_He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit_,[1] says St. Paul.
Our Blessed Father had arrived at that degree of union with God which is in
some sort a unity, because the will of God in it becomes the soul of our
will, that is, its life and moving principle, even as our soul is the life
and the moving principle of our body. Hence his rapturous ejaculation:
"Oh! how good a thing it is to live only in God, to labour only in God, to
rejoice only in God!"
Again, he expresses this sentiment even more forcibly in the following
words: "Henceforth, with the help of God's grace, I will no longer desire
to be anything to any one, or that any one be anything to me, save in God,
and for God only. I hope to attain to this when I shall have abased myself
utterly before Him. Blessed be God! It seems to me that all things are
indeed as nothing to me now, except in Him, for whom and in whom I love
every soul more and more tenderly."
Elsewhere he says: "Ah! when will this poor human love of attentions,
courtesies, responsiveness, sympathy, and favours be purified and brought
into perfect accordance with the all pure love of the Divine will? When
will our self-love cease to desire outward tokens of God's nearness and
rest content with the changeless and abiding assurance which He gives to
us of His eternity? What can sensible presence add to a love which God has
made, which He supports, and which He maintains? What marks can be lacking
of perseverance in a unity which God has created? Neither presence nor
absence can add anything to a love formed by God Himself."
[Footnote 1: 1 Cor. vi. 17.]