To what extent do we genuinely possess Love – the very Presence of God the Father – in the heart of our souls? To what degree do we sincerely have true love in our hearts: the love which is both reciprocal and reciprocates Infinite Love? To what extent are we ready, at any given moment, during the course of our daily lives, to set aside the incessantly demanding and noisy desires of our selves, in order to truly live out love as our Father’s children? And to what degree do we daily come up with rationalizations of all kinds, in order to do our utmost precisely not to live out love?
Many, if not most, of us quite often proudly and loudly proclaim that we love God. Some even like to go about publicly manifesting such a claim in a manner that can be considered analogous to that originally employed by the renowned Pharisee (Lk 18:10-14). However, when it comes down to the wire, to what extent do we truly love our Divine Father in our hearts? To what degree are we both disposed and ready, in the core of our beings, to put our money where our mouths are, in those plentiful, decisive moments when our Father decides to test the sentiments truly contained in our hearts?
Are we lustfully desirous of greedily receiving our Father’s love, while refusing to love Him according to the desires of His Divine Heart? Do we solely take, but not reciprocate, His Love, in and through the maximum degree of love that we are capable of giving at a specific moment to Himself and others, and not a fraction less? Or do we continue holding something for ourselves in reserve? Giving anything less than our best is, in fact, false – not true – love, despite our endless reasoning and rationalizations, in order to delude ourselves into believing otherwise.
The dispositions of our hearts, therefore, toward Infinite Love are crucial in fulfilling the greatest commandment of all (Ex 20:2-11, Mt 22:37-38): that of loving God the Father with the entirety of our beings – our minds, hearts, bodies, souls and spirits; for it is from such dispositions that our thoughts, intents and actions consequently arise. But how many of us continually attempt to silence our consciences, by rationalizing away all of the above under the generalized, albeit quite familiar, protestation that “if I could, I would but (insert your most preferred lie)?” Thus, how many of us proceed with our daily lives as though nothing we are doing is wrong, or seriously lacking, in some dimension or another toward our Heavenly Father?
It is high time for us to stop, step back and take a deep, thorough look at ourselves, specifically at our heartfelt sentiments, for the dispositions in our hearts determine our true natures, regardless of what we may think or claim in this regard. Only after we genuinely decide to forego the habitual darkness of loving our selves first, can the Life, Light and Love of our Father’s Heart descend to live in the heart of our souls, because the infinite Light Who Is God the Father cannot, indeed will not, enter to reside where habitual darkness lives.
(From The Divine Heart of God the Father, 2nd ed. rev.).