Love for Jesus is the core of holiness, and we would all answer Our Lord’s question like St Peter: “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You”. Yes, Our Blessed Lord does know, but how much do we really know about our love for Him, as we climb the Holy Mountain? The reason for desiring to love Him is that He is infinitely good in Himself, and He has been infinitely good to us. The desire to love Him cannot be quantified. Our primary motive for loving Him should be His Glory, and not the promised reward of Heaven. While the measure of our love should be to love Him without measure. Here and now, we can conform to that ideal by spending ourselves, selflessly, without limit for Him and in Him: “Love in most men will grow cold; but the man who stands firm to the end will be saved.” Without Limit means just that: to take no account of what we may have already done, or will do, in His Love; to put no restriction upon whom we help, in His Love; and to seek no reason, so long as our actions are performed in His Love. If anyone doubts this, let them look to the Saints. Saints, especially, who also climbed the Holy Mountain of Carmel.

The Holy Mountain
As we climb Mount Carmel, we are roped to our guide, Jesus, by the twin ropes of love:prayer and penance; which serve to keep us in the presence of God. There is also a safety line controlled by Our Blessed Mother who is ever watchful for her sons and daughters. We may stumble and even lose our footing, but as long as even one of those ropes remains firm, we know that we can get back on course. The same is true if we lose our way in fog: the temporary blindness of sin; we trust in Jesus our guide and companion. As we gain in confidence and experience, Jesus may let the ropes go slack and, try as we might, there is no way that we can tighten them. We seem to be on our own: time to put into practice the little learning that we have acquired; to keep on going, in faith, in trust, and in love, during this testing period of dryness and misery. Did we but know it, the Good Shepherd is carefully watching His little lamb on the mountainside, as is Our Blessed Mother.

The slack in the ropes is taken up, and we feel more secure Thankfulness gives way to an unaccountable euphoria: akin to the intense desire of a lover to see, run after, and cleave to the beloved. Our guide appears much closer than before: so close that we begin to see the climb from His standpoint. Actually, our soul’s standpoint in Him: the air is so fresh, the way ahead so clear, even the trials of the climb are welcome, all because Jesus is with us. Our love for Him has certainly grown and we are more than ready to be spent without limit for Him. Jesus allows the ropes to go slack many times: each time pushing us a little bit further, and each time we experience that euphoria. In all walks of life, however, the joy of Mount Tabor finally gives way to the sorrow of Calvary. A moment ago we were climbing in fine weather; now, a storm is raging. We took note of those earlier lessons of trust and love for our guide, Jesus, and we know that the twin ropes of prayer and penance are sound. But, do we know this? We are no longer enamoured of the fresh air or the climb, and feel more like a shorn lamb in the cold and wet: so we are not too sure about a ‘Good’ Shepherd! Put simply, prayer has less attraction, the thrill has diminished; while penance is wearisome and a burden. We get no answers to our prayers or, more correctly, not the answers that we want; and we are subject to all of our old temptations, along with some new ones.

The storm is not about to abate. The ropes are still holding, yet we are no longer moving onward and upward. Gradually, the ground becomes a mud-slide, we are soaked to the skin, and our cries for help are ineffectual. What a state to be in, as we learn the all important lesson of our life: disillusionment with our-self. Here on God’s Holy Mountain, we are unable to do anything on our own. We are nothing - NO, not even that – the ‘we’ must also go, to leave just: Nothing, Nothing, Nothing! We have been ourselves for far too long, better now to cut the ropes, and finish. With one last fling of pride, we take our knife to do this; but Our Blessed Lady gently removes it from our grasp, and the shorn lamb finds itself in the arms of the Good Shepherd. Everyone has to experience, personally, the crucifying reality of purgation, albeit under the watchful eye of a tormented Jesus; abandoning our self, acknowledging that there is no good in us other than Love itself, Our Divine Saviour: at last He really can be All to us, for we realise, and accept, our nothingness. How quickly He moves to assuage our pain. “I will pour upon you clean water … and put a new spirit within you.”

