Page:Sermons for all the Sundays in the year.djvu/361

 but God ?" Contemplating God’s love towards men, St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi began one day to ring the bell, saying that she wished to invite all the nations of the earth to love so loving a God. St. Francis de Sales used to say with tears: "To love our God it would be necessary to have an infinite love; and we throw away our love on vain, contemptible things." 3. O! inestimable value of divine love, which makes us rich before God! It is the treasure by which we gain his friendship. "he is an infinite treasure to men, which they that use become the friends of God." (Wis. vii. 14.) The only thing we ought to fear, says St. Gregory of Nyssa (de Vita Moysis), is the loss of God‟s friendship; and the only object of our desires should be its attainment. ” Unum terribile, arbitror, ab amicitia Dei repelli: unum solum expectibile, amicitia Dei." It is love that obtains the friendship of God. Hence, according to St. Lawrence Justinian, by love the poor become rich, and without love the rich are poor. ” No greater riches than to have charity. In charity the poor man is rich, and without charity the rich man is poor." (S. Laur. Just, in Matt. xiii. 44.) How great is the joy which a person feels in thinking that he is loved by a man of exalted rank! But how much greater must be the consolation which a soul derives from the conviction that God loves her! ” I love them that love me." (Prov. viii. 17.) In a soul that loves God the Three Persons of the Adorable Trinity dwell. ” If any one love me he will keep my word; and my Father will love him; and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him." (John xiv. 23.) St. Bernard writes, that among all the virtues charity is the one that unites us to God. Charitas est virtus conjungens nos Deo." St. Catherine of Bologna used to say, that love is the golden chain that binds the soul to God. St. Augustine says, that ” love is a joint connecting the lover with the beloved." Hence, were God not immense, where should he be found? Find a soul that loves God, and there God is certainly found. Of this St. John assures us. “He that abideth in charity abideth in God, and God in him." (1 John iv. 16.) A poor man loves riches, but he does not therefore enjoy them; he may love a throne,