St Elizabeth of the Trinity called God “infinite Solitude” (I write “called” and not “calls”, for I write in time, but St Elizabeth is no longer in time). The fact that God is totally and entirely, perfectly and eternally Other is a gift of unspeakable magnitude to us, made in His own image and likeness (cf Gen 1:26). Because He is infinite Solitude, entirely Other, because of this, which for us is a separation, it is possible to love God and to spend the eternal life contemplating Him, loving and uniting with Him forever – and to be loved by His unchanging love. In other words, it is possible to unite ourselves to Love (cf 1 John 4:8), because of this [ontological] separation which is captured by the words “image” and “likeness”.
Love requires the other: I-and-thou; for love is the gifting of one’s person (body-and-soul), without reservations and conditions, to another person. We, as men and women, long to love – more than to be loved. And therefore, we want – so profoundly we want this – to offer our whole selves, our entire hearts, to another.
Our hearts! Who could accept such an awesome and burdensome gift? Can another man or another woman accept it? “I want to empty myself for you, so that you may live in me, and that I may live only for you”; but one human person to another can only do so as a process, ever more profound, but never total: the more mature the love, the deeper the self-emptying for the other and the more the other does the same by accepting the gift of love that is love, day by day, perfecting love until it shines in their eyes with the glory of the divine.
However, we can never do so totally for another human person, for the simple reason that we are limited, finite beings, and this longing of ours to love is for something unlimited, and infinite. A human person can never fill our hearts, as they can never accept our entire hearts, with their wounds and aspirations, with their dreams and sacrifices. Our hearts, inestimable gifts, can be untold burdens if we seek to give them completely to another man or woman, for the poor other is also but a mere human person.
God fashions the hearts of all (cf Ps 33:15). He alone can accept our entire hearts. This is why St Augustine said in his “Confessions”: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.” Indeed, “God alone suffices” (St Teresa of Avila).
Infinite Solitude, I thank and adore Thee for Your infinite otherness, for Your eternal beauty, for Your divine mercy, for Your invincible love, for Your peaceful light. “From the depths of eternity…” (St John of the Cross): the depths of eternity, from there You love us and call us there – in the depths of eternity – to love You, to unendingly satisfy our only true desire: to love.
How many hearts have You not loved totally? How many hearts have You not consoled secretly? How many hearts have You not healed miraculously? How many hearts have You not embraced eternally? How many hearts have You not guided silently? O, infinite Intimacy! Infinite Solitude! Wholly Other, God of Love and Life, Holy Trinity!
He is Solitude so that we – man and woman and God – can be together.
He is Solitude so that we can be together…
Prayer of St Elizabeth of the Trinity:
“O my God, Trinity whom I adore, let me entirely forget myself that I may abide in you, still and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity; let nothing disturb my peace nor separate me from you, O my unchanging God, but that each moment may take me further into the depths of your mystery ! Pacify my soul! Make it your heaven, your beloved home and place of your repose; let me never leave you there alone, but may I be ever attentive, ever alert in my faith, ever adoring and all given up to your creative action.
O my beloved Christ, crucified for love, would that I might be for you a spouse of your heart! I would anoint you with glory, I would love you – even unto death! Yet I sense my frailty and ask you to adorn me with yourself; identify my soul with all the movements of your soul, submerge me, overwhelm me, substitute yourself in me that my life may become but a reflection of your life. Come into me as Adorer, Redeemer and Savior.
O Eternal Word, Word of my God, would that I might spend my life listening to you, would that I might be fully receptive to learn all from you; in all darkness, all loneliness, all weakness, may I ever keep my eyes fixed on you and abide under your great light; O my Beloved Star, fascinate me so that I may never be able to leave your radiance.
O Consuming Fire, Spirit of Love, descend into my soul and make all in me as an incarnation of the Word, that I may be to him a super-added humanity wherein he renews his mystery; and you O Father, bestow yourself and bend down to your little creature, seeing in her only your beloved Son in whom you are well pleased.
O my `Three’, my All, my Beatitude, infinite Solitude, Immensity in whom I lose myself, I give myself to you as a prey to be consumed; enclose yourself in me that I may be absorbed in you so as to contemplate in your light the abyss of your Splendour!”
Image credit: Albert Bierstadt, Among the Sierra Nevada, California, 1868
Nihil Sine Deo 