“Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord,
and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee.”
– St. Augustine
The whole life of man is a return journey to God: he came from God and must go back to Him. Thus the perfection of man consists in reuniting himself to God, Who is his Alpha and Omega––his first beginning and last end. The more complete this return, the more intimate his union with God will become and the better will he have attained the end for which he was created.
Such is the great ideal which should illumine and direct our whole life, the great goal which--with the divine assistance (grace and love)--we can attain even here on earth, as far as is possible in our state as pilgrims on the Way and the road to Emmaus. “Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee.” - St. Augustine
Man finds in union with God all that he can desire: he finds peace, the quenching of his hunger for the infinite, of his thirst for love and imperishable happiness. The life of heaven is nothing else than this union carried to its ultimate perfection, wherein man gives God the greatest glory and the greatest love which, in turn, results in man’s own eternal beatitude, his eternal salvation. The soul that truly loves God does not resign itself to waiting for heaven in order to be united to Him, but desires ardently to anticipate this union here below.
Our Lord Himself tells us in these words the condition for living united to Him––love. “He that abides in charity, abides in God, and God in him.” Love is the great power that unites us to God even in this life, where, imprisoned in matter, we cannot yet enjoy the direct contact, the face-to-face vision of Him. By steps of love we advance toward our last end––union with God.
St. John of the Cross explains wherein union of love with God consists. It is not a question of the substantial union that always exists between God and everything created and by means of which He is preserving their being. That kind of union is natural and can never be lacking in any creature, not even the greatest sinner. The union of love, however, is supernatural and only takes place in souls “when there is produced that likeness that comes from love,” that is, in souls that are in the state of grace.
Although God is ever in the soul, giving it, and through His presence conserving within it, its natural being, yet He does not always communicate supernatural being to it. For this is communicated only by love and grace, which not all souls possess; and all those that possess it have it not in the same degree; for some have attained more degrees of love and others fewer. God communicates Himself most to that soul that has progressed farthest in love.
The state of grace is the point of departure for union of love with God. The goal is the full development of grace, so that the soul remains totally supernaturalized, and all its powers, its entire will, all its affections are concentrated in God, neither desiring not loving anything henceforth but what God wills and loves. Grace is the life of God in us, a life that develops through progress in love. The more the soul loves, the more grace increases in it, with the result that its participation in the divine life becomes more profound, leading it to an ever more intense and perfect union with God.
Grace and love are the precious seeds of union with God; they put the soul in intimate communication with Him––communion of life, of thought and of will. God communicates Himself most to that soul that has progressed the farthest in love––namely, that has its will in closest conformity with the will of God. For the soul unites itself to God in the measure in which it is truly conformed to His will. It is evident that this union cannot be perfect as long as the soul resists the divine will, be it only in very small things, or does not accept it readily, or as long as it retains desires and tastes which, even in a very slight way, are not in harmony with the will of God.
The whole spiritual ascent to divine union consists in a double movement, very simple but essential––despoiling oneself of all that is displeasing to God, and renouncing all that is in opposition to His will, by conforming oneself to that will and fulfilling it with the greatest love. It is an extremely simple movement, but at the same time an all-embracing one, because it extends to every circumstance of life, without exception, so that in all things, the greatest as in the least, the soul acts in a manner that is in perfect conformity with the divine will.
It is also a very profound movement which must reach even to the most secret recesses of the spirit, in order to free it from the least residue, the last resistances of egoism and pride, not only eliminating their manifestations but undermining their very roots. As long as this work of total purgation is incomplete, the soul’s will cannot be totally conformed to that of God; its numerous imperfections and imperfect habits are still opposed to this entire conformity. Only the soul that has attained complete conformity and likeness of will is totally united and transformed in God supernaturally. It needs, then, only to strip itself of these natural differences and inconsistencies.
UNION WITH GOD