I say men, and Christian
men, thus limiting my statement, because women and Christian women,
frequently do perceive it, being themselves the creatures of affection,
and finding in affection the one sufficing symbol of life and of the
universe. It is a St. Catherine who thinks of herself as the bride of
Christ, and dreams the lovely vision of the changed hearts--the heart
of Jesus placed by the hands that bled beneath her pure bosom, and her
heart hidden in the side of Him who died for her. It is a St. Theresa
who melts into ecstasy at the brooding presence of the heavenly Lover,
and can only think of the Evil One himself with commiseration as one
who cannot love. It is true that Francis of Assisi also thought and
spoke of Christ with a lover's ecstasy, but then Francis in his
exquisite tenderness of nature, was more woman than man. No such
thought visited the stern heart of Dominic, nor any of those makers of
theology who have built systems and disciplines upon the divine poetry
of the divine Life.
Love, as the perfect symbol of life and the universe, does not content
men, simply because for most men love is not the key to life, nor an
end worth living for in itself, nor anything but a complex and often
troublesome emotion, which must needs be subordinated to other
faculties and qualities, such as greed, or pride, or the desire of
power, or the dominant demands of intellect.
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