Book Snippets

God’s love is far superior to human love and incompatible with it

2 min • Digitized on July 23, 2024

From The Practice of Humility, page n50
By Pope Leo XIII

XXVI

Never wish to be singularly loved; for as love depends upon the will, and as the will by its nature tends to that which is good, it follows that to be loved and to be considered good are one and the same thing.

But the desire of being considered exceptionally good, and being esteemed above others, cannot be reconciled with true humility.

O! what great fruit thou mightest derive from acting up to this doctrine!

For thy soul, yearning then no longer for the love of creatures, would hide itself in the sacred wounds of its Saviour.

There, in the adorable Heart of her Jesus, she would experience ineffable divine sweetness, because having generously renounced the love of creatures for His sake, she would be able to taste abundantly that honey of divine consolation, which would be denied her were she taken up with the false and deceitful sweetnesses of earthly consolations.

For divine consolation is so pure and real that it will not suffer the admixture of that which is earthly; and we are replenished with the one in proportion as we feel disgust for the other.

Moreover, thy soul will be able to turn herself freely to God, and by the thought of His presence and infinite perfections to abide in His enjoyment.

Finally, as there is nothing more delightful than to love and be loved, so if thou deprivest thyself of this pleasure for the love of God, and in order that He may possess thy heart whole and undivided, thou offerest a most acceptable sacrifice to God, and one that is in the highest degree meritorious.

Nor fear lest by so doing thy love for thy neighbour should grow cold; yea thou wilt rather love him with a purer and more perfect love, loving him no longer out of self-interest, that is for the gratification of thy own inclinations, but purely for the sake of pleasing God, and of doing that which thou knowest to be acceptable to Him.