Infallible Secret of

Happiness

by Father Mathurin of the Mother of God God is LOVE. 1 The characteristic of love is that it wants to manifest itself; it needs to love and be loved. Since God is love in essence, He created beings capable of filling this need: Angels and men. The rest of creation serves to manifest His love. God created our first parents, Adam and Eve, with an infinite love, and He gave them earthly paradise, a paradise of delight. According to Holy Scripture, He came regularly to speak with them. We cannot imagine the bond of love, the holy familiarity that existed between God and our first parents. He loved them and expected a just return of love from them. So that they might prove their love for Him, God gave them a commandment, only one, a very simple one: “You are the masters and lords of all that you see in creation, you can administer all of it. But you may not touch this tree.” 2 Sadly, Adam and Eve violated that single commandment. When we think about it, it is an enormous sin. Our first parents violated the love of God because of another love. What, then, was that other love? The devil dangled “You will be like God” before their eyes. Their self-love, the prospect of becoming superior beings, equal even to God, was the cause of their fall. Pride, vanity drove them to disobey God’s commandment. Scarcely had Adam and Eve disobeyed their Creator when they entered into a state of suffering. God had not yet shown Himself, they were alone, faced with their sin. Created to love God and be loved by Him, they had broken that bond of love by their own choice. It was not God who broke the bond; it was man who separated from love by violating the divine commandment. Our first parents had not been created to love the fruit of that tree. By disobeying, they had gone against their nature, against their last end. By their own choice, by their prideful vanity, they had broken their bond of intimacy with God. Until that moment, Adam and Eve had loved God, and there had been no suffering in their love. Their disobedience marks the beginning of the human tragedy, the beginning of our sufferings. Such an offense by His creature ought to have prompted God to reject us completely. But no! Through an incomprehensible mystery, the love of God for man persisted; what is more, He kept their access to His love open. What, then, must be this love of God for us!... From that moment on, man was able to continue loving God, but now he would have to undergo suffering. The mystery of suffering is closely bound to the mystery of God’s love for the human race. Man would no longer be able to love without suffering, but he would be able to suffer with love. He could also suffer in revolt, by rejecting the divine love which manifested itself to him... In spite of our condition as sinners, we remain beings fashioned by love, whose main purpose is to love God. What can replace the love of God? Nothing! Hence the suffering, the torment of the human soul. You will recall these famous words of Saint Augustine: “My soul was sorrowful, worried, agitated and tormented until I found You, O my God. When I found You, my soul found its rest.” 3

Jesus Christ, Wonder of Love

God wanted to maintain His love for man, who is a captive of his own sin, delivered into a state of sorrow and degradation. Man rejected God and established himself in a state of suffering, but God did not reject him. For two thousand years, the patriarchs, the prophets and the saints of the Old Testament, with greater or lesser success, strove to love God. How can man truly love God? The Gospel gives us the answer: God so loved the world, He so loved man, that He gave His only-begotten Son, 4 to manifest His Infinite Love to him. To save humanity, Jesus saw no other means than to walk upon a path of suffering. It was man who, through his sin, had chosen this way of suffering, and the Word of God, coming to save humanity, took the same path. As Christians, we ought to continually contemplate this love of God for us sinners. After His incarnation we see Jesus in the manger, a little baby in a poor grotto that was used as a shelter for animals. Throughout thirty years of a hidden life followed by three years of public life, Jesus gave us countless testimonies of His Love with His miracles, His teachings, His wonders and His words. His love reached its peak during Holy Week, especially on the evening of Holy Thursday and the following day on Calvary. Wanting to be loved by man at all costs, God came to teach him how to love, how to attain this Love of God. The evening before He died, Jesus said to us, The one who loves Me keeps My commandments. 5 The Apostles heard this and certainly understood: “You men have separated from My love since the beginning by your disobedience to My commandments. That is why I have come to give you new commandments. The one who loves Me keeps My commandments. Take heed, My dear humans whom I love so much, take heed! See where the violation of a single commandment led your first parents. Take heed! I am giving you new commandments. Practice them. Otherwise...” It is undeniable: God loves man with an Infinite Love, and it would seem that His love never grows weary. And yet, yes it can. The love of God grows weary when man deliberately and consistently rejects the Will of God.

