(336-343) The Works of Love X
The Work of Love in Praising Love
. . . must OUTWARDLY be done in sacrificial disinterestedness
In the practice of self-renunciation
We sacrifice the present moment
Give up worldly validation
Even if it causes torment
This is the outward sacrifice
The extremity of our disinterest
We make ourselves love's device
Beyond our immediate interest
Sacrificial disinterestedness is required
To praise love fully, we seek the divine
We surrender all our worldly desire
And renounce all the approval of our time
The beautiful is the most direct object
Of love immediate—inclination and passion
In the praise of love that's suspect
It's the worldly love in its current fashion
It is our neighbors whom we shall love
And ugliness may well be their lot
When we're open to the middle term above
Such a condition in love matters not
To love the ugly is renunciation
An outwardly sacrificial disinterestedness
It's the very height of our affection
Near a state of blessedness
To praise love needs the inward and the outward
We become the divine form of a self-lover
Forever we are building upward
Now we truly can love our neighbor