17 September, Antonio, Cardinal Bacci: Meditations For Each Day

The Commandments and the Desires of Jesus Christ

1. Sanctity consists in doing the will of God in all things. We can become perfect by doing His will from the motive of love alone. “He who has my commandments and keeps them,” and Jesus, “he it is who loves me. But he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. If anyone love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him.” (John 14: 21-23)

Do we wish to know if we love God sincerely? The proof is this. If we do His will and obey His precepts, it is a sign that we love Him; but if we do not observe His commandments, we lie when we say that we love Him. We must therefore show our love by observing in all things the commandments of God. He gave us these commandments out of love for us, so that by observing them we should be saved and should be happy with Him. Even as He has given them out of love, we should observe them out of love, for He is our supreme and only good. Just as Jesus lovingly did the will of his heavenly Father, from Bethlehem to Nazareth, from Nazareth to Calvary, and from Calvary to Heaven, so we should follow in His footsteps by doing the adorable will of God in all the circumstances of our lives, both joyful and sorrowful. But we must obey the divine will out of love, that is, because we love God whole-heartedly and above all created things.

Everything is easy to him who loves. “When we love him who gives us orders,” says St. Francis de Sales, “even the hardest of actions become easy.”

Let us examine ourselves. Are we always ready to obey the commandments of God at any cost and would we die rather than offend Him? Let us examine ourselves also to see if we do all this out of love for Jesus. “He who does not love,” writes St. John, “abides in death.” (1 John 3:14)

2. One who loves is not content merely to do the will of the loved one; he tries to satisfy his every wish. If we really love Jesus, therefore, not only should we do His will perfectly, but we should also fulfil every desire of His heart. But what are the desires of Jesus? His first desire is the glory of His Father, which we must promote by every means in collaboration with divine grace. His second is our sanctification. “For this is the will of God, your sanctification.” (1 Thess. 4:3) “You therefore are to be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48)

In the third place, we should take part as far as we can in works of the Apostolate, for the triumph of the Church and of the kingdom of God on earth. Are we doing all this? Perhaps on the day of our death we shall have to say: How much good I could have done, and I neglected to do it! How much more I should have loved my God, yet I loved Him so little.

3. “O my Saviour, I adore You with the perfect submission which you showed to the will of Your Father. I ask pardon for all the obstacles which I have placed in the way of Your holy will. In union with the perfect submission which You, Your mother, and all Your Saints displayed in regard to the will of God, I profess that neither in life nor in death do I desire anything other than Your adorable will.” (St. John Eudes)