Page:Sermons for all the Sundays in the year.djvu/365

 "an enclosed garden." "My sister, my spouse is an enclosed garden." (Cant. iv. 12.) The soul, then, that wishes to belong entirely to God, must be shut against all love which is not for God. 11. Hence the Divine Spouse is said to be wounded by one of the eyes of his eyes. ” Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast wounded my heart with one of thy eyes." (Cant. iv. 9.) One of her eyes signifies, that in all her thoughts and actions the only end of the spouse is to please God; while, in their devout exercises, worldlings propose to themselves different objects sometimes their own interest, sometimes to please their friends, and sometimes to please themselves. But the saints seek only to please God, to whom they turn, and say: ” What have I in heaven? and, besides thee, what do I desire upon earth? Thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion for ever." (Ps. Ixxii. 25, 26.) We should do the same if we wished to be saints. If, says St. Chrysostom, we do some things pleasing to God, what else but his pleasure do we seek? "Si dignus fueris agere aliquid, quod Deo placet, aliam præter id mercedem requiris ?" (Lib. 2, de Compunct. Cord.) What greater reward can a creature obtain than to please its Creator? Hence, in all we desire or do, we should seek nothing but God. A certain solitary, called Zeno, walking through the desert, absorbed in thought, met the Emperor Macedonius going to hunt. The emperor asked him what he was doing. In answer, the solitary said: You go in quest of animals, and I seek God alone. St. Francis de Sales used to say, that the pure love of God consumes all that is not God. 12. Moreover, to love God with our whole heart, it is necessary to love him without reserve. Hence we must love him with a love of preference. We must prefer him before every other good, and must be resolved to lose a thousand lives, rather than forfeit his friendship. We must say with St. Paul: Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God." (Rom. viii. 38, 39.) We must also love him with a love