“Oh, my good Lord, if only my soul could be called your beloved” (Blessed Henry Suso).
This exclamation comes from a mystic inflamed with love, Blessed Henry Suso, who experienced the fire of the Holy Spirit in his inner encounter with the Lord, awakening him to the love of God. There is such a profound awakening to the love of God that the soul longs for union with the Beloved and yearns with increasing intensity for an encounter with Him. It suffers a ‘sweet sorrow’. On the one hand, it is sweet because it fills the soul with the bliss of God’s incomparable love; on the other hand, it is painful because it awakens in her an ever-increasing hunger for love which cannot be fully satisfied in this life and is only comforted by the prospect of eternity.
The soul inflamed with love will never tire of praising her Lord. She will testify to His beauty and goodness before all men. She will want others to share her joy. It is not a love that is desired only for oneself, but at the same time it is deeply personal: “My beloved is mine, and I am his; he grazes among the lilies. Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle or a young stag on cleft mountains” (Ct 2:16-17).
The love of God drives us to works. Once the soul has given herself to Him and has become the “beloved of the Lord”, our Father draws her ever closer to His great love, which is for her and for all men.
Together with Blessed Henry, let us ask the Lord for this burning love for Him, even if it brings ‘sweet sorrow’, so that our Father may continue to spread the fire of His love on earth through the ‘beloved’ He has found. Let the work of His love be established in all souls!