“Love, then, consists in this: not that we have loved God, but that he has loved us and has sent his Son as an offering for our sins.” (1 Jn 4:10)
Our Lord’s heart is a hearth burning with love for us: with purifying love, with illuminating love, with sanctifying love, with transforming love, and with deifying love. With a purifying love in which hearts are purified more perfectly than gold in the fire. With an illuminating love that disperses the darkness of hell, covers the earth and makes us enter into the marvelous light of heaven: “He called us from darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Pet 2:9) With a sanctifying love that destroys the sin in our souls so as to establish within them the reign of grace. With a transforming love that transforms serpents into doves, wolves into lambs, beasts into angels, children of the devil into children of God, children of anger and cursing into children of grace and blessing. With a deifying love that turns human beings into gods, making them share in the sanctity, mercy, patience, goodness, love and charity of God together with his other divine perfections: “sharers of the divine nature.” (2 Pet 1:4)
The Heart of Jesus is a fire that spreads its flames on all sides, in heaven, on earth and throughout the whole universe; a fire and flames which enflames the hearts of the seraphs and would set every heart on earth alight if the iciness of sin were not fighting against it.
He loves people with an extraordinary love: both those who are good and are his friends as well as those who are bad and are his enemies. For these he has such ardent charity that all the torrents of water from their sins cannot quench it.
St. Jean Marie Baptiste Vianney, the Cure of Ars