Posted by Morning Meditation
THE MERCY OF GOD IN CALLING SINNERS TO REPENTANCE.
Art thou a sinner, and dost thou desire to be pardoned? “Doubt not,” says St. John Chrysostom, “that God has a greater desire to pardon thee than thou hast to be pardoned.” God stands at the door of our hearts, and knocks that we may open to Him: Behold, I stand at the door and knock. (Apoc. iii. 20). Again He urges: Why will ye die, O house of Israel? (Ezech. xviii. 31). As if He were saying in compassion: “O My child, why wilt thou die?”
I.
The Lord called Adam, and said to him: Where art thou? (Gen. iii. 9). These are the words of a father, says a pious author, going in quest of his lost son. Oh, the immense compassion of our God! Adam sins, he turns his back upon God; and yet God does not abandon him, but follows him and calls after him: Adam, where art thou? Thus, my soul, has God frequently done towards thee; thou hast forsaken Him by sin; but He did not hesitate to approach thee, and to call upon thee by many interior lights, by remorse of conscience, and by His holy inspirations; all of which were the effects of His compassion and love.
O God of mercy, O God of love, how could I have so grievously offended Thee! How could I have been so ungrateful to Thee!
As a father, when he beholds his son hastening to cast himself down from the brink of a precipice, presses forward towards him, and with tears endeavours to withhold him from destruction; so, my God, hast Thou done towards me. I was already hastening by my sins to precipitate myself into hell, and Thou didst hold me hack. I am now sensible, O Lord, of the love which Thou hast shown me, and I hope to sing forever in Heaven the praises of Thy mercy: The mercies of the Lord I will sing forever. (Ps. lxxxviii. 1). I know, O Jesus, that Thou desirest my salvation; but I do not know whether Thou hast yet pardoned me. Oh! give me intense sorrow for my sins, give me an ardent love for Thee, as signs of Thy merciful forgiveness.
II.
O my Saviour, how can I doubt of receiving Thy pardon, when Thou Thyself dost offer it to me, and art ready to receive me with open arms on my return to Thee? Wherefore I do return to Thee, sorrowing and overpowered at the consideration that after all my offences against Thee, Thou indeed still lovest me. Oh, that I had never displeased Thee, my sovereign Good! How much am I grieved for having done so! Pardon me, O Jesus, I will never more offend Thee. But I will not rest satisfied with Thy forgiveness only: give me also a great love of Thee. Having so often deserved to burn in the fires of hell, I now desire to burn in the fire of Thy holy love. I love Thee, my only Love, my Life, my Treasure, my All. O Mary, my protectress, pray for me that I may continue faithful to God to the end of my life.
Spiritual Reading
THE POWER OF THE PASSION OF JESUS CHRIST (continued).
When satisfying the Divine justice on the Cross, Jesus Christ speaks but of mercy. He prays His Father to have mercy on the very Jews who had contrived His death, and on His murderers who were putting Him to death: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. (Luke xxiii. 34). While He was on the Cross, instead of punishing the two thieves who had just before reviled Him, — And they that were crucified with him, reviled him (Mark xv. 82), — when He heard one of them asking for mercy, — Lord, remember me when thou shalt came into thy kingdom. (Luke xxiii. 42),–overflowing with mercy, He promises him Paradise that very day: This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise. (Luke xxiii. 43). Then, before He expired, He gave to us, in the person of John, His own Mother to be our Mother: He saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother. (Jo. xix. 27). There upon the Cross He declares Himself content in- having done everything to obtain salvation for us, and He makes perfect the sacrifice by His death: Afterwards Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, …said, It is consummated; and bowing his head he gave up the ghost. (Jo. xix. 28, 30). And behold, by the death of Jesus Christ, man is set free from sin and from the power of the devil; and, moreover, is raised to grace, and to a greater degree of grace than Adam lost: And where sin abounded, says St. Paul, grace did more abound. (Rom. v. 20). It remains therefore for us, writes the Apostle, to have frequent recourse with all confidence to this throne of grace, which Jesus crucified truly is, in order to receive from His mercy the grace of salvation, together with aid to overcome the temptations of the world and of hell: Let us go therefore with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace in seasonable aid. (Heb. iv. 16).
Ah, my Jesus, I love Thee above all things, and whom would I wish to love if I love not Thee Who art Infinite Goodness, and Who hast died for me? Would that I could die of grief every time I think how I have driven Thee away from my soul by my sins, and separated myself from Thee Who art my only Good, and Who hast loved me so much: “Who shall separate me from the charity of Christ?” It is sin only that can separate me from Thee. But I hope in the Blood Thou hast shed for me, that Thou wilt never allow me to separate myself from Thy love, and to lose Thy grace, which I prize more than every other good. I give myself wholly to Thee. Do Thou accept me, draw all my affections to Thyself, that so I may love none but Thee.
Does Jesus Christ perhaps claim too much in wishing us to give ourselves wholly to Him, after He has given to us all His Blood and His life, in dying for us upon the Cross? The charity of Christ presseth us. (2 Cor. v. 14). Let us hear what St. Francis de Sales says upon these words: “To know that Jesus has loved us unto death, and that the death of the Cross, is not this to feel our hearts constrained by a violence which is the stronger in proportion to its loveliness?” And then he adds: “My Jesus gives Himself all to me, and I give myself all to Him. On His bosom will I live and die. Neither death nor life shall ever separate me from Him.”