"True Lovers Hold Nothing Back"

by

Catherine de Hueck Doherty

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. Mark 12:30

How can we love if there is one-millionth of an ounce of self within us? Love is a person. Love is God. Where love is, God is. Our vocation is to make room for God in ourselves, to clothe God with our flesh, to again give God hands and lips and eyes and a voice. But to do that we must die to self. God is immense. God needs much room --our whole being! Not one crevice must be left to ourselves. Otherwise, we maim Christ if we refuse Him access to any part of us. And where is the lover who keeps back anything from the beloved? Such a person is not a true lover.

And so that is our vocation--to burn, to die to become a flame, so as to make room for Christ to grow in us. This dying to self to make room for God is painful. But dedication is seen in that pain. There is a radiance emanating from that pain which disperses the shadows in another's face. That is the essence of our vocation -- to burn with love, to be a light, to be a fire. And we cannot start a fire with green wood. The fire of the love of God will not take hold in a soul that is not utterly dedicated to God.