“As soon as we have the true desire to love, we have already begun to love” (St. Francis de Sales).
These are comforting words from a saint who obviously not only had a very close relationship with the Lord, but also knew the human soul very well. How often do we really want to love, and yet we always stumble against our limits!
Is this surprising? Not really.
When we experience the overflowing love of our heavenly Father, revealed to us in His Son, we are confronted with a love that exceeds our human capacity. At the same time, we are invited to imitate the Lord.
But how is this possible? Only by the grace of God! By the love that has been poured into our hearts (Rm 5:5), by the decision of our will, perhaps also by the longing of our heart, if it has been awakened at least a little from its lethargy.
Our Father has sown in us the desire to love, and the more we listen to Him and allow Him to work in us, the more our heart, often dormant, sluggish and sometimes even cold, awakens. Then our heart will want to love!
Since it is an infinite love that calls us, we will have to experience our limitations again and again, because our heart needs to be totally transformed. The “heart of stone” must be removed from our breast and a “new heart” must take shape, formed after the Heart of God (cf. Ezek 36:26).
This is a royal road and every limitation we experience will become a challenge for us.
“You can love even more!” – the Lord will challenge us.
“I am trying and I want to” – we will answer.
“Then you are already loving and this love will grow even more” – our Father will say. Continue on this path.
In this way He will comfort us, lift us up and strengthen us to continue on the path of love.