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Love is an indispensable necessity for every human heart. But it is of paramount importance to every young, person especially to have in her heart a true, genuine, and abiding love of God. It is in youth that the severest and most decisive battles with the threefold enemy—the devil, the world, and evil concupiscence—have to be fought.
If you do not now, in the golden days of your youth, obtain mastery over the devil, the world, and the flesh, you will find it difficult, if not impossible, later on, to gain the victor’s crown.
But how are you to conquer, and by what means? Wholly and solely by the power of love. It is, however, only true love, the love of God, which is able to conquer the devil, the world, and the flesh. Therefore, let a true, heartfelt, practical love of God be your guiding star, the centre of your being; let it dwell constantly in your heart!
The Apostle St. Paul says: “And now there remain faith, hope, chanty: these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” St. Augustine thus explains the passage above quoted: “Faith lays the foundation of the house of God, hope erects the building, but it is love which completes it.” Therefore charity is the greatest, the most important thing.
To take another illustration. Every flower has a root, a stem, a blossom; this last is the fairest of the three. And it is just the same with the glorious flower which the three theological virtues combined to form. From the root, which is faith, springs the stem, which is hope, and the lovely flower of charity crowns them both. Wherefore St. Paul writes in another place: “If I should have all faith, so I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.”
Therefore, Christian maiden, it is only when an ardent love of God dwells in your heart that you may hope to speak of victories. The history of the world, the pages of sacred history, the history of each individual alike teach us that without love there can be no victory.
Love, taken in a general sense, conquers both in good and in evil things. What, for instance, inflamed and inspired heroes in all ages, leading them to achieve immortal deeds of glory? It was love, love of their fatherland.
What inflamed the breast of Napoleon the Great, inducing him to push forward without rest and to drive his triumphal chariot through so many of the countries of Europe? It was love, love of fame.
What causes the miser to suppress the strongest impulse of nature, the desire for food and drink, and literally die of hunger beside his stores of gold? It is love, love of money.
What frequently impels so-called “lovers” to commit the terrible crime of suicide, conquering even the love of life? Again it is love, sensual, earthly love, which has been rejected.
What gives a poor invalid courage to set aside fear and apprehension, and to submit to a most painful and critical operation? It is love, love of his own life which renders him ready to face every risk in the hope of preserving it.
What is the motive which makes many a mother overcome her desire for ease and comfort, sacrificing money, time, sleep, health, all and everything? Is it not love, ardent love for her child?
What enables good Christian married people to practice self-control, to overcome selfishness and to set aside their own wishes and tastes? It is love, conjugal affection, which causes them to dread giving pain to one another.
What led St. Vincent of Paul to attain so heroic a degree of self-sacrifice, as to share the prisons of the most miserable outcasts, of the unfortunate galley-slaves? It was love, love of their immortal souls.
What made it possible for millions of martyrs—tender maidens and even young children—to renounce not merely freedom, power, wealth, health, the joys of the domestic hearth, but even life itself, and to endure joyfully even unto death the most excruciating tortures? It was rendered possible only through the power of love, love for the Saviour; they exclaimed with the Apostle: “The charity of Christ presseth us.”
Finally, how was the greatest, the most glorious victory the world has ever seen, the victory over sin, death and hell, the victory won by the Redeemer dying on Golgotha,—how, we ask, was this victory won? More than any other was this victory a victory of love, of the infinite love of God for the poor children of men.
Such is the all-conquering might of love. And, knowing as you do that it is your bounden duty to conquer the world and sin, the concupiscence of the eyes, the concupiscence of the flesh, and the pride of life, if you wish to wear in heaven the victor’s unfading crown, how full of comfort for you is the thought that you can achieve all this by means of love, love for God.
And our gracious God has made it so easy for us to love Him: “Because God first hath loved us.” I have shown in the preceding chapter how God the Father so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son to die for men, and how God the Son offered Himself to die once upon the cross, and now offers Himself up continually in the sacrifice of the Mass, and in holy communion. Why then should it be so difficult for the human heart to return the love of this divine Saviour, who has done so much for us? Ought it not rather to be far more difficult to refrain from loving Him?
Wherefore bestir yourself, Christian maiden! Open the door of your heart that a true love for God may enter in and dwell there. His love flows forth from the altar in the Sacrament of love, it abides in the tabernacle. At this moment the Saviour is standing at the door of your heart! Open to Him, I beseech you; give Him admittance, that He may kindle your heart with the fire of His love.
Thus will you conquer by the power of love, thus will you vanquish all evil and impure desires; for these unhallowed flames will be subdued by the sacred fire of divine love. Fan this sacred fire in order that you may be prepared to struggle with the dangers which threaten your innocence and virtue, and carefully to shun the occasions of sin.
Your future is shrouded in mystery; who can lift the veil? It may perchance conceal storms and conflicts; but if a true love of God dwells in your heart, you will walk with sure steps through the dark nights of life, and amid the gloomy shades of death. Repeat therefore frequently and fervently words such as the following:
Grant me, while here on earth I stay,
Thy love to feel and know;
And when from hence I pass away
To me Thy glory show.
Or the following hymn:
My God, I Love Thee.
(Hymn of St. F. Xavier.)
1. My God, I love Thee, not because
I hope for heav’n thereby
Nor yet that they who love Thee not
Must burn eternally.
Thou, O my Jesus, Thou didst me
Upon the Cross embrace;
For me didst bear the nails and spear,
and manifold disgrace;
And grief and torments numberless
And sweat of agony;
Even death itself; and all for one
Who was Thine enemy.
2. Then why, O blessed Jesus Christ,
Should I not love Thee well!—
Not for the sake of winning heaven,
Nor of escaping hell:
Not with the hope of gaining aught,
Not seeking a reward;
But as Thyself hast loved me
O ever-loving Lord,
Ev’n so I love Thee, and will love,
And in Thy praise will sing—
Because Thou art my Lord and God
And my eternal King.