God Surrenders to Man
by VP
Posted on Saturday April 03, 2021 at 12:00AM in Poetry
"There is a passage in the Following of Christ, II., 11, in which a Kempis insists that nothing we can offer to God is acceptable unless we offer ourselves. "If a man give his whole substance, it is nothing. If he do great penance, it is but little. If he attain to all knowledge, he is far off still. If he have great virtue and very fervent devotion, there is still much wanting to him, the one thing which is supremely necessary to him." What is the one thing necessary? "that having given all things else to God he give himself."
Now, man, recognizing the demand of God that we surrender ourselves to Him, boldly retaliates with a demand that God surrender Himself to us. Man says to God, " Thou mayest multiply Thy favors; Thou mayest overwhelm me with gifts, but though Thy gifts, temporal and spiritual, be piled in mountains before me, my heart remains unsatisfied, my soul is discontent. I want not Thy gifts, I want Thee. Pardon, my God, if I speak boldly, I speak as Thou hast made me. Thou hast made me man, but Thou hast given me the cravings of a god. Thou mayest empty Thy treasure-house before my feet. Still I demand more, that Thou give me Thyself. Thou hast made me for Thyself. My heart remains empty until it be filled with Thee."
The answer is the Incarnation and the Blessed Sacrament."
Source: A Thought a Day for Lent, Rev. James M Gilles, C.P.; Paulist Press, 1923.
