Effects of Inordinate Love

Pergmayr, The Truths of Salvation, 1882, pp. 195–199

First effect.—It alienates the heart from God, attaches it to created things. A soul that knowingly and willingly entertains this love will in a short time undergo a dreadful change. It will feel a vehement inclination for creatures, and equal insensibility towards God and God's interest. It feels happy only in the presence, and is miserable in the absence of its idol. As the conversation with the beloved person is full of pleasure, the Communion with God is replete with disgust. Prayer is interrupted by perverse thoughts, recollection of mind becomes insipid, and we can quickly see that God does not wish to dwell in a heart in which preference is given to creatures.
Second effect.—It contaminates and defiles the heart with innumerable sins. Whoever yields to it opens the door to countless failings. How many sinful thoughts and delights, how many inordinate desires, how many idle words, how much murmuring and backbiting, how many calumnies and feelings of aversion are to be found in those who nourish in their hearts this inordinate love.
Third effect.—It deprives them, in a great measure, of the fruits of holy Communion. True conscience clamors loud enough, upbraiding them for their conduct, and telling them that their life displeases God; but as they love their captivity, they will not free themselves. Whenever they make an Act of Contrition they say it so coldly that they themselves perceive its insufficiency to burst through the chains that bind them. They approach the table of the Lord and bring to their Saviour a heart full of imperfections which causes Him disgust. No wonder, then, that God pours so few graces into such impure vessels.
Fourth effect.—It exposes the soul to the imminent danger of losing the grace of God. To foster an inordinate love in the heart for some time, and not to fall into grievous sin, is just as rare as to carry a serpent in one's bosom and not be bitten. They are on the verge of mortal sin. The reason of this is two-fold: First, inordinate love naturally causes great and dangerous temptations. Secondly, it deprives of the Divine assistance those who seek the danger and remain therein notwithstanding interior inspirations.
First degree.—To keep the heart free from all inordinate affection. Spiritual persons ought not to entertain a tender or foolish love for any person, nor have a particular intimacy with any one, nor even occupy their minds by the thought of others; they must have their hearts free and not enslaved, so that nothing may distract them at prayer.
Second degree.—To cherish for another only a supernatural love. This is a high virtue and requires a great recollection of mind. Its practice consists in these two points: 1st. Whenever you converse with a person whom you tenderly love, you must purify this feeling and change this natural love into supernatural by making an Act of perfect Love of God. 2d. Observe the same rule whenever you feel this foolish tenderness for absent persons.
Third degree.—So to purify your love for others that the love of God may not only have the preference, but perfect dominion in your soul. We may love, and even tenderly, but the love of God must always be superior to every other affection. You must, therefore, prefer to have the persons whom you love enemies rather than to break, through love for them, a single rule or be guilty of any imperfection.
Thus St. Augustine and St. Frances de Chantal loved. They both wept and they wept out of tenderness of love; St. Frances for the death of her spiritual father, and St. Augustine for the death of his holy mother Monica. But it is certain that St. Augustine would not have raised St. Monica to life, nor St. Frances her spiritual father, for they clearly knew that their loss was the will of God.
Fourth degree.—In the person whom you love to see nothing and to love nothing but God. A soul that has come to this high degree possesses great heavenly light, by which it sees God in all creatures and in them loves Him alone. If you hold intercourse with persons blest with natural and supernatural graces, you ought to see God in them, how bountifully He pours out His gifts on them; then with your whole heart you should esteem, love and praise in them nothing but God. If others do you any good, you should think that it was God who inspired them with this good wish to benefit you, and that He uses their benevolence to bestow on you this favor. In this way you may see, love and praise God alone in others.
"This is rare," says St. Francis de Sales. "We consider the benefits without thinking of God, or, if we think of Him, we remember at the same time the friend, and so mix him up with God."
Concluding this examination, we can safely say that supernatural love for our neighbor in its entirety is found in very few souls, because there are very few who love God in their neighbor, and their neighbor for God alone.