LET ME LOVE YOU       On Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity     Discalced Carmelite   by   Gerald Alford, OCDS

 

In 1934, Mother Germaine, eight times prioress of the Carmel in Dijon, died. On her table, in her well-worn book of Carmelite Prayers, her sisters found an envelope inscribed with the words, "Secrets for our Reverend Mother". On the back of the envelope, testifying to the secrecy and solemnity of the contents, was a broken seal of red wax. Inside were two sheets of ruled paper, folded in two so as to make eight small pages. These pages contained a letter to Mother Germaine written by our Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity in the last days of her life on earth.

There had been a close bond between Elizabeth and Mother Germaine. Elizabeth entered Carmel during Mother Germaine's term as Mistress of Novices and was there during Mother's first term of office as prioress. So, she was Mother's first postulant, her first novice and her first professed, and sadly the first nun to die under her charge. In this letter, prophetic in nature, Elizabeth begins on earth what she predicted would be her mission in heaven, namely, to help others live "in communion with love".

This letter contains a personal message which Elizabeth wrote as a comfort to her "cherished mother" out of gratitude to her prioress for being for her such an instrument of God's grace. She wanted to reassure her prioress whom she realized felt apprehension about her responsibility as the shepherd called to lead the Dijon community to the top of Mt. Carmel. In doing so, Elizabeth was inspired to take the question Our Lord addressed to Peter whom he had called to be the first shepherd of the Church and reverse the perspective of that question, as we shall see.

Jesus' question to Peter is taken from chapter 21 of St. John's gospel, a post-resurrection Gospel. Our Lord asks St. Peter this question: "Do you love me more than these?"

Jesus in his merciful love for Peter asked him this question three times, and thus provided him with three opportunies to replace the memory of his three denials with three affirmations of love. Jesus did not want Peter to assume the role of shepherd he was about to bestow upon him with the crippling memory of these denials.

How burdened are we with memories of betraying our Lord? How many times has he lifted us up to Himself in intimacy, and how many times have we betrayed him again by falling back to love someone or something else more than him. So the question Jesus asked Peter may resound in our hearts over and over again. Perhaps, our ardor to please him may arouse the question in the depths of our being. After all, are we not told that it is the nature of love to be concerned about how well we are pleasing the beloved? To fear that no matter how much we do is never enough can be an anguish of love.

St. John of the Cross, in the Prologue of Book I of the Ascent, wrote that he was guided on his journey, his ascent to the heights of Mt. Carmel, above all by "love's urgent longings." And so must we, always, if we are to have a genuine spiritual life, be guided by Love's urgent longings. "Love is repaid by love alone", and "In the evening of our lives, we will be judged by love alone."

Most definitely, part of our purgative suffering, a most painful pressing of the cross we bear in striving to follow Jesus, is the real suffering caused by the inadequacies of our love as evidenced too often by our infidelities in responding to love's urgent longings. And so the question continually and painfully may resound in our hearts: Do I really love Him more than these ... these: whoever or whatever it is that may be in competition with Jesus for first place in our lives?

Do I really love God above all things?

Yes it is a most difficult question! for sometimes, in the purgative stages of our spiritual lives, as we cut the "larger cords" of mortal sin, and then voluntary venial sins and imperfections, we discover smaller cords or threads which were hidden in the shadows of the larger ones. And these most subtle attachments can be most difficult. Ultimately, we come to realize the truth of what the antiphon recited at Morning Prayer every day during Lent says: "God alone can set us free from the hunter's snare." The hunter's snare is effective because it is disguised and hidden from the eyes of the prey. In like manner, there is so much which keeps us from God that is hidden, or disguised, sometimes disguised even as a good. That is why St. John of the Cross and all great spiritual teachers tell us that God alone can set us free from such as these, and sometimes bearing with such weakness is the means by which this detachment happens.

However we can become very discouraged to see how unfruitful our efforts to correct our faults and practice virtue seemingly have been. Perhaps we have failed in our resolutions, or our efforts seem of such little consequence. Perhaps, we will never feel as bold as Peter in declaring to the Lord in answer to His question: "Lord, you know that I love you..." There may be nagging memories of our love's failings in response to His Love's urgent longings.