As if by magic, the storm has cleared and the climb is about to continue, for there is still a long way to go! Jesus has given us a garment of love to cover our nakedness, “a new self which will progress towards true knowledge” for we are at risk from our old ways. Our sense of sin is heightened and we seem to be for ever wanting to check on the purity of our intentions. We are climbing now on the rocky slopes of the Holy Mountain: this is a new experience and so we keep our guide always in view; carry out his commands to the letter, and rely more on the ropes to keep us moving onward and upward. There will always be trials and consolations in our lives, but we endeavour to look on these through God: allowing Him to lead us in the practice of prayer and penance; and allowing Him to illumine our spiritual darkness, ”O Lord, You Yourself are my lamp, my God lights up my darkness;”, that we may love Him in His way with a pure, selfless, agapeic love. We leave the measure of our love to Him, for He alone knows its nature and perfection, and we simply try to keep it on the increase.

Prayer and Penance
Practicing effective prayer and penance, based on Holy Scripture assists our progress towards true knowledge: increasing our love; and making us closer living images of Him: by representing in our own lives aspects of His life, and His virtues; and by seeking to be truly pure in heart and poor in spirit. The new Catechism (Arts.1414-1439) reveals just how much common ground there is between prayer, in its wider meaning, and penance. We have examples of this common ground in the God-given Commandments and Beatitudes: which incorporate the Precepts of Holy Mother Church, and the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy. The importance of these in the Divine plan of salvation, is evident from Jesus’ own words: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word” and in how He taught us to pray to Our Father, “Thy Will be done on earth”. St John added in his First Epistle: “This is the commandment that He has given us, that anyone who loves God must also love his brother”. Again, fidelity to His words is the sure way to increase our love for Him.

These temporal activities are outward signs of the inner graces associated with them: graces which vivify the soul to enable us to do His Will, if we so wish. If we utilize His gifts and do His Will in Him, and with Him in mind; then, and only then, can there be any increase in our love. “I am standing at the door knocking. If one of you hears me calling and opens the door“ He loves us so much, that how ever many times we open the door, or even refuse to open it, He will still knock again, and again; as He invites us to give of ourselves unstintingly in the love of Him. And why does each one of us keep on opening the door? Surely, because, “God is Love”, “and God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son,”; and, if we are true to our nature: that is, loving what is perfect in itself, because we recognise His perfection; then we become lost like joyful little children in the infinity of His Love.

As mentioned earlier, our own self is the biggest problem that we experience in trying to be true to our nature. Often, we are unaware of our selfishness: and grateful for fraternal correction; otherwise, how could we ever prefer our sinful self in place of our sinless Saviour? How can we love our neighbour as our-self if we are selfish; and how can we expect to see our neighbour as Christ: if our faith is weak and our love of God impoverished? Christ, Himself, enables us to address our imperfections with the Eucharist: a Sacramental meal without equal. “Come to Me … and I will refresh you”. The soul literally becomes drowned in Love, penetrated, purified, re-invigorated, transformed: all by Love. Our love has fed on Love. How necessary then that we partake of this food for the soul during our climb up the Mountain, to keep us on course and combat theblindness of sin. Catherine of Sienna said: “To sin is human nature; but to persist in it, is of the devil”. A common misconception is that it would be better not love the ‘self’ at all. However, the self is God-given and, to give Glory to Him, should be loved, in a manner which is not sinful, for His sake, in line with the Beatitudes.

Lack of detachment is another difficulty experienced when trying to fulfil the purpose of creation. We know that Jesus is “the way” to God, but we allow ourselves to be drawn in divers directions away from it, by our attachments: not least by the attachment to our-self; so that our ability to recognise the way is enfeebled. The gifts of the Holy Spirit help us to overcome the desire to have ‘a finger in every pie’: that love of being indispensable; and to take a back seat, yet be available. Distancing our-self is necessarily an exercise in charity; otherwise it could become sinful. Detachment is not the closing of our heart to a brother or sister, in whom we should see Christ, nor is it contempt for their person. It is loving them through God, while abnegating all that does not “make straight His paths” in the love which is taking us to Him, on His Holy Mountain. When keeping the Commandments, and practicing the Beatitudes, with a brother or sister in mind; we actually love them more by seeing them through God and, consequently, love God more.

