In many places in Holy Scripture God calls Himself a jealous God; and He even goes so far as to say that His name is jealous, to show us how essential that character is to Him, and that He cannot despoil Himself of it any more than of His very Being.
But of what is God jealous? Of one thing only, and that is, of the homage of our mind and our heart not a barren homage which rests on simple speculation, but a true homage which influences all our feelings and all our actions.
Now, in what does this homage of the mind consist? It consists in acknowledging God to be everything, the beginning of everything and the end of everything, and that without Him all is nothing. It consists especially in humbling our minds before Him, and in submitting to Him all the light our intellect may receive; or rather in being convinced that He Himself is our true Light, both in the natural order and the supernatural; that we cannot see well or judge well, except in so far as we see as He sees and judge as He judges: and this will bring our mind into a state of absolute dependence on Him, into a continual dying to our own spirit to consult His only, and into a constant fidelity in never acting in conformity to our own will, but only as He wills. This is the homage which He requires, and which He has a right to require from our minds, and of this homage He is infinitely jealous. If we refuse it to Him we go against His most essential right, we arrogate to ourselves independence in a matter which concerns the finest quality of man, that is, his capacity for knowledge, his intelligence, and his reason; we pretend either that we do not hold this intelligence from God, or that we can make a very good use of it without regulating it by the Divine Intelligence a most foolish pretension, injurious to God, and the source of all the wanderings of His creatures.
On the contrary, when we render to God this homage of the intellect, we acquit ourselves of our first duty towards the Supreme Intelligence, we place all our glory in depending utterly upon Him for all our knowledge, or for all our powers of judgment; and this homage is for us a principle of wisdom and good conduct, and an assurance of never going astray. All the errors of the human spirit, in matters of faith and morality, only proceed from not consulting the Source of Light Himself, "the light that lightens every man that cometh into the world." We must therefore in everything, but especially in supernatural things, upon which our salvation and perfection depend, keep our mind annihilated, so to speak, under the Mind of God.
And the homage of the heart, in what does that consist? In establishing God as the centre of all our affections, in loving Him for Himself alone, with all our strength, in loving ourselves only for Him and in Him; in loving no other creature except in a very subordinate manner and even then referring all our love for creatures to Him. Is not this just, when we consider that God is infinitely lovable, that we hold from Him alone our power of loving, and that He cannot permit our affections to be concentrated on ourselves or on any creature whatsoever? Does not the most simple light of reason teach us that this homage of the heart is due to God alone; that it is due to Him in all its fullness, that it is due to Him at every moment of our existence, and that a heart which does not love God, and does not love Him above all things loving everything else and itself also for God's sake only must be a depraved heart, a monster in the moral world? If we reflect for a moment upon Who God is, and what we ourselves are, can we doubt that all our love belongs to Him, that He requires the homage of it, that He is essentially jealous of this homage, and that He cannot suffer the contrary disorder without reproving it and punishing it?
Besides, this homage, that is so just and so natural, is the principle of our fidelity. Let us bestow our love where we will, but we shall never be happy in this world until we fix it upon God alone. This is a matter of experience. Every love that is not a well-ordered love is the torment of the person who loves, even if he were possessed as well of all the good things of this earth. And on the contrary, every love that is well-regulated, and that has God for its first object, is for the heart a never-failing source of peace and joy which no evil in the world can trouble.
But to what degree is God jealous? He is jealous infinitely and without measure. He to Whom all is due, Who deserves all, Who exacts all, is necessarily jealous of all, and can let nothing pass. O my God! let me conceive, as much as I am capable of doing so, how far Your jealousy extends, that I may never be so unhappy as to wound it in anything. If it is true that I ought to love You only for Your own sake alone, and that I ought to refer all other love to You if it is true that all love that is not love of You is self-love, then Your jealousy with regard to this self-love must be infinite; it must go so far as not to be able to suffer the least vestige of self-love to remain in a heart, and to pursue it to its utter destruction. O my God, I firmly believe this; faith and reason both teach it to me.
But if this is so, how can I destroy this self-love which is so deeply rooted in me, which began with my very existence, which corrupts and stains all my affections? Alas! I do not know it in all its extent; and even if I did thoroughly know it, how could I fight against it? This love is a part of myself; it is in me and clings closely to me. What strength can I find in myself against myself?
It is quite true that no man can fight against self-love in his own strength; but he can give himself up to God, he can suffer the just jealousy of God to fight against his own self-love, he can second this jealousy with his own earnest efforts; and when it is a question of dealing the last blow at the wretched human I, he can consent to bear this blow and not to shrink from the hand that is crucifying him.
He must pass through many conflicts and trials before he comes to this; but a faithful and generous soul which leaves itself in God's hands, and never wishes to draw back however God may treat it, will infallibly attain to this. The jealousy of God is too much interested in the matter to leave His work unfinished. This work began from the moment that God took possession of the soul and established His kingdom there. If this soul does not withdraw herself from the kingdom of God, she may be quite sure that God will not desist until He has finished His work in her according to His designs. Now this work of God consists in purifying her entirely from self-love, in not leaving a single fibre of it in her, and in utterly destroying the human I, in such a manner that the soul can lose nothing and desire nothing. Then God finds no more self-love, no more self-interest in that soul, and His jealousy is satisfied.
And it is so essential that this jealousy of God with regard to self-love should be fully satisfied, that if it is not satisfied in this world it will be in the other. It is of faith that self-love, which is the fruit of original sin, can have no place in Heaven, and that the sole love which can exist there is the pure love of God. If then a soul, however holy she may otherwise be, leaves this world with some remains of self-love clinging to her, the fire of purgatory must purify her from them; and this fire, as we know, is the same as the fire of hell, and purgatory only differs from hell because hope finds a place there, and because it is not eternal.
But why is God jealous in this way? Because He is God, infinitely holy, and the infinite lover of order; and because His love, as He communicates it to the blessed in Heaven, cannot exist with self-love. If one of the blessed in Heaven could cast a single look of complacency on himself, if he could for one moment love his happiness for his own sake, if he could see in this happiness anything but the pure goodness and mercy of God, the glory of God, and the will of God, at that very moment he would fall from Heaven, and could never enter there again till he had expiated that act of self-love.
O my God! exercise upon me here, in this life, all Your most just and holy jealousy! Annihilate my mind, purify my heart, and make them both render to You the homage which is due to You in all its fullness! Amen.
- taken from Manual for Interior Souls, by Father Jean Nicolas Grou