Dear Friends of Padre Pio,
Peace and good to each of you!
How do you know if you love God? Of course, as Jesus explicitly stated, we love God by keeping his commandments, but so often we fail even at this. So, does that mean that if I do not keep his commandments that I don’t love him? Not necessarily. Much depends upon one’s intention before God. Some people do not keep his commandments because they do not want to do so or perhaps because they think that his commandments are not important in their life, or they presume that God’s mercy and pardon will make everything right when all is said and done. But others sincerely and resolutely try to keep his word but fail due to human weakness. So, what should our attitude be in all this?
People are easily swayed by their feelings. In fact, some people “think” with their feelings. But we are also capable of analysis, understanding and judgement, which helps us avoid unforeseen consequences of blindly following our instincts and sentiments. In a spiritual context, it is the interior relationship we form rather than the exterior result of our actions that is most important. Sincerity counts. It is our sincerity joined to a firmness of intention to please God that enables his mercy to complete what our good intentions are unable to accomplish. This interior and personal relationship to God is often not visible to others as are the external results of our efforts. Knowing this, Padre Pio advises his spiritual daughter Herminia Gargani to believe that her sincere desire to please God is already a sign of God’s presence acting in her although she perceived more her incapacity to please God rather than any external fruitful results in her life. His comments are found in his letter to her written December 14,1916. Padre Pio comments:
I exhort you to confide more in divine mercy, humbling yourself before the mercy or our God, and thanking him for all the favors he wants to grant you. By doing this, you will defy and overcome all the anger of hell. Do not fear, my dear daughter. He who has helped you up to now, will continue his work of salvation. Without divine grace would you have been able to overcome so many crises and wars to which your soul was subjected? Therefore, the same grace will do the rest: You will be saved, and the enemy will fume with anger. Meanwhile, continue to pray and suffer in accordance with divine will. The reward will not be far away.
You become sad at the love you feel for God. It seems to you that it is little more than nothing… But, my good daughter, don’t you yourself feel this love in your soul? What is that doubt, or rather, what is that ardent desire that you yourself express to me? Well, you should know, my dear daughter, that in God’s eyes the desire to love, is love. Who placed this yearning to love the Lord in your heart? Don’t holy desires come from above? Are we perhaps capable of arousing in ourselves one single desire of that kind without the grace of God which sweetly works within us? If there was nothing but the desire to love God in a soul, everything is present already; God himself is there, because God is not, nor can he be, anywhere except where there is a desire for his love.
The reflection continues: The difference between our sincere and determined internal intentions and our external actions often confuses us in determining where the good is. Without doubt, external good actions benefit many people but do not necessarily sanctify the doer. Even non-believers can do good work. Given that our goal is union with God, Saint John of the Cross says that only faith can accomplish this bridging between the finite and the infinite. This bridge of faith is a sincere and firm intention to love God and be faithful to him in every situation. This intention forms a connection with God and is independent of material and temporal circumstances. When things change, including our dying, this relationship continues active as our soul continues to be active.
Faith is active when our decisions in favor of God are conscious and free. Saint Thomas of Aquinas says that a spirit is where it acts and this fact combined with the truth from Jesus that we can do nothing good without him, support Padre Pio’s conclusion that Herminia’s desire to please God is evidence of the Spirit’s action already working in her. Her desire to love God is an indication that her loving God has already begun with her consent to this desire.
In summary we can say that while external good work benefits many people, it is our relationship with God constituted by faith expressed in a loving faithfulness that permits God’s mercy to enter and transform us. Our sincere and firm desire to love God and neighbor disposes us to receive God’s mercy, but this mercy can enter only where there is an opening on our part and this opening is produced by being merciful.
Your brother in Christ Jesus,
Fray Guillermo Trauba, Capuchin