His Love's urgent longings! that is the key, that is the perspective that Elizabeth presents to Mother Germaine - and to us - in response to the fear she perceived burdening her beloved prioress's heart. Love's urgent longings refers not only to our impoverished longings, but to His infinite longings. In His Love for us, Jesus has urgent longings for our sanctification. So our mortifications should ultimately be directed to removing obstacles to faith and confidence in that Love. I think in the purgative way the perspective is more actively in terms of our love's urgent longings, but as we move into the unitive way, the perspective shifts more to a yielding to His Love's urgent longings, and once that happens we move very quickly. In a twinkling of the eye we can be sanctified.

The message of Elizabeth to Mother Germaine and to us then is to pray and work through to this perspective of yielding to His Love's longing for us. To allow Him to love us as He wishes: gently, painfully ... however, he chooses. He is the way, let him be our way to the Father. Allow him to lead us to the Father as he wishes. Allow ourselves to be drawn by His Love's urgent longing into this union.

The key sentence which Elizabeth repeats six times to Mother Germaine is LET YOURSELF BE LOVED MORE THAN THESE. This message was addressed as a "private revelation", if you will, for Mother Germaine, but it has a truth which applies to us all. Right now, I want to simply extract what I see as the heart of the message, using Elizabeth's own words.

In the second paragraph, she quotes an expression quite possibly used in the community retreat of 1902: "You are uncommonly loved." Then Elizabeth gives her message to Mother Germaine as if Jesus is speaking to her. Let us listen to the message as if Jesus is speaking to us -

".... Let yourself be loved more than these ... without fearing that any obstacle will be a hindrance to it, for I am free to pour out My love on whom I wish! 'Let yourself be loved more than these' is your vocation. It is in being faithful to it that you will make Me happy for you will magnify the power of My love."

Then Elizabeth comments:

"This love can rebuild what you have destroyed. Let yourself be loved more than these.... I bequeath to you this vocation .... THE PRAISE OF GLORY OF THE HOLY TRINITY....Let yourself be loved more than these: it is in that way that your Master wills for you to be a praise of glory! He rejoices to build up in you by His love and for His glory, and it is He alone who wants to work in you, even though you will have done nothing to attract this grace except that which a creature can do: works of sin and misery...He loves you like that....He will do everything in you. He will go to the end: for when a soul is loved by Him to this extent, in this way, loved by an unchanging and creative love, a free love which transforms as it pleases Him, oh, how far this soul will go! .... the fidelity that the Master asks of you is to remain in communion with Love, flow into, be rooted in this Love .... You will never be commonplace if you are vigilant in love! But in the hours when you feel only oppression and lassitude, you will please Him even more if you faithfully believe that He is still working, that He is loving you just the same, and even more: because His love is free and that is how He wants to be magnified in you; and you will let yourself be loved more than these.... You are called ... to magnify the power of His Love. Believe ... and read these lines as if coming from Him."

Elizabeth then provides a long quote from Bl. Angela di Fogligno whose words are given as spoken by Jesus:

"Oh! I love you, I love you more than anyone else in this valley....It is I who come, and I bring you unknown joy....I will enter into the depths of your being.... Love Me! All your life will please Me, provided that you love Me!...I will do great things in you; I will be made known in you, glorified, and praised in you!..."

SO

Let yourself be loved more than these - more than anyone else in this valley.

What can we say in response to these magnificent and consoling words? Theologically speaking, we know that there is no limit to God's love for any of us - from His perspective. From our perspective, however, we limit the experience of God's love by our lack of Faith, and by not being disposed to experience that love in Faith.

Holiness is the result of practicing virtue, especially the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity, and the exercise of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Holiness as this life of Grace truly lived is all Gift. All is Grace. Of and from ourselves, we really have nothing to boast of. Our Gift - our contribution, if you will - is the free submission of our will in trust, and with acceptance of our poverty. Our asceticism must be directed primarily to reproducing this attitude of submission which is the attitude of Christ; an attitude characterized profoundly by confidence. Love is the summit to which confidence leads us. We are drawn to that summit first of all by God's urgent longings for union with us, and then by our own urgent longings to love God. BUT, God has loved us first. We need to develop a confidence that we are uncommonly loved by God. We need to allow ourselves to be loved by God more than by anyone or anything else in the world.

To have the confidence to accept being loved by God more than anyone or anything else in the world is based on the belief that God wants to give us nothing less than Himself. The incarnation is the visible proof of that; the events we celebrate during Holy Week is the living proof of that; the institution of the Eucharist so that He could be with us in a substantial union of love is a most eminent proof of that, and the Resurrection is validation that He has the power to love us so. Elizabeth tells us that when we have confidence in this love and realize we are called to surrender ourselves to this love, we magnify this power of Christ's love.