The perfection of love

When He came on earth, Jesus wanted to restore humanity. What beauty in His intervention! He gives us back even more than we lost; His work is perfected. The one who has My commandments and keeps them, he is the one who loves Me. And he who loves Me ‒ that is, the one who keeps My commandments ‒ will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and manifest Myself to him... If anyone loves Me, he will keep My teachings, and My Father will love Him, and We will come to him and establish Our abode in him. 6 Sin has debased us, but Jesus gives us a solution to arrive at a superior state. When I say “superior,” I do not mean “with less faults.” We are far more defective, far more enfeebled than our first parents. And yet, God invites us to a degree superior to the one to which He had invited Adam and Eve. We can become the abode of God. If I keep His commandments, God comes to abide in me! Is there any greater love than this? God, Infinite Love, manifests Himself to man and wants to abide in him! These are the words of Jesus, the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. 7 This is sublime! We must obey the ten commandments of God and His entire Gospel. Now, the day before His death, Jesus added a new commandment which comprises all of them. A new commandment I give you: that you love one another as I have loved you. 8 Jesus summarizes all the commandments in the love of God and neighbor. He did not come to abolish the other commandments, He came to complete them. 9 Love God above all else and your neighbor as yourself: that was the old commandment. Jesus completes it: Love one another as I, Jesus, have loved you. How has He loved us? Born in poverty, Jesus lived hidden, humble, submitted, docile; He came unto His own and He loved them. And His own received Him not. 10 His own led Him to Calvary. His own crucified Him, vilified Him, spit upon Him, scorned Him, scourged Him, crowned Him with thorns. And He had loved them so much!... Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. 11 ‒ Love one another as I have loved you. 12

Apostles of love

After the death of Jesus, the Apostles went to preach the Gospel over all the earth. What is it that made them so powerful to win the world for God? They were vibrating with love. Do not forget: God created man in order to love him and be loved by him. Love is the marrow of man, his very essence. The Apostles therefore returned to the primary essence of man. The Apostles had seen and heard Jesus. For three years, they had lived in His intimacy. That extended contact had filled them with His love. Later, the Holy Spirit came to complete their formation; He had them truly discover Infinite Love incarnate. So when the Apostles preached and bore witness to Jesus, everyone was touched: Jews and pagans, men of every nationality. They felt them vibrating so deeply with the love of God! Each one sensed the truth of their witness. Enlightened by the Holy Spirit, they said to themselves: “This is why I was created: to love God. And behold, Jesus showed us how to love Him. Yes, I will follow their lead, I will do it too.” This truth, the comprehension of divine love, fashioned the first Apostles, the first Christians, and the immense host of early martyrs. For centuries on end, it engendered battalions of religious, confessors and holy virgins. The love of God produced in them detachment from everything, from themselves above all. They detached themselves from earthly goods and even from the people they loved the most. They left everything ‒ everything! ‒ to continue spreading this fire of the love of God that consumed them. Is this not also the mission that God proposes to us and that He proposes to every Christian? His Will is for this love to return to the earth.

Removed from his element, Man

suffers

In today’s sad times, humans are distracting themselves as they never have before. Why? Because they are suffering. Man is suffering, and to forget his suffering he seeks distraction and dissipation. But why is man suffering? Because he has separated himself from his end, which is God. As long as man was united to the Will of God, he was happy. There is only one remedy for this suffering: conformity to the commandments of God. The first Apostles preached this great lesson with strong conviction. That was the Good News they spread over all the earth: To be happy, man must unite himself to the commandments of God, conform to His expectations. Consider the history of the Church, and you will see that all the Saints applied themselves in this respect. Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, who passed away a little over a hundred years ago, was a champion of love. She had truly understood the Love of God. How did she arrive at understanding this love? She set herself aside, forgot herself in order to attach herself to the Divine Will, to seek and meet God’s expectations. Saint Therese suffered much, but above all she loved much. The Love of God filled her with supernatural joy. We could practically summarize the teaching, examples and Gospel of Jesus in a single page. Sin separated man from his beatitude. When Jesus came on earth, this is what He told us. Listen carefully.

Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven

Blessed are they who have the spirit of poverty, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. That is how Jesus begins: Blessed!... Poor men, if you are unhappy, it is because you have separated from God. Well, I want to bring you back to beatitude. Blessed are they who have the spirit of poverty, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth. Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for Justice, for they shall be satisfied. Yes, you who weep now, blessed are you, for you shall rejoice; and you who hunger now, blessed are you, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. Blessed are they who suffer persecution for Justice’s sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. 13 Together, let us look over these beatitudes from the standpoint of detachment, the essential condition for possessing the Kingdom of heaven. Are you detached? Then blessed are you. Do you desire God, forgetting all the rest? Do you seek Him, leaving all other things aside? Then blessed are you. Blessed are they who have the spirit of poverty, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. God looks upon the poor with more mercy. Now, this is not a matter of a simple state of poverty, we must have the spirit of poverty. The person who is poor in spirit is the one whose heart is detached from everything, who is united to God alone. He keeps His commandments, and in return God manifests Himself to him. The detached heart relishes the love of God. What greater ambition could we have? Already on earth, the detached soul possesses the Kingdom of God, that is, he lives in intimacy with God; he loves God and is loved by Him. As for those who have riches, those who want to establish themselves in the world, who are attached to earthly things, look at them: often they are unhappy even on earth. After the beatitudes, Jesus formulates several curses, one of which is addressed to the rich: “Woe to you ‒ you who are attached ‒ for you have your reward on earth!” In a way, the first beatitude summarizes all the others in advance. Blessed are they who have the spirit of poverty, those who are detached from all earthly things, whose heart is united to only one object: God. That person keeps the divine commandments, and God loves him. Is that not already beatitude?

In Heaven, we love!

One day, Saint Therese of the Child Jesus manifested herself to Father Eugene Prevost, 14 who had worked at promoting her cause of beatification. That privileged man asked her, “What do you do in Heaven?” The Saint replied: “In Heaven, we love! We love! We love!..” The heart of man, created to love, cannot even imagine the joy of love in Heaven, yet he can begin to taste the Kingdom of heaven here on earth. Jesus affirms it in His first beatitude: Blessed are they who have the spirit of poverty, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. If man remains poor in spirit throughout the time of trial which is this life, if he applies himself to detaching himself from all temporal things, he lives the Kingdom of heaven on earth. When he dies, he does not even go to purgatory: because he has detached himself from everything, he can enter into the felicity of Heaven. The hardest thing at death is to detach oneself. The person who accepts death with all its consequences, with complete detachment and abandonment in the hands of God, dies in a perfect act of love.

They shall possess the earth

Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth. The meek person is the exact opposite of the one who wants to hoard, to possess. It is impossible for someone to be meek when he is grappling with his attachments! He always feels threatened that he will lose something. He lives in fear and maintains a certain aggressiveness in his heart that he can hardly manage to disguise. Only the meek are detached. This is infallible. The man who is attached can pretend to be meek, but in reality he is not meek of heart. It is rather the affected meekness of a politician, a diplomat, to arrive at his ends, the better to deceive; in a word, it is a calculated meekness, the better to dominate his neighbor or to obtain what he wants. If we desire to acquire this true divine meekness, we must be detached from everything, ourselves above all. The one who loves himself too much, who is attached to his person, his thoughts, his opinions, does not possess the meekness beatified by Jesus. The virtue of meekness is peace in detachment from everything and from oneself above all. Do you want to be meek, my brothers? Detach yourselves! People may treat you any which way; you may be tried and tested by situations, by events, by your neighbor, your superiors, your subjects, tossed about one way or another: if you are detached from yourselves, you will remain meek. As Jesus says, you shall possess the earth. The more a man’s ego and self-love are dead in his heart, the meeker he is. I would even say that then he becomes infinitely meek, for God reigns in the heart of the man who is dead to himself. Since the meek person is detached from himself, he does not seek anything.

