Man has been created by Infinite Love for a twofold purpose: to love and to be loved; therefore, if his life has been spent without his knowing true love, not only has he ruined his existence, but he has not even become a human being; even more, he simply has not lived.

Now and then in the life of every man there are moments of happiness. And the most important of these moments occurs when certain basic things, which previously he believed by faith, are now believed or understood by vision. This is what happens, for example, in a person’s striving for holiness. A point comes when he realizes that the mercy of God is the only thing he can rely on and that on his own he can do nothing. As Bernanos’s Country Priest said when he was dying: All is Grace. A great truth indeed. And given that all is grace and that man is useless on his own and can do nothing for himself, it is not worth it for him then to allow himself to become the center and main object of his personal preoccupations. It is much better, in any event, to be concerned about others. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it (Mt 10:39).

However, that being said, there is no reason why someone should be allowed to give up making the effort to be holy; it would be utter foolishness and a great crime, because human life is destined always to be a hard and titanic struggle: In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood (Heb 12:4). In fact, it is a struggle against sin and against everything, for man’s life on earth is a difficult, strenuous armed service.

True, human effort, on its own, does not amount to very much: Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little thing, I will set you over much… though it acquires grandeur and a new meaning when it is seen as a loving act responding to love. That is why the servant is told: Enter into the joy of your Master (Mt 25:23). It is not a matter of doing lots of different things, but only one thing, which is the greatest of all: giving one’s own life in complete self-surrender. It does not matter whether one gives a little or a lot as long as one gives everything one possesses. Love – which is perfect reciprocity and mutual requital – can work in no other way, particularly if it is a matter of perfect love, as divine-human love is. For one cannot respond to God with reciprocity by measuring out a quantity; one can only answer with everything. The infinite abyss that lies between the Creator and the creature must be bridged if there is to be an intimate relationship between the two, and only love can make that possible. Through love a person is able to love another totally and to be requited by the other person totally, too. Thanks to love, a person can address another as thou and hear her, in turn, pronounce the same thou. This happens in an absolute way in divine-human love. As far as love between human beings is concerned, there is no better nexus, no more effective source of dialogue, no better approach, no other way to do anything that can be seriously called mutual respect or recognition of the rights of the other. Anything other than that is merely cheap rhetoric, a playing with words, empty talk that serves no purpose.

(From the book The Importunate Friend, pp. 39-41)