The biggest obstacle to trust in this love seems to be a wrong idea of God based on a projection of our own self-image or our own experience of love from others. We feel unlovable, and therefore conclude that God cannot love us. Faith tells us this is wrong; but the feeling can persist, and have a stifling influence upon us.

We cannot overcome this feeling of worthlessness by sheer willing or thinking it away. All the meditations in the world are not likely to overcome it. So we can only face it as we experience it. Once we face it, we can accept its falsity and pain, and then stand naked in God's presence with it, admitting our poverty, our incapacity to feel loved as we desire to be loved, or to love in return as we desire. When I am downcast by some revelation of misery; when I feel I haven't even begun in the spiritual life; when I see myself manipulated by persistent selfish tendencies, by bitterness, by pettiness, by resentment, jealousy.... When I feel most helpless, fruitless in prayer and in the practice of virtue; when I feel most unlovable .... all these are times for confidence. These are the times to turn to God most willfully and make acts of trust. At such times we must trust that in our weakness, His strength is glorified, and that He loves us more than anyone or anything else could ever love us. He loves us more than even we love ourselves.

If you detect a definite Theresian flavor in these words, your perception is correct. St. Therese was a contemporary of Elizabeth. Her teachings had already disseminated to the Carmels in Europe. Elizabeth makes direct reference to her in some of her letters to friends. We are told that Mother Germaine to whom this letter is addressed was a disciple of Therese, and so Elizabeth used Therese to support her message to her beloved Prioress. And this admonition - Let yourself be loved more than these - is one that Therese would most assuredly support. One of the striking "little flowers" in Therese's bridal bouquet which she tossed over her shoulder for us to catch; one of her most striking teachings, was the expression of her own "urgent longing" to be a child of God who would give Him the joy of being able to love her fully. Her most profound desire was to be a child in His household who would be entirely open to the full vent of His Love; to be one who would allow Him to lavish His Love upon her. Elizabeth is urging Mother Germaine and us to have the same sentiments: to be a Child of God who would allow Him to love us more than these.

We don't ever have to worry about getting enough love from God. Such a concern may be an issue in our human relationships, but not in our relationship with God. The concern should be that we will not have this disposition of accepting the fact that He loves us above everyone and everything else, and allowing Him to so love us. Each one of us can have this faith-experience of being so loved, because it is of God's nature to give Himself to each one of us entirely. We will not be deprived if we truly respond to God's urgent longing to love us more than these, because His Love is infinite and only limited by the measure of our own willingness to be loved.

Jesus expressed this longing of God when He announced: "I have come to cast fire on the earth and how I yearn for it to be kindled." He was expressing God's longing for a response which would be as receptive as a forest dried and arrid from lack of rain; whose disposition and longing, so to speak, makes it vulnerable to be consumed by a single spark. God longs for hearts disposed to be ignited by His love. This is a good image because our experience and the experience of spiritual masters such as St. John of the Cross teach that, prior to such a conflagration, such an inflaming, such a holocaust of love, all the moisture of self-love and self-interest in our love must be dried up. The Lord allows those who truly wish to love Him purely and who are inclined to be loved by Him fully to suffer this desert experience, this drying-out of selfishness, so that they are brought into this arrid state which is the disposition to be inflamed by a spark of grace into a engulfing, holocaustal fire of love which will burn us and purify us to the very core. Such arridness is really a state of vulnerability - a vulnerability which is an openness to receive what God alone is empowered to give: the capacity to truly love and be loved in truth.

On the Feast of Pentecost we pray to the Father and the Son for the Gift of their Spirit Who is the Living Flame of Love, so that we might be strengthen to accept the drying up of all selfishness, especially those subtle self-centered inclinations which bind us spiritually to immature spiritual attachments and dispositions. We want to be Holy as the Father desires us to be, not as we or anyone else thinks we should be. This can be very painful and requires an enlightened discernment to accept being grounded in the truth which is, more often than not, a desert, and to persevere in that arridness, truly ready and willing to be enkindled by God's urgent longing to love us as He alone can love: infinitely and eternally. The Holy Spirit is the fire which Jesus casts upon the earth to enkindle that spark of God's love within us ....

Come, Holy Spirit, come ....

Inflame each one of our hearts with the fire of your love .... the fire of love that strengths and builds us up in confidence - in faith and trust that God does love us more than these ....

Then we will be renewed and be your instruments of renewal by loving all with and in God's Love.

Our Garden     Bl. Elizabeth