Sep 18 2008
Desiring Heaven
From a treatise On the Ascent of the Mind to God by Saint Robert Bellarmine (my emphases and comments):
Sweet Lord, you are meek [i.e., gentle] and merciful. Who would not give himself wholeheartedly to your service, if he began to taste even a little of your fatherly rule? [In other words, a true understanding of God is necessary for true devotion; right doctrine is prior to right morality.] What command, Lord, do you give your servants? “Take my yoke upon you,” you say. And what is this yoke of yours like? “My yoke,” you say, “is easy and my burden light.” Who would not be glad to bear a yoke that does not press hard but caresses? Who would not be glad for a burden that does not weigh heavy but refreshes? And so you were right to add: “And you will find rest for your souls.” And what is this yoke of yours that does not weary, but gives rest? It is, of course, that first and greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart.” What is easier, sweeter, more pleasant, than to love goodness, beauty, and love, the fullness of which you are, O Lord, my God?
Is it not true that you promise those who keep your commandments a reward more desirable than great wealth and sweeter than honey? You promise a more abundant reward, for as your apostle James says: “The Lord has prepared a crown of life for those who love him.” What is this crown of life? It is surely a greater good than we can conceive of or desire, as Saint Paul says, quoting Isaiah: “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it so much as dawned on man what God has prepared for those who love him.” [As I watched the Olympics, I thought of St. Paul’s comparison of the spiritual life to the athlete. All these Olympians ordered every part of their life for the sake of winning a gold medal. How many Catholics can honestly say that we order every part of our life for the sake of winning the “crown of life”? How often do we think of heaven? How much do we desire it? Is it our goal, the center of our life, the treasure of our hearts?]
Truly then the recompense is great for those who keep your commandments. That first and greatest commandment helps the man who obeys, not the God who commands. In addition, the other commandments of God perfect the man who obeys them. [Obtaining heaven has more to do with us becoming the kind of creature that can enter heaven that it has with not displeasing God. If we focus too much on not displeasing God, the effect is that we begin to see God more as an uncompromising taskmaster than our loving Father, Savior, and Sanctifier.] They provide him with what he needs. They instruct and enlighten him and make him good and blessed. If you are wise, then, know that you have been created for the glory of God and your own eternal salvation. This is your goal; this is the center of your life; this is the treasure of your heart. If you reach this goal, you will find happiness. If you fail to reach it, you will find misery.
May you consider truly good whatever leads to your goal and truly evil whatever makes you fall away from it. Prosperity and adversity, wealth and poverty, health and sickness, honors and humiliations, life and death, in the mind of the wise man, are not be sought for their own sake, nor avoided for their own sake. But if they contribute to the glory of God and your eternal happiness, then they are good and should be sought. If they detract from this, they are evil and must be avoided. [St. Robert reminds us that all of things should be seen from the perspective of God's glory and our eternal happiness. Of course, the only way to know which things will aid us and which will hinder us is through ardent and constant prayer.]
