“Nothing is difficult if you love God” (Venerable Anne de Guigné).
This sentence of a young French saint hits the nail on the head. It is love that transforms everything. In fact, it was love that brought us salvation, because “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (Jn 3:16).
“Love is as strong as death” (Song 8:6), and we could actually say that in a sense it is even stronger than death, because so many Christians, out of love for Jesus, have preferred death to denying the Name of the Lord.
We only have to look at our Father to begin to understand love and to encounter it without limits. Indeed, He Himself is love (1 Jn 4:8).
And what is our response?
When we allow ourselves to be touched by God’s love, our hearts are set on fire and we begin to carry the gentle yoke of Jesus. Then the heaviness of our lives disappears. We discover that love is the reason for our existence and we know that we are infinitely loved. Thus we grow in confidence to bear whatever God puts in our way and even to do it willingly, understanding it from the perspective of love and allowing ourselves to be blessed by it.
This is the way of simplicity. Our will is called to try to do things out of love for God. And then we notice that we ourselves are sustained by this love, and we begin to cooperate with it more and more. At first it may still seem laborious, and we may still complain at times about the drudgery and toil of earthly life. But when we turn to the Lord, everything becomes brighter and easier. Our courage returns and we can better understand and apply the words of this little saint: “Nothing is difficult if you love God”.