“When I look into my heart, I cannot contain my love. It always wants to pour itself out upon people, embrace them, and give itself to them” (Inner Word).
Such is the love of God! It knows no bounds and always seeks to give itself away. We human beings are fortunate to be its recipients. The only thing preventing it from permeating our hearts is our closed-mindedness, indifference, or deliberate distancing from our heavenly Father.
God’s love is unique in that it needs nothing to be ignited, for it exists in and of itself, motivating everything the Lord does. His love gives rise to life and is life itself.
Looking at our own hearts, we surely cannot say that today’s phrase about the Father’s Heart applies to us. This remains true even if we are very emotional and easily perceive feelings of love within ourselves. Yet there have been people who truly burned with love for God and neighbor. The fire of God’s love ignited their capacity to love, and the Holy Spirit purified their human hearts of self-love. Thus, divine love found greater room within them. The more they listened to and followed its impulses, the more love grew in them: “For to him who has, more will be given” (Matthew 13:12).
So how can we obtain such a heart? We must ask God for a new heart. At the same time, we must consciously cooperate by performing every act of love to which we are called—even when we are not yet “inflamed with love.” We must also pay attention to the shadows we see in our hearts—indifference, coldness, closedness, and so on—and offer them to the Holy Spirit so that he may transform them.
Why should we not also become people who burn with love for our Father and for souls?