Page:Complete ascetical works of St Alphonsus v6.djvu/375

Rh turn all our love; and is therefore jealous of any one else sharing the affections of our hearts, of which he desires to be the sole possessor: "Jesus is a jealous lover," says St. Jerome; and he is unwilling therefore for us to fix our affections on anything but himself. And whenever he beholds any created object taking a share of our hearts, he looks on it as it were with jealousy, as the Apostle St. James says, because he will not endure a rival, but will remain the sole object of all our love: Do you think that the Scripture saith in vain: To envy doth the Spirit covet which dwelleth in you? The Lord in the sacred Canticles praises his spouse, saying: My sister, my spouse, is a garden enclosed. He callcalls [sic] her "a garden enclosed," because the soul that is his spouse keeps her heart shut against every earthly love, in order to preserve all for Jesus Christ alone. And does Jesus Christ perchance not deserve all our love? Ah, too much, too much has he deserved it, both for his own goodness and for his love towards us. The saints knew this well, and for this reason St. Francis de Sales said: "Were I conscious of one fibre in my heart that did not belong to God, I would forthwith tear it out."

David longed to have wings free from all lime of worldly affections, in order to fly away and repose in God: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest? Many souls would wish to see themselves released from every earthly trammel to fly to God, and would in reality make lofty flights in the way of sanctity, if they would but detach themselves from