examination of the heart 296 A lot of people carry out many remarkable, praiseworthy, and heroic deeds, but with an evil intention. They desire many things, but unprofitably; they work much, but with a vain concern. This saying may apply to them: “They were deceived in their undertakings,” desires and works (cf. Ps 81:13). Learn this truth from an example: this expert in the law from today’s Gospel inquires into great things, desires to understand serious things, but does not have a good intention, for he is tempting Christ. Therefore, together with the royal psalmist, address the Lord humbly, asking Him to give you a right intention in everything: “make [Y]our way straight before me” (Ps 5:8), “Teach me, O Lord, the way of [Y]our statutes; and I will keep it to the end.” (Ps 119:33). [f.83r] 3. “You shall love” (Mt 22:37). Consider that loving is a sure method of attaining eternal life. Nobody is nearer the divine glory than God’s own friends. But do not think that you should love only God abundantly, and that only those delight in the fruit of charity, whose hearts are continuously fixed on God. The Lord says that loving one’s neighbor is much like loving God (cf. Mt 22:39). Indeed, it must be asserted that one cannot exist without the other. For how could you say that you burn with the love of God, if you burn with unrestrained hatred towards your neighbor? How could you say that you serve God truly, if you refuse the smallest services to your neighbor? Yet sometimes don’t you neglect or treat carelessly the things that concern his salvation? In fact, the love of neighbor does not consist only in that you serve him; but also in that you excuse and endure his faults and consider them worthy of pardon. “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2), speaks of the perfect lover of his neighbor. Hence, earnestly ask the Lord, present on the altar, for the first and the second kind of love, as most indispensable for you.
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