincerely done “for love’s sake” is thereby lawful and even meritorious.

The Four Loves

C S Lewis on Divine Goodness

... What would really satisfy us would be a God who said of anything we happened to like doing, "What does it matter so long as they are contented?" We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven--a senile benevolence who, as they say, "liked to see young people enjoying themselves" and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, "a good time was had by all". Not many people, I admit, would formulate a theology in precisely those terms: but a conception not very different lurks at the back of many minds. I do not claim to be an exception: I should very much like to live in a universe which was governed on such lines. But since it is abundantly clear that I don't, and since I have reason to believe, nevertheless, that, God is Love, I conclude that my conception of love needs correction.

The Problem of Pain

Pius XII on brotherhood of mankind

And first of all let us imitate the breadth of His love. For the Church, the Bride of Christ, is one; and yet so vast is the love of the divine Spouse that it embraces in His Bride the whole human race without exception. Our Savior shed His Blood precisely in order that He might reconcile men to God through the Cross, and might constrain them to unite in one body, however widely they may differ in nationality and race. True love of the Church, therefore, requires not only that we should be mutually solicitous one for another as members and sharing in their suffering but likewise that we should recognize in other men, although they are not yet joined to us in the body of the Church, our brothers in Christ according to the flesh, called, together with us, to the same eternal salvation. It is true, unfortunately, especially today, that there are are some who extol enmity, hatred and spite as if they enhanced the dignity and the worth of man. Let us, however, while we look with sorrow on the disastrous consequences of this teaching, follow our peaceful King who taught us to love not only those who are of a different nation or race, but even our enemies. While Our heart overflows with the sweetness of the teaching of the Apostle of the Gentiles, We extol with him the length, and the breadth, and the height, and the depth of the charity of Christ, which neither diversity of race or customs can diminish, nor trackless wastes of the ocean weaken, nor wars, whether just or unjust, destroy.

Mystici Corporis Christi, para 96

Contemplation and Our Lady - Cardinal Bacci

Contemplation and Our Lady

1. True contemplation has its origin in love, for when love is intense it gives a clear insight into that which is loved. It is never the result of mere learning, which can be cold and uninspiring and therefore unable to give us a vision of the truth. Many are learned without love, while there are others who have no learning but love God and contemplate Him with a spiritual joy which is a prelude to the happiness of Heaven. Contemplation is not, therefore, a gift of learning. Even an illiterate man can have it, while those who study a great deal may be without it. For the most part, it is the gift of divine grace. This is not to deny that the knowledge of sacred things, especially of theology, can promote contemplation. It can help, as long as it is not the kind of learning which makes a man proud but rather leads him nearer to God. This is what St. Paul meant when he said that “knowledge puffs up, but charity edifies.” (1 Cor. 8:1)

Contemplation, then, begins in the love which is based on humility and on prayer. The contemplative must always look for the help of divine grace without ever presuming on his own powers and without fooling himself that he has made any progress of his own accord. It does not matter whether he is an ignorant or a learned man as long as he sees the reflection of God in all things and comes to know and love Him. Then, under the influence of divine grace, contemplation flows from the loving knowledge of God. The Blessed Virgin was created and conceived full of grace and endowed with more supernatural privileges than any other creature. Therefore she knew and loved God in a higher way than any of the Cherubim or Seraphim. It is only to be expected, then, that she would have had the gift of contemplation. Her prayer was an intimate conversation with God. We have an example of this kind of contemplative prayer in the hymn which she composed when she became the Mother of the Word Incarnate. “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour; Because he has regarded the lowliness of his handmaid; for, behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed...” (Luke 1:46-48) In Mary, however, the contemplative life was united to the active life. This was so whether she was in the house in Nazareth, or following Jesus on His apostolic journeys, or co-operating with the Apostles in their great mission during her last years on earth.

2. We must try and unite the active with the contemplative life as far as circumstances will allow. St. Thomas says that the perfection of the spiritual life consists precisely in this union of activity and contemplation. One without the other falls short of perfection. “It is greater to enlighten than simply to shine,” writes St. Thomas, “and greater to pass on the fruits of contemplation to others than merely to contemplate.” (St. Th., II-II, q.6, a.3)

Contemplation on its own can degenerate into useless day dreaming. It is necessary that it should produce a genuine interior transformation as a result of which the subject, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, becomes in his speech and in his conduct a man of God. Now, the man of God is not satisfied with enjoying spiritual consolations, but is moved by his zeal for the glory of God to try and extend His kingdom by every possible means. It is in this way that contemplation becomes apostolic action.

We must remember, on the other hand, that neither is action on its own sufficient. It can become barren when it is not nourished by the interior life of grace which is the source of prayer and contemplation. It cannot be held that this last is the exclusive gift of a few privileged souls. Anyone can have it as long as he allows himself to be penetrated by the love of God and as long as he succeeds in securing moments of silence and recollection at intervals during life. In these moments he will grow closer to God and will enjoy a foretaste of the happiness of Heaven.

3. O Mary, my most holy Mother, obtain for me a great love for God, which will lead me closer to Him in all my actions. Even if I have not got the extraordinary gift of contemplation, grant that this love may live so powerfully in me that it will pervade all my actions. Then I shall be able to live in constant union with God and act in perfect accordance with His holy will. Amen.

Love is like Oxygen! - Archbishop Fulton Sheen

"Certain things that we have in us, once they are given out, are never meant to be taken back. One is the air we breathe; if we take that air back upon ourselves, it poisons us. Love is another. When love is breathed out to another human heart, it is never meant to be taken back. If it is taken back, it suffocates and poisons us."