“Sire, give me your kingdom!”

The meek person possesses the earth in order to give it to God. That is an apostle. You may recall this episode in the life of Saint Joan of Arc: In the midst of her victories, about a month before the coronation of Charles VII as King of France, Joan of Arc addressed Charles, saying: “Majesty, I would like to ask a favor of you.” ‒ “Yes, Joan, speak!” ‒ “I would like you to give me the kingdom of France!” The king’s evil geniuses (La Tremouille, Regnault de Chartres, etc.) and the courtiers retorted: “We knew it! In all her enterprises, Joan is led by ambition!” But there was no self-love in the soul of Joan of Arc. God alone reigned in her heart. Without revealing her strategy, she insisted: “Sire, do you not trust me, after all that I have done for you? Give me your kingdom; without me, it would not exist!” ‒ “Very well, I give it to you.” ‒ “Sire, make out a notarized act!” ‒ So Charles VII commanded, “A notarized act!” The king’s notary drew up the act thus: “I, Charles the Seventh, give to Joan, called the Maid, the kingdom of France. Signed before notary: Charles VII.” The document was given to little Joan. “That is very well, Sire! It is just what I wanted.” Everyone thought the matter was concluded. But Joan retained the notary’s services. “Monsieur, draw up another document.” And she dictated: “I, Joan, proprietor of the kingdom of France, give that kingdom to God Almighty and I name you, Charles VII, His intendant, to see that His laws be observed within it. May God truly reign over this country.” Joan was detached from everything; she had won the kingdom of France, and she gave it to God. Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth. Today, God wants to give the earth to the Apostles of the Latter Times. He has confidence in them. He knows that the earth will be given back to Him, for His Apostles will be stripped of themselves, dead to themselves. They will be profoundly meek, and thanks to this meekness, they will possess the earth and give it back to God. Through them, God will reign. My brothers, let us hasten to be meek! Let us be dead to ourselves, stripped of everything! If those whom God has chosen are not meek, not detached, the earth does not belong to them and the kingdom of God cannot be established yet. So then, the world is still waiting!... If your neighbor or events provoke annoyance, outbursts of nature in you, you can see that you are not yet detached, and consequently not meek. If you lose your peace and you show it, if you are always troubled and upset, you are not meek. If your self- love is constantly hurt, this proves that it is very much alive! When you no longer have any self-love, it cannot be hurt. If you were really dead to yourself, you would remain at peace. When there will be no more self-love in us, my brothers, we will be a meek and blessed community. God will give us the earth so that we may give it back to Him. Is that not your ideal, your dream? May it not be a vague desire! We must take the means to fulfill this dream, so that this beatitude may be ours. I wish you this meekness that nothing can trouble or upset. May God find among us many such hearts that are truly meek.

They shall be comforted

Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted. I have just spoken to you about detachment from all things. On reading these first beatitudes, you examine your heart and sadly realize that your behavior is not in conformity with God’s expectations. You do not have this poverty, this total detachment from the earth, this divine meekness. If you think that it does not change anything whether you are detached or not, full of self-esteem or not, you will never be the apostle that God is seeking. Oh, my brothers! if, when you become aware of your infirmity, you are afflicted, you feel this holy sorrow which is a gift of God, if sadly you weep because you cannot yet bring the world to God, then blessed are you! You say to yourself: “I will never possess the Kingdom of God. I will never bring my brothers to it because I am too full of myself.” This thought afflicts you; your heart weeps, moans, prays. You implore God in tears: “My God, make a miracle!” Blessed are you, for you shall be comforted! Blessed are you who weep in this way, because God will see your tears. He will see the sincere, vehement desire of your heart, manifested by this sorrowful grief of not fully living up to His expectation. God will intervene in you, and as a reward for your good will, He will grant you detachment from earthly goods and from yourself. You will possess the earth, and because you will be truly mistrustful of yourself from the experience of your immense self-love, you will have no self- complacency. On the contrary, you will give the earth back to God at once. You will have wept so much that you will not let yourself fall into that trap.

