Today on the occasion of the fourth centenary of the death of Saint Francis de Sales, the pope underlines that the bishop of Geneva considered the Christian life as an exit from oneself, an “ecstasy of work and life”: ” This should not, however, be confused with an easy escape or withdrawal into intimacy, and even less with a sad and gray obedience “. The Christian life is ” a life that has rediscovered the sources of joy, against all aridity, against the temptation to withdraw into oneself “. And the pope to recall what he wrote to the beginning of his pontificate: The great risk of today’s world, with its consumer supply multiple and overwhelming, is an individualistic sadness that comes from the settled and miserly heart, from the sick search for superficial pleasures, for isolated consciousness.
When the inner life firm on its own interests, there is no more room for others, the poor no longer enter, we no longer listen to the voice of God, one no longer enjoys the sweet joy of his love, the enthusiasm of doing good no longer throbs”. (The Joy of the Gospel, no. 2). The pope also adds: As for the deep source of this ecstasy, [Francois de Sales] judiciously relates to the love manifested in the incarnate Son (…).
The source of this love that attracts the heart is the life of Jesus Christ: “Nothing presses the heart of man so much as love,” and the culmination of this pressure is the fact that Jesus Christ died for us (…). The truth of the ecstasy of life and action is not just any, but it is that which appears under the form of the charity of Christ, which culminates in the cross “. In the Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales devotes an entire book to the ” commandment to love God over all things “. He concludes this book with a long meditation on the way in which Jesus Christ himself loved: the Incarnation, already, is an ecstasy, an act of love of God who comes out of himself to come to meet us. In the Christmas light we here are trained to contemplate” the love manifested in the incarnate Son “. Along his pen Text T Treaty of the Love of God, X.17 “How Our Lord Manifested His Love” Written in contemporary French by Didier-Marie Proton Deer 2011 I have spoken to you at length about the acts by which God has shown his love to us. I would like you to treasure the memory of it. Also, I present to you a small collection. The charity of Christ urges us, says the great Apostle (2 Cor 5:14).
Yes, Theotime, she does violence by its infinite gentleness. Everywhere, in Redemption, love is present. The kindness and the love of God towards men appeared. For how far, indeed, the divine Lover did he not go in matters of love? These lines of Saint Francis de Sales were born from his meditation on the Scriptures. The citations and biblical allusions abound, notably the references to Saint Paul who exposes the mystery of the Christ. With him, we can reread some verses from the letter to the Philippians: ” Christ Jesus, having the condition of God, did not jealously retain the rank that made him equal to God. But he annihilated himself, taking on the condition of a servant, becoming like men. Recognized man to his aspect, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, and the death of the cross ” (Phil 2, 5-8)
The incarnation of the Son of God and the feast of Christmas come to contradict the idea that man comes spontaneously from a distant and unattainable God. On the contrary, God makes himself close to us until we come, in Jesus Christ, to wed our humanity. To reveal himself to us, God adopts our human language. To raise us to him, he lowers himself. Why did God humble himself and become man? To save us from sin, but also because God is “in love with our heart”, he desires to enter into a relationship with man and communicate to him. God ” considered that among all the ways of communicating, there was none Comment 1. He loved us with a love of convenience, for his delights were to be with the children of men. He became a man for attract men to him. 2. He loved us with a love of benevolence, gratifying us with his own divinity, in such a way that man was God. 3. He unites with us in an incomprehensible way union. To do this, in his Person as Son of God, he assumed our nature so strongly, so tightly, so indissoluble, that never was anything more strongly united to the divinity than our humanity. 4. As it were, he sank while us, he proportioned his greatness to our smallness. This is why he is the source of living water (Cf. Jr 2, 13), the dew heavenly, justice coming from heaven (cf. Is 45:8). 5. He exiled himself from himself. Not only (…) because, in the excess of its love, he extends his providence to all things and is in all things, but also because, as Saint Paul says (cf. Phil 2:7), he left himself in a way; he emptied of himself, of his greatness, of his glory; he resigned from the throne his incomprehensible majesty; and if it is necessary to speak thus, it is annihilated itself, to take our nature and give us its own; he filled us with his goodness ; he raised us to his dignity by making us children of God. He can say of man what Saint Paul says of him, Christ: I no longer live I, but man lives in me (cf. Gal 2, 20); My life is man, and dying for man is my profit (cf. Phil 1:21); My life is hidden with man in God (Col 3:3). He who dwelt in himself dwells now in us He who lived in the bosom of the Father for ever and ever became mortal in the bosom of his Mother; He who lived his divine life eternally lived in the time of his human life; and He who forever was only God will forever be male. This is how his love of man stole the heart of God, and made him exile himself. even. He who eternally had been only God will be forever man. That’s how her love for man stole the heart of God, and exiled him from himself. Saint Francis de Sales The way of being of Christ governs the style of Christian life: it is an exit-from-self, an “ecstasy”, to manifest the love of God.
This call is personal, but it also concerns the whole Church. This is why Pope Francis likes to speak of a “Church on the way out”. That becomes a Church that does not announce and does not go out? To this question, Francis answers: “She becomes a spiritual association. A multinational intended to launch initiatives and messages with ethical and religious content. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not the Church… ends up domesticating Christ” . And to add: It is Christ who brings the Church out of herself.” (Pope Francis, Without Jesus we can do nothing, p. 22-23). Because the Son of God, the first, has come out and humbled herself, the Church – always united with Christ – is called to walk on the same path. nothing better than to unite with a created nature, in such a way that the creature was as grafted onto the Divinity, and would no longer constitute with it but one person” (TAD II.4). Besides, to be united with the Lord, to dwell with him, that is salvation. Therefore, the incarnation is placed under the sign of joy. ” His delight was to be with the children of men” , note Francois de Sales. Here we find a Salesian characteristic: if man enjoys meet the Lord, God has an even greater joy in communicating himself to man.