Jul 30 Wed
How can I live, work, and die as someone in love?
Putting our whole heart, without fear, into our relationship with Jesus.
"My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways." Our Lord wants us to love him as He has loved us: with all our faculties and senses, all the strength of our being, all the capacity of our poor heart. "Ask Jesus to grant you a Love like a purifying furnace, where your poor flesh -your poor heart- may be consumed and cleansed of all earthly miseries... Pray that it be emptied of self and filled with him."
We must love Jesus with the only heart we have - our heart of flesh, born to love - without fear of going too far." God does not want us to be dry and rigid, lifeless. He wants us to be filled with his love! We're not bachelors or spinsters, who are often unhappy people who never had the generosity to love. We should live, work, and die as people in love, if we're faithful."
But if we do not put our whole heart into loving our Lord, we cannot claim we really love him. “I don't have one heart for loving God with, and another for loving people here on earth, St Josemaría stressed. With the same heart with which I loved my parents, with the same heart with which I love my daughters and sons, I love Christ, and the Father, and the Holy Spirit."
On occasions, we may find ourselves cold and listless. We should not then get discouraged and follow our Lord begrudgingly, as if fulfilling an onerous duty. Loving with our whole heart does not necessarily mean that our feelings will respond. What is essential is our conscious decision to love God, even if we feel nothing. If we sense our love cooling down, we should try to get our hearts to react. "If you want your heart to respond well, I advise you to place yourself in one of our Lord's wounds ... while always recognizing how little we are, we need to come close to him, hold on to him tightly, and feel the beating of his Heart."
Inside the Heart of Christ, our own love is enkindled, and we always find peace: “Most Sacred and Merciful Heart of Jesus, grant us peace!"
Then, in all humility, we will do what we can, and in all humility, we will entrust the rest to the Lord. It is God who governs the world, not we. We offer him our service only to the extent that we can, and for as long as He grants us the strength. To do all we can with what strength we have, however, is the task which keeps the good servant of Jesus Christ always at work."
Our Blessed Mother Mary, Handmaid of the Lord, will teach us to love God with our whole heart. “She will let you partake of the treasures she keeps in her heart, St Josemaría wrote, for never has it been known that anyone who sought her protection was left unaided."