They shall be satisfied

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for Justice, for they shall be satisfied. That is, those who hunger and thirst to be in conformity with the Will of God. Justice is God, it is conformity to His Will. It is painful to be hungry and thirsty. As long as you have not eaten your fill, you suffer physically. Hunger gnaws at you, weakness overcomes you. Blessed are they who feel this hunger and thirst for God and His Will: they shall be satisfied. Here, Jesus repeats the third beatitude. Yes, you who weep now, blessed are you. You weep because you hunger and thirst to fulfill God’s designs, to see souls going to Him. The hunger of living for God alone tortures and torments you. Blessed are you! You shall be comforted. Your heart’s desire will be fulfilled. The divine expectations will be fulfilled; God Himself will accomplish them in you, and you will rejoice. And, according to the words of Jesus, You who hunger now, you shall be satisfied.

They shall obtain mercy

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Each beatitude is a development of the same idea. It all holds together. The person who weeps over his infirmity before God, aware that he fulfills the expectation of the Love of God so poorly, aware that he is attached to earthly things; the person who moans over seeing that he is so full of himself, sees himself beneath the gaze of God in all the reality of his misery, his degradation, in spite of the immense desire that abides in him; that person does not judge his neighbor easily. He becomes merciful practically in essence.

They shall see God

Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. A pure heart is a heart in which there is no alloy. If someone offered me an herbal tea, perhaps you might see some particles of plants floating in my cup. It would be herbal tea and not clear water. In pure water, there is nothing but water. Who created the heart of man? God. And as we said, He created it in order to love it and be loved by it. The pure heart is the one that fulfills this expectation of God without browsing anywhere else. It is detached from all earthly things, it is dead to itself. The pure heart has only one intention in its conduct: God. Self-love no longer exists in it. Then God will manifest Himself to this pure heart. This heart will be so full of God that in its turn, it will manifest God around itself. That brings us back to all the preceding beatitudes. Oh, how we must ask God for this purity of heart! The pure heart shall see God. The Apostles of the Latter Times are called to manifest Jesus to the world, to make Him known and loved as He has never been known and loved before. But first God must manifest Himself to them, so that they will have seen and known Him. How will this come about? Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. The Apostles of the Latter Times must be these blessed souls with pure hearts who have only one intention: God; only one attention: God. We prepare food, we eat, we go about, we work, we apply ourselves to all sorts of occupations, but the heart remains pure. Its intention and its attention are all for God. That is the motto of the Saints, God alone, concretely lived out.

They shall be called children of

God

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. This beatitude is like the second one. The peacemaker, that is, the one who is meek, is the one who is detached. Man is not at peace when he loves something other than God, because God created him for Himself. To love God is his reason for being. If my heart is not anchored, fixed in God, I am not at peace. The person who seeks something other than God is not at peace, and because of this, he does not act as a child of God.

Blessed Suffering

Blessed are they who suffer persecution for Justice’s sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who suffer in order to live these beatitudes of detachment, death to self, the unique pursuit of God. If a person applies himself to living for God alone and is persecuted because of that, by word or by deed, if others make him suffer, if they contradict him; then that person is blessed. Jesus says, Blessed shall you be when men hate you, revile you and persecute you, when they shut you out of their society and reject your name as evil because of Me, because you desire to serve Me. If you are held in contempt, you might be tempted to say: “What is happening to me is no joke! I apply myself to serving God, and my superior, my brother, my sister make me suffer.” If you were really acting for God alone, consider yourself blessed! Your intention was to seek God alone, and now others make you suffer, judge and condemn you. Blessed shall you be when men hate you, revile you and persecute you, when they shut you out of their society and when they heap disgrace upon you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of man, and falsely say all manner of evil against you for My sake. Today it is not well regarded to profess the true religion and seek to practice it absolutely. People will say that you are dangerous, you are a religious extremist, a Catholic extremist. Our life is a reproach, an odor of death to the world. 15 Everything in the Gospel is contrary to worldly thinking, and the world makes us feel it. Rejoice on that day and exult, for your reward will be great in Heaven! Jesus indicates a reward even on this earth. With regard to the reward of Heaven, Jesus Himself has no words to explain it. Your reward will be great in Heaven... For so did their fathers persecute the prophets who were before you. The true prophets before you were rejected, their name was evil for the world. The following words are even stronger: The disciple is not above his Master. Soon the Apostles are going to see Jesus rejected, trampled underfoot, shouted down, killed, massacred. The disciple is not above his Master. Whoever resembles the Master shall be perfect. The page of the beatitudes is so beautiful, it is a summary of the entire Gospel.

