2. The most merciful Father
The greatest joy
for a child is to have good parents. The nicest thing a child can have in this
life is its mother's tender love and the loving protective presence of its
father. Only an orphaned child can understand the suffering from the lack of
such parents.
But the same
suffering is felt by those people, who think that they are orphaned from the
presence of a heavenly Father God. How many people really feel sadness and
sorrow because, due to their sins, they think that God does not love them, but
is ready to punish them and send them to hell for the mistakes and the sins
they have made or are still making.
But is this true?
Is our heavenly Father God, such a cruel, terrible and punisher that Satan
presents to people?
No, a thousand
times, no. On the contrary, He is the most loving, affectionate and MOST MERCIFUL FATHER, who with
maternal love, adores all His children as a mother adores her baby.
He is the only
Father who employs every kind of love and pedagogy, so that one day all His
children will come to the heavenly kingdom which He has made for them.
He is the only
Father, who for the sake of all His children, so they would not be under the
binding power of deceitful Satan, sent His only begotten Son to be crucified and
by His sacrifice opened the gates of Paradise for all sinners.
All He asks from us
is that we believe in Him as the Creator
of our existence, to love Him as the Father of our souls and to trust Him, as a
baby trusts his sweet mother.
That is the ultimate
secret to be happy and peaceful on this earth!
Jesus consoles the repentant
sinner!
A young man lived
the greatest part of his life with many sins and prodigality. But, one day, he
was so remorseful for the great and shameful sins that he had committed, that
he decided to leave the world and become a monk. Every day he was crying
bitterly for his many sins and couldn't be consoled.
One night, Jesus
appeared in his dream surrounded by a heavenly light and went close to him and
said the following to him:
-What is wrong with
you, My child, that makes you cry with so much pain? He asked in a sweet voice.
-I am crying, my
Lord, because I fell into many sins, the sinner said in despair.
-Oh, then stand up!
- I cannot by
myself, Lord.
Then the King of love
stretched out His divine hand and helped him stand up. But he still didn't stop
crying.
-Why are you still
crying?
-I am in pain, my
Christ, because I made You sad. I wasted the richness of Your gifts in a sinful
life.
Then our
philanthropist Lord put His divine hand affectionately on the distressed
sinner's head and said to him:
-Since you are
suffering so much for Me, I have stopped being sad for your past.
The young man
raised up his eyes to thank his Saviour, but He wasn't there anymore. In the place
where He was standing a huge shining Cross had formed. Relieved now from the
burden of sin, he knelt down before it.
With gratitude in
his soul, after seeing that vision, the young man went back into the world, to
become the most ardent preacher of repentance and the infinite mercy of our
Lord.
With his words and
his great love for God, he helped many children, who had been led astray, to
leave sin and to come close to God.
Patience and perseverance in the struggle
When a man decides to repent for his mistakes
and to return into His heavenly Father’s embrace, Satan gets really angry. He
tries then, by all means, to throw this man into despair or to convince him
that there is no longer salvation for him.
Then he needs more patience and perseverance in this beautiful struggle for his
salvation.
***
A young man, who had been led astray by
the terrible power of bad habits, was regularly falling into a serious carnal
sin. But he didn’t abandon the struggle. After every fall he was repenting for
his mistake and he was begging God, with tears in his eyes, with these painful
words:
-Save me Lord,
whether I want to or not. I, like soil that I am, easily fall into the mud of
sin. But, You, have the strength to stop me. Isn't it wonderful, my God, if You
show mercy to the righteous man, or save the virtuous, because they are worthy
to feel Your love. To me the sinner, show Lord Your philanthropy and mercy and
save me in a miraculous way because, despite my great misery, the miserable
only resort to You!
The young man was
saying this with remorse when he was conquered by his evil passion, but also
when he was calm.
One day, when he
was defeated by his passion and after desperate resistance, he knelt down and
repeated the same words, shedding many tears of repentance.
His overpowering
hope in divine mercy angered Satan so much, that he appeared before him and
said to him full of malice:
-You poor man,
don't you feel the slightest shame, when in such an awful state you dare to
pray and speak God's name? Learn once and for all, that for you there is no
salvation.
The brave fighter
was not afraid, nor did he lose hope, as the devil expected.
-You should also
learn, he answered bravely, that my struggle is like the blacksmith. You hit
once and then again. I will not stop fighting against you through repentance
and prayer, until you are fed up of fighting me with sin.
-Is that so? shouted
the devil with malice. From now on I will stop fighting you, so I don't
increase the rewards of your patience and he immediately disappeared.
From that moment
Satan's fight against that young man ceased. But he didn't stop being careful
for one moment and often cried when he remembered his mistakes.
Lame
excuses
The struggle for our salvation is the most wonderful struggle we make
during our earthly life.
It is the only struggle that makes the angels happy and God the Father
proud of us. But it is also the only struggle that scares Satan, since it sends
him far away from us and doesn’t allow him to have power over us anymore.
The only way to regain us is to
create confusion by sowing various evil thoughts in our mind.
These thoughts are mostly two kinds. They are thoughts of doubt about
our God’s love and mercy for us and, secondly different kinds of excuses to
prevent or at least to delay us from the holy Sacrament of Confession. Some of
them are:
¨Isn’t it better to tell my sins to the holy icon of
Christ rather than to the priest?
¨Why should I tell my sins to the priest since he is
also a sinner?
¨I still have time to repent, etc.
We can contradict these excuses if we consider that:
¨Our Lord didn’t give the authority of forgiving sins to the holy icons, but to His Apostles and their successors. (John
20:22-23)
¨Our salvation does not depend on the moral quality of
the priest, but only by the grace of the
Holy Spirit, which is transmitted by him through the holy Sacrament of
Repentance and Confession. A rose never loses its perfume, whether it is held
by a sinner or a saint.
¨Who knows what could
happen to us in the next moment or day? Delay is dangerous and a strong weapon in Satan’s
hands.
***
sincere repentance.
It is a valuable
ladder to
Heaven and Paradise!
Heaven and Paradise!
