The fire of the love of God

Something to ponder from the writings of Simone Weil:

“There is no fire in the cooked dish, but one knows it has been on the fire. On the other hand, even though one may think to have seen the flames under them, if the potatoes are raw it is certain they have not been on the fire.

“It is not by the way a man talks about God, but by the way he talks about things of the world that best shows whether his soul has passed through the fire of the love of God. In this manner no deception is possible. There are false imitations of the love of God, but not of the transformation it effects in the soul, because one has no idea of this transformation except by passing through it oneself….[T]his transformation is not effected by direct efforts, but by a union of love with God….People transformed in this manner carry God, the Beloved, in their ‘hearts.’…

“One could say that our…attachment to God, at the level of the ‘heart,’ will transform the image of God that we are into the likeness of God that we were born to be.”

Do we let ourselves be transformed by God? Are we willing to open ourselves up to something that will truly change us?  To die to self so that we may rise “into the likeness of God that we were born to be”?

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