> [[344-the-holy-spirit-and-the-apostolate|← 344. The Holy Spirit and the Apostolate]] | [[-divine-intimacy-toc|TOC]] | [[346-the-way-of-union|346. The Way of Union →]] --- # 345. Union with God PRESENCE OF GOD - My God, Thou hast created me for Thyself; grant that I may return to Thee and unite myself to Thee by love. ## Meditation 1 The whole life of man is A return journey to God: He came from God and must go back to Him. 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: He will be perfect and eternally happy. St. Thomas teaches that A being is perfect when it attains its end; thus the perfection of man consists in rejoining God and uniting Himself to Him, His last end. Man finds in union with God all that He can desire: He finds His peace, the assuaging of His hunger for the infinite, of His thirst for love and imperishable felicity. “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in thee” ([[augustine-of-hippo-saint|st. Augustine]]). Man finds His eternal happiness in union with God; and 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, redounds to man’s own eternal beatitude 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. Is this possible? Yes, Jesus has said so: “If anyone love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him; and We will come to him and will make Our abode with him” (Jn 14,23). Our Lord Himself tells us in these words the condition for living united to Him: love. “He that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him” (1 Jn 4,16). Love is the great power which 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. “The end of the spiritual life,” says St. Thomas, “is that man unite himself to God by love” (II@ IIe, q.44, a.1, co.). By steps of love, _gressibus amoris_, we advance toward our last end: union with God. Such is the great ideal which should illumine and direct our whole life, the great goal which, with the divine assistance, we can attain even here below, as far as is possible in our state as pilgrims. ## Meditation 2 St. John of the Cross explains wherein union of love with God consists. It is not a question of the substantial union which 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 jacking in any creature, not even in 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. The Saint says: “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.” He concludes: “God communicates Himself most to that soul that has progressed farthest in love” ([[jc-ascent-toc|AS]] II, 5,3.4). The state of grace is the point of departure for the 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 nor loving anything henceforth but what God wills and loves. Grace is the life of God in us, a life which 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 communion with Him: communion of life, of thought and of will. God always remains God, distinct from His creature; the creature always keeps its own personality, and yet the soul becomes so permeated with divine life, God so “communicates to it His own supernatural Being that it seems to be God...rather than a soul” (ibid., 7). Such is the ultimate end of union with God upon earth, a sublime end, but one which it is not rash to desire, since each of us has already received in baptismal grace the seed of union with God. ## Colloquy “O Jesus, who will give me the grace to form one only spirit with You? Rejecting the multiplicity of creatures, I desire indeed, O Lord, Your unity alone! O God, You are the only One, the sole unity necessary for my soul! Ah! dear friend of my heart, unite this poor soul of mine to Your singular goodness! You are entirely mine, when shall I be all Yours? The magnet draws iron and holds it fast to itself; Lord Jesus, my Beloved, be the magnet of my heart: draw, hold fast, unite forever my spirit to Your paternal heart! Oh, since I was made for You, how is it that I am not in You? Submerge this drop, which is the spirit You have given me, in the sea of Your goodness, from which it proceeds. Lord, seeing that Your heart loves me, why do You not lift me up to You, as I so much desire? Draw me, and I will run in the odor of Your ointments until I cast myself into Your arms and never move from thence forever. Amen” ([[francis-de-sales-saint|St. Francis de Sales]]). “O Lord, who could describe how great a gain it is to cast ourselves into Yours arms and make an agreement with You: You will take care of my affairs and I of Yours." “For what am I, Lord, without You? What am I worth if I am not near You? If once I stray from Your Majesty, be it ever so little, where shall I find myself? “O my Lord, my Mercy and my Good! What more do I want in this life than to be so near You that there is no division between You and me? “O Lord of my life, draw me to Yourself, but do it in such a way that my will may ever remain so united to You that it shall be unable to leave You” ([[teresa-of-avila-saint|T.J.]] Con, 4 — 3). # References AS - [[jc-ascent-toc|Ascent of Mt. Carmel by Saint John of the Cross]] T.J. - [[teresa-of-avila-saint|Saint Teresa of Avila]] Con - [[tj-conceptions-of-the-love-of-god|Conceptions of the Love of God by Saint Teresa of Avila]] --- ![[bibliography#^biblio-di]] > [[344-the-holy-spirit-and-the-apostolate|← 344. The Holy Spirit and the Apostolate]] | [[-divine-intimacy-toc|TOC]] | [[346-the-way-of-union|346. The Way of Union →]]