Woe to you!

After the eight beatitudes, Jesus levels four curses. Woe to you rich, for you are now having your comfort. Woe to you who are filled, for you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for one day you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men praise you, for in the same manner their fathers treated the false prophets. This is precisely the opposite of the beatitudes that I have just been commenting with you. To elaborate on the subject, I would have to draw the portrait of the world for you. You are conscious of the woes of today’s society. Jesus did not make a list of all that we see that is abominable today; on the other hand, He makes a list of things which might seem harmless to us, but which surely draw down the curse of God. Woe to you! You are rich, you are filled; you live only for the earth, you seek only to laugh and amuse yourself, satisfy yourself in everything; you desire the praises of men... Woe to you! Woe to this cursed, cursed world. It is exactly the opposite of the beatitudes. This is serious, very serious! If we did one of these things ourselves, we would be part of this world cursed by Jesus. If you live only for the earth, you are not living for God. It may seem a bit banal; there does not seem to be any crime or offense in it. Yet Our Lord anathematizes those who think the way the world thinks. It is terrible, it should make us tremble! As much as the beatitudes inflame our ideal, so much do these curses make us fear the world and its slightest thoughts or teachings, which it conveys in every possible way. I wish that none of us be even slightly grazed by the curses of Jesus.

God alone!

Immediately afterwards, Jesus speaks to us through His apostles: You are the salt of the earth. If the salt loses its savor, what shall it be seasoned with? It is no longer of any use but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by those passing by. Salt gives taste to everything. You, the Apostles, must set the tone of these beatitudes to the world. You must teach the world about these curses that lead souls to eternal perdition. You are the salt of the earth. Your whole soul must live by this precise thought of God. God alone! If not, you are of no use but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot. We must acquire this exact savor of the beatitudes, live them and transmit them to souls. But if the salt loses its savor, if the ideal of this truth that I, Jesus, the Word incarnate, have come to teach you weakens within you, if you do not transmit this truth entirely, what are you good for?... Jesus speaks these words to His ministers, to the apostles of the latter times. You are the light of the world. The city set on a mountaintop cannot be hidden. Neither do men light the lamp to put it under a bushel, or under a bed or in a hidden place, but they put it on a lampstand so as to give light to all in the house and to be seen by those who enter. That is how your light must shine before men. This light emanates by the example of the beatitudes when they are lived. If you live them, by that very fact you are blessed. God will set you as a light on the lampstand so that everyone may see the unique truth. Man was created for this truth. He knows, he senses that the teaching of Jesus is the truth. Your light must shine before men so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. My brothers, we have a role of unequaled beauty: we must make people love God. Our whole soul must live according to the thought of God and transmit it to the world. God alone! And this is how: by living what we have just commented upon. It is by living the Gospel that we love God ourselves and make others love Him. There is no other way. Jesus, Infinite Love, became incarnate and this is what He did; this is how He established His kingdom. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten our hearts. “O God, who hast taught the hearts of Thy faithful by sending them the light of Thy Holy Spirit, grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things and evermore to rejoice in His holy comfort.” May the Holy Spirit have you taste this joy of the love of God. I wish for you to live the beatitudes fully so that you may be blessed. I wish you to be this salt of the earth, this light that will manifest the truth. May this desire be the object of your prayers. Desire, weep, implore God, and you will be comforted.