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The saints did but one thing―the Will of God. But they did it with all their might. We have to do only the same thing; and according to the degree of intensity with which we labour shall our sanctification progress. We shall attain the height of Glory in Heaven that corresponds to the depth of Humility we have sounded on earth. The harder you hit the ball on the ground, the harder it rebounds. The perfection of Humility is the annihilation of our will, its absolute (P.67) submission to the Divine in the very least detail. That is what made Joan a saint―and Teresa, too. "If thou wilt be perfect" (this is what Joan's voice said to her, and Teresa's visions revealed), "go, sell what thou hast and give to the poor, and come, follow Me."For the Maid it meant the renunciation of her home and kinsfolk; the voluntary acceptance of the hard and unpleasant life of the soldier; difficulties and misunderstandings and jibes and jeers, and imprisonment and torture, and the stake. She knew it beforehand.
The call to follow the Master―really to follow―always means Calvary and Crucifixion. But the Maid had her answer ready. It came from her heart, as it had come years before from the heart of another Maid: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done unto me according to Thy word."
We who have vowed to follow a Crucified God must expect crucifixion. It is the sublime end of our vocation. The crucifixion of the will is the perfection of love, for remember always, we love God with the will. Yes, this must occur not simply, now and then, but constantly and perseveringly.
The reason we have not yet become saints is because we have not understood what it means to love. We think we do, but we do not. To love means to annihilate oneself for the Beloved. The self-sacrifice (P.68) of a mother for her child is only a shadow of the love wherewith we should love the Beloved of our soul.
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