(2) Love of Self:—To Attain to Oneness with Jesus.—St. Therese's love of self was unselfish; she loved herself for the sake of God; her love of self was but a special form of the love of God. True love finds its own happiness in the closest resemblance to the beloved. Such, too, was the great desire of St. Therese: "My heaven is resemblance here to know with God…. To be like Thee is my desire."
But love does not find its full contentment in similarity—it seeks for oneness, for identity. "Love," says St. Albert the Great, "desires to be one with the beloved, and if it could, it would form but one being with the beloved…. Love has the power of uniting and transforming; it transforms the one who loves into him who is loved, and him who is loved into him who loves. Each passes into the other, as far as this is possible." Such was the one great longing of St. Therese: "to become myself divine," "to live the very life of God." But since her Beloved was God, and "God is Love," she, to, would be transformed into Love: "Deign to transform me, Love, into Thee." Explaining her thought by the interpretation of the words of Solomon, "Draw me, we will run," she says: "By asking to be drawn, we desire an intimate union with the object of our love. If iron and fire were endowed with reason, and iron could say 'Draw me!' would not that prove its desire to be identified with the fire, to the point of sharing its substance? Well, that is precisely my prayer. I asked Jesus to draw me into the fire of His love, and to unite me so closely to Himself that He may live and act in me."
But God is Crucified Love and identity means crucifixion in body, heart and soul; St. Therese gladly embraced it: "How can we complain when Jesus Himself has been considered 'as one struck by God and afflicted'?" And again: In "this land of exile we meet with many a thorn and many a bitter plant; but is not this the portion earth gave to our Divine Spouse? It is fitting, then, to consider good and most beautiful this same portion which has become our own." "Yes, let us be one with God even in this life; and for this we should be more than resigned, we should embrace the Cross with joy." That to which she
