Too many people continue to look for happiness either in
things or in other people. To continue to seek the Good in others is not only a
journey doomed to fail, but a misplaced preference.
We must prefer the love of God before all other loves. As
Garrigou-Lagrange notes, only when we are focused on God will our lives be in
order.
God’s love is supremely holy, absolutely pure; it is
unchangeable, never ceasing. God is the sovereign good and therefore, He can
and does love Himself perfectly.
“…God in preferring Himself to all things is preferring the
sovereign good.” His creation is a manifestation of His goodness. Creation is
His goodness manifested externally.
Our own personal dignity is raised through our praise of
God. “The
more we give glory to God, the greater will be our own glory,” states
Garrigou-Lagrange. He is describing the lives of the saints in this phrase.
Now, here comes an idea which may be shocking to some, but
understood by the Church Militant. God’s
love is holiness...and “not only is it
absolutely pure and incapable of sin but it has its inevitable sequel a holy
hatred of everything that is evil. In fact, no true love of the good can exist
without a detestation of evil; we cannot love the sovereign good above all
things without a sovereign detestation of sin. ….With Him, there is no
bargaining or compromising with evil.
This, in the divine light and shade, stands out in clear relief. …Where
sin is willfully persisted in, the love of God, which is gentleness itself,
becomes a thing of terror. ‘Love is as strong as death, jealousy as hard as
hell.’ (Cant.8:6) God detests sin with a burning hatred, which is simply the
obverse of His ardent love for the good.”
This is why we are, as a Western society, moving towards a
time of great tribulation. This is not merely a time of punishment, but of
purification, as nations and peoples (as I have written before months ago on
this blog) can fall into deep sin.
God Who Is Love will no longer hold back His Hand. The time
of mercy is rapidly coming to an end. The time of justice, which is the other
side of love, is coming upon us soon.
Too many Catholics not only do not hate evil, but tolerate
it. This is an unspeakable blasphemy against God, Who will not be mocked.
To avoid this tribulation, people and nations only have to
do one thing—love God more than themselves. Garrigou-Lagrange notes this of
ourselves. He also states this, “..we
ought to love with a holy love our own soul and its destiny, or it has been
created to give glory to God eternally. Let us love ourselves with this holy
love, in God and for His sake; this is the way to overcome that inordinate love
of self in which egotism consists.”
To take an idea from the author and change the perspective,
an egotist would become a saint if he stopped loving his lower self and began
to love his soul.
To be continued….