These words of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ contain an abridgement of all the motives for our faith, our hope, and our love. The life of the soul, the true life, the eternal life, is the only end of the human person and the dearest desire of his heart. Jesus Christ has dedared to us that he is himself this life, and that we can only be completely and supremely and eternally happy in the possession of him. Therefore he alone must be the one sovereign and unchanging object of our love.
The means of attaining to this true life is by knowing and embracing the truth, and by drawing away, in our mind and heart, from all that is false and untrue. Now Jesus Christ tells us that he is the Truth, the infallible Truth, the essential Truth; and therefore, everything outside him must be falsehood and untruth. We ought then to apply ourselves to know Jesus Christ thoroughly, and we ought to employ all the strength of our mind and all the honesty of our heart with that intention; we ought to regulate our judgement of things upon his, our affections upon his, being certain that there is nothing really estimable and lovable but what he esteems and loves.
Father Jean-Nicolas Grou, SJ.
Father Grou (1803) was a French Jesuit priest and a beloved spiritual master.