De pulchritudine mentis, uanitate mundi, et dileccione Dei et proximi connexis; et an perfectus amor posset amitti et preparari in uia

De pulchritudine mentis, uanitate mundi, et dileccione Dei et proximi connexis; et an perfectus amor posset amitti et preparari in uia

If you are drawn to beauty, know that the appearance of your mind will be loved by the highest beauty, if you keep it intact for the love of Him alone. The beauty of corruptible flesh is weak and contemptible, because it quickly fades and deceives all who love it. Therefore, our virtue exists in this: that, having disregarded and rejected vanity, we adhere inseparably to the truth. All these visible things that are desired on earth are vain. The things that are truly real are those that cannot be seen; they are heavenly and eternal. Every true Christian shows himself to be chosen by God in this way: by considering earthly things as nothing, he expands his heart with divine desires, and from this he receives the hidden love of God, which no one ever knew among worldly people, because when someone is wrapped up in earthly desires, he is miserably distanced from the taste of heavenly joy. And indeed, the capacity of a soul that leans toward the love of eternity, and which tirelessly adopts Christ, is often filled with an abundance of sweetness, so that even in this joyful flesh, it may function with a delightful harmony like that of angels. Therefore, if our love is pure and perfect, whatever our heart loves must exist in God. If we love ourselves and all other creatures that deserve love, but only in God and for the sake of God, what else do we love in ourselves and in them but God Himself? Since God is loved by us with all our heart and mind, then without a doubt our neighbor and everything we ought to love is rightly loved. So if we pour out our whole heart before God and in the love of God, bound to Him and held by Him, what is left for us to love beyond that? In the love of God, there is also love for our neighbor. Just as someone who truly loves God cannot fail to love others, so anyone who truly knows how to love Christ is proven to love nothing in Him except God. Therefore, everything we love or are loved by should be directed entirely to God, the source of love. Because whoever commands that the whole human heart be given to him also desires that all affections and every movement of the mind be fixed in him. Moreover, whoever truly loves God feels nothing in their heart except God, and if they feel nothing else, they have nothing else; but whatever they have, they love for God's sake, and they love only what God wants them to love. Therefore, he loves nothing but God, and thus his entire love is God. True love is indeed that which conforms itself to its Creator, who has made all things for His own sake; thus, it loves everything for the sake of God. Indeed, when the love of eternity is truly ignited in our souls, all the vanity of the world and every carnal affection is regarded as nothing but the most worthless refuse. And while the mind, devoted to constant devotion, seeks nothing but the good pleasure of its Creator, it marvelously ignites within itself with the fire of love, so that gradually, progressing and being stirred in spiritual goods, it does not fall into the slippery and broad way that leads to death, but rather, lifted by the heavenly fire, may go forth and ascend to the contemplative life. For a contemplative life cannot be perfectly attained by anyone in this valley of tears, unless first their heart is thoroughly ignited by the flames of eternal love, so that their heart may feel itself burning with the fire of love, and their conscience may recognize itself melting with sweet delight. Indeed, it’s hardly possible to become truly contemplative unless one, by tasting sweetness and feeling the fervor of love, is almost brought to the point of dying from the greatness of that love. Thus, in the physical embraces of eternal love, it is as if one is continually being shaped, because, by contemplating incessantly, one strives to ascend with total desire to that unbounded light which is to be seen. Finally, such a person knows how to accept no consolation except divine consolation in his soul; in whose love, now languishing, he is compelled to long for the end of this present life, crying out anxiously with the psalmist, "When shall I come and appear before the face of God?"^✦ This is perfect love, but one can rightly question whether this state of love, once established, could ever be lost. As long as a person can sin, they can also lose love. But not being able to sin is not a state of life but of the homeland; therefore, every person, no matter how perfect they are in this life, can still sin, even mortally. Because the root of sin is not completely extinguished in anyone while they are still living, according to the common law. But if someone were such that they could neither desire nor be tempted, it would pertain more to the state of the homeland than to the way of life, and it wouldn't matter much to them not to sin since they couldn't sin. I truly don’t know if someone like that exists, living anywhere in the flesh; because, speaking for myself, the flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and I delight in the law of God according to my inner self, but I still don’t know how to love so much that I can completely extinguish desire.^✦ I believe, however, that there is one level of perfect love that anyone who reaches it will never lose. It's one thing to be able to lose something, and another to always hold on to what you don't want to lose, even if you could let it go. Those who are truly perfect abstain from everything that could either destroy or hinder their perfection as much as it depends on them. When filled with divine grace and the freedom of their will, they are constantly stirred to love, speak, and act for what is good, and they are drawn away from evil in heart, speech, and action. When a person turns completely to Christ, disregarding all temporary things, and fixes their desire solely on the Creator, as is permitted for mortals due to the corruption of the flesh, then they will indeed exercise their strength vigorously, first perceiving the heavenly citizens with an intellectual eye as if through an open sky, and afterward feeling the sweetest warmth, like a burning fire. Then he is filled with a wonderful sweetness, and afterward he rejoices in a joyful song. This is therefore perfect love, which no one knows except the one who receives it, and the one who receives it never loses it; they live sweetly and will die securely.