St. Teresa of the Child Jesus (Little Flower) tells us that she used to be tormented with the unfulfilled longing for ‘martyrdom’ until she read the chapters 12 and 13 of St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. In chapter 12 St. Paul speaks of the varieties of charisms bestowed by the Holy Spirit on the Church - the Body of Christ - for her life and mission. In chapter 13 he speaks of a ‘more excellent way’ than all these charisms – and that way is the way of love. St. Teresa of the Child Jesus is struck by this revelation. She realises that all the gifts of heaven, even the most perfect ones, are nothing without love as Christ has taught us. She says: “But charity – that was the key to my vocation. If the Church was a body composed of different members, it couldn’t lack the noblest of all; it must have a heart, and a heart burning with love. And I realised that this love was the true motive force that enabled the other members of the Church to act...Beside myself with joy, I cried out: ‘Jesus, my love! I’ve found my vocation, and my vocation is love... To be nothing else than love, deep down in the heart of Mother Church”. 

A saint who has embodied the Gospel of Love par excellence by becoming a living image of Christ on this earth is St. Francis of Assisi. In his exhortation to us to be simple, humble and pure, he says: “Let us therefore bear fruits that befits repentance. And let us love our neighbours as ourselves. Let us have charity and humility and let us give alms, for this cleanses the soul of the stains of sin. Men lose everything that they leave behind in this world; but they carry with them the right to be repaid for their charity and almsgiving and they will receive a reward and generous repayment from the Lord... We should not be wise and prudent according to worldly standards, but rather we should be simple, humble and pure. We should never desire to be above others, but rather we should be servants, and subject for the Lord’s sake to every kind of human authority. Upon all who do these things and endure to the end will rest the Spirit of the Lord; he will make his dwelling place and home in them and they will be children of their heavenly Father, whose works they do; they are spouses and brothers and mothers of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  

The great reformer of the Carmelite Order, St. Teresa of Avila, in her ‘Book of Life’ writes: “A man can bear all things provided he possesses Christ Jesus dwelling within him as his friend and affectionate guide. Christ gives us help and strength, never deserts us and is true and sincere in his friendship... What more do we want than to have at our side a friend so loyal that he will never desert us when we are in trouble or in difficulties, as worldly friends do? How blessed is the man who genuinely and sincerely loves him and holds on to him! Consider the case of the glorious apostle, Saint Paul. It seemed that he could do no other than speak about Jesus continually, because he had Jesus engraved and printed upon his heart... But whenever we think of Christ, let us always bear in mind that love of his which drove him to bestow upon us so many gifts and graces. Let us bear in mind too how great is the love God has shown us, since he has given us in Christ such a pledge of that love which he has for us; for love calls for a return of love. Let us therefore try to keep this pledge always before our minds, and in this way stir up our love for him.”   

For love to be love, it has to reach out to others. This is seen in the life of St. Hedwig.   She became well aware that the living stones which were to be laid in the building of the heavenly Jerusalem had to be hammered and chipped on earth; therefore, she endured many tribulations and subdued her body by the scourge of many chastisements and thereby made spiritual progress by advancing in grace. It is said about her that she found that there was enkindled within her ‘a spreading flame of devotion and divine love’ which at times was so intense that she even lost the use of her senses. Yet “just as she was always longing for God with her heartfelt love, at the same time she devoted herself to caring for her neighbour with a charity that proved itself in good works, generously giving alms to all who needed them. She came to the aid of communities of men and women who lived the religious life, whether they were dwelling enclosed in monasteries or worked outside in the world, of widows and orphans, of the sick and the weak, of lepers and those who were in prison or bound in irons, of pilgrims and poor women who had infants to nourish. She never permitted who came to her  for help to go away unaided...And because this servant of God never omitted any good deed which lay in her power, God in his turn gave her this special grace, that when she found herself without means or when her own strength was beginning to flag, she would be enabled by the divine power of Christ’s passion to achieve whatever was required of her in meeting the needs of her neighbours.”

Our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and revealed to her the mystery of his Most Sacred Heart with a mandate to spread this devotion throughout the Church so that through this devotion we could make reparation for our sins. Her testimony is so profound and worth pondering over again and again:

“Out of this divine heart three streams gush forth uninterruptedly. The first stream is one of mercy for sinners to whom it brings in its flow the spirit of contrition and penance. The second stream is one of charity which flows to bring help to all those who are labouring under difficulties and especially to those who are aspiring after perfection, that all may find support in overcoming difficulties. But the third stream flows with love and light to those who are Christ’s perfect friends, whom he wishes to bring to complete union with himself, to share with them his own knowledge and commandments, so that they may give themselves up entirely, each in his own way, to enhancing Christ’s glory. This divine heart is an ocean full of good things wherein poor souls can cast all their needs; it is an ocean full of joy to drown all our sadness, an ocean of humility to overwhelm our folly, an ocean of mercy for those in distress, an ocean of love in which to submerge our poverty...And whenever anything happens to you that is painful, hard to bear or mortifying, tell yourself this: ‘Accept what the Sacred heart of Jesus sends you in order to unite you to himself’. But above all things maintain peace of heart which surpasses every treasure. For maintaining this peace nothing is more effective than to renounce one’s own will and to set in its place the will of the Sacred Heart, so that he may do for us whatever redounds to his glory and that we may joyfully submit to him and place in him our full confidence.”[AJ1] [AJ2] 

St. Ignatius of Antioch who was taken prisoner to Rome to be killed by the wild animals at the Colosseum wrote several letters to Churches along the way during his horrible journey in chains by ship. His letters witness to his unflinching fidelity to Christ and his Gospel and his readiness to die for Christ: In his letter to the Romans, he writes:

“For my part, I am writing to all the churches and assuring them that I am truly in earnest about dying for God – if only you yourselves put no obstacles in the way. I must implore you to do me no such untimely kindness; pray leave me to be a meal for the beasts, for it is they who can provide my way to God. I am his wheat, ground fine by the lions’ teeth to be made purest bread for Christ. So intercede with him for me, that by their instrumentality I may be made a sacrifice to God...

All the ends of the earth, all the kingdoms of the world would be of no profit to me; so far as I am concerned, to die for Jesus Christ is better than to be monarch of earth’s widest bounds. He who died for us is all that I seek; he who rose again for us is my whole desire...

It is the hope of this world’s prince to get hold of me and undermine my resolve, set as it is upon God. Pray let none of you lend him any assistance, but take my part instead, for it is the part of God. Do not have Jesus Christ on your lips, and the world in your heart.

St. Paul of the Cross is another saint who exhorts us to meditate on the passion of our Lord in order to arrive at a sanctifying union with God. He says:

“For love is the virtue which unifies. Love is the virtue which makes its own the sufferings of the good Jesus who is the object of this love. This fire which penetrates the inner core of one’s being changes the lover into his beloved. And on a higher level where love is merged with sorrow and sorrow mingled with love, there results a certain blend of love and sorrow that is so complete that the love can no longer be distinguished from the sorrow, nor the sorrow from the love. In this way the soul which loves finds its joy in its sorrow and its exultation in its sorrow.”