Posted by SOULS THAT LOVE GOD DESIRE TO GO TO SEE HIM IN HEAVEN.
The worldly-minded fear losing their earthly goods, fleeting and miserable things that they are, but the Saints only fear losing God Who is a Good infinite and eternal. Wherefore death is an object of terror to souls attached to the earth, while it is specially desired by those who love God; for, says St. Bernard, it is the termination of labour and the gate of life. They cry out with St. Paul: Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Rom. vii. 24).
I.
While we are in the body we are absent from the Lord (2 Cor. v. 6). Souls who, in this life love God alone are like noble pilgrims, destined, according to their present state, to be the eternal brides of the King of Heaven, but now live far away without seeing Him; wherefore they do naught but sigh for their departure to the country of the Blessed, where they know that their Spouse awaits them.
They know, indeed, that their Beloved is ever present with them, but is, as it were, hidden by a veil, and does not show himself. Or, to speak more correctly, He is like the sun behind clouds, which from time to time, sends forth a ray of its splendour, but displays not itself fully. These beloved brides have a veil before their eyes, which prevents them from seeing Him Whom they love. They live, nevertheless, contented, uniting themselves to the Will of the Lord Who chooses to keep them in exile, and far away from Himself; but with all this, they cannot but continually sigh to see Him face to face, in order to be more inflamed with love towards Him.
Therefore, each one of them often sweetly complains to its beloved Spouse because He shows Himself not and says to Him: “O Thou only love of my heart, since Thou hast so loved me, and hast wounded me with Thy holy love, why hidest Thou Thyself, and allowest me not to see Thee? I know that Thou art infinite Beauty; I love Thee more than myself, though I have never yet beheld Thee. Open to me Thy beautiful countenance; I would know Thee all revealed, in order that I may no more look to myself nor to any creature, and may think only of loving Thee, my highest Good.”
II.
When to souls thus enamoured of God there shines forth a ray of Divine goodness and of the love which God bears them, they would wish to be dissolved and melt away for desire of Him, and though for them the sun is still concealed behind the clouds, and His fair face hidden, and their own eyes veiled, so that they cannot gaze on Him face to face; yet what shall be their joy when the clouds disperse, and the gates open, and the veil is taken from their eyes, and the fair countenance of their Beloved appears so that in the clear light of day they look upon His beauty, His goodness, His greatness, and the love He bears them!
O death, why dost thou so long delay to come? If thou comest not, I cannot depart to behold my God. It is thou that must open to me the gates, that I may enter into the palace of my Lord. O blessed country, when will the day come when I shall find myself within thy eternal tabernacles? O Beloved of my soul, my Jesus, my Treasure, my Love, my All! When will that happy moment come, when, leaving this earth, I shall see myself all united with Thee? I deserve not this happiness; but the love Thou hast shown me, and, still more, Thy infinite goodness makes me hope that I shall be one day joined to those happy souls, who, being wholly united with Thee, love Thee, and will love Thee with a perfect love through all eternity. O my Jesus, Thou seest the alternative in which I am placed, of being either united with Thee for ever, or for ever far from Thee! Have mercy upon me. Thy Blood is my hope; and thy intercession, O my Mother Mary, is my comfort and my joy. Amen.
Spiritual Reading
PREPARATION FOR DEATH
Some devout souls, with great spiritual profit to themselves, are accustomed to renew every month, after having been at Confession and Communion, the Protestation for Death, imagining themselves at the point of death and about to depart from this world. Unless you do this during life you will find it hard at death to embrace with resignation and love death and all its pains. In her last illness that great servant of God, Sister Catherine of St. Albert, of the Order of St. Teresa, sighed and said: “Sisters, I do not sigh through fear of death, for I have lived twenty-five years expecting it, but I sigh at the sight of so many Christians who spend their life in sin, leaving themselves only the hour of death to make their peace with God, when I can scarcely pronounce the Name of Jesus!”