The practice of praying for our neighbour, as well as for ourselves, is an added means of keeping us in the presence of God. Often, during the day there is time for a short spontaneous mix of silence, loving conversation, ejaculations and favourite Psalms. After all, climbers do need to keep in touch with the guide. Affective prayer: the intimacy of love; is a grand way of expressing that intense desire for the Glory of the Beloved. Lying childlike in His arms, abandoned to His Love, imagine: His joy as we tell Him of our love, and share with Him current trials and consolations; His Love as we speak with Him on behalf of a brother or sister; His sorrow as we weep over our sinfulness, complacency, and cold indifference; and His wish to help us to realise our hope, as we look forward and prepare for that day when we shall glorify Him in the company of His Saints in the eternity of Heavenly bliss.

Heaven on Earth
Every time we come to the words, “Thy Kingdom come”, when saying the Our Father; we are reminded of the Heavenly bliss, and there is a little twinge of longing. Isn’t it sad that not everyone appreciates the reality of the reward promised by Our Blessed Lord at the end of each Beatitude: as for example at the end of the first and last Beatitudes, “theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven”. The word ‘is’ implies that ‘here-and-now’ while still on earth, the Kingdom of Heaven is in our souls. For example: the souls of the truly poor in spirit are filled with His Goodness. A devout person, quite unaware of this truth, would take the Beatitudes at face value, simply adhere to them and live by them; ultimately sanctifying his soul by his faithfulness, and receiving his reward in Heaven. Now suppose that in His mercy, Our Blessed Lord had purged this same person. The Beatitudes would still be an integral part of his life, but instead of simply adhering to them, he would now begin to live them. They have become a part of him: no longer simply true in themselves, they are true to him in his soul. His adherence is based on something more than faith and, because of his very deep love for God, he could well receive the grace of infused knowledge. He experiences Heaven: albeit veiled; here on earth as a prelude to the full glory of the Beatific Vision at his death.

When Jesus sent the 72 disciples ahead of Him on the journey to Jerusalem, He told them to say that, “The Kingdom of God is very near”. While as part of the farewell discourses, Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We shall come to him and make Our home with him”. Among other things, Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity is remembered for a syllogism based on the Divine Indwelling: “God is in my soul; God is in Heaven; therefore my Heaven (on earth) is in my soul.” It is impossible to form any realistic idea of the import of these 3 quotations. We may have an idea of what it is like to live in a kingdom: either from experience or from reading about it; so we know: that a king is usually remote from his people; and that a tyrant, or a benevolent king, can make a big difference to the quality of life of his subjects. In the 3 quotations, we are grappling with the King of kings: God Himself, Whose Name means God-is-with-us, Who calls Himself the Good Shepherd, and Who is Love. Each soul is His spiritual Kingdom. To compound this wonder of Love, the King is a consubstantial “Son of God” while His subjects are adopted “sons of God” This we believe by Faith. St John emphasized the nub of this truth: “We can know that we are living in Him and He is living in us because He lets us share His Spirit” and “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he in God. Julian of Norwich wrote, “We ought to rejoice that God dwells in our soul, and our soul in God; so that between God and our soul is nothing, it is, as it were, all God.”

God in His mercy has revealed the truth of His Kingdom here on earth that we might be prepared during our exile: as clay takes the shape the potter pleases; to glorify Him face-to-face. Purity of our love for God and contempt for self is our goal: for “nothing unclean may enter” His Kingdom If our preparation is not completed, as we climb Mount Carmel, then it must be completed in Purgatory. Left to ourselves, we should not know howto form either thought or desire, for we are nothing. Yet “it is when I am weak that I am strong”. All our actions are under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who effects everything within us. Love is our vocation, Love is our destiny; as we seek to conform our will to the Will of God and to be transformed more and more in Jesus, “I always do what pleases Him”; as we seek to live what we have so painfully accepted, that Christ is All in All.

It makes a lot of sense to abandon ourselves in the arms of Love. “God is Love” and He is pure Love. God the Father loves God the Son with a pure Love: Jesus is pure Love. Since God the Father can only love us with a pure Love, He is loving us in Jesus. If our love is not pure, we cannot love God the Father directly. We can love Him indirectly though, through, with, and in, Jesus; because the presence of Jesus in our soul purifies our love. Meditating on pure love, St Augustine wrote: “If I were God and God were me, God would gladly become me so that I could become God”! He argued that no soul can ever offer to God the love that He deserves; but if he became God, and possessed God’s Love, then he could love God as only God can love.

“Do you love Me?”

"Yes, Lord, You know that I do; but, Lord, grant me grace to keep on loving You daily more and more."

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