“For those who love God, He works all things for good. Even their misdeeds and errors God turns into good for them” (St. Augustine of Hippo).
Probably at no other time do we encounter the loving omnipotence of our Father more powerfully than in the forgiveness of our sins. He turns to us, human beings, with His great mercy, to call us to conversion, to call us back home… The hour of grace has come; the doors of the heart of God are wide open.
The conversion of a person is certainly one of the greatest miracles, when they leave behind the ways of sin and set out on the path of salvation. On the other hand, there were people who already loved and obeyed God, and yet they were not exempt from making mistakes. Some of them we even venerate today as saints of the Church….
Here again we see the loving omnipotence of the unfathomable Heart of God. He looks into the heart of the person. If this person loves Him, then the essential has already happened in them, because their heart is focused on God. This is what our Father asks: Does your heart belong to Me? If it does, and if it remains so, then the Lord will be able to use even their own faults and mistakes for the good of those who love Him. The realization that we too have made mistakes, that we have not been able to overcome our faults, can lead us to a deep humility and free us from pride. In fact, pride is probably what separates us most from God. That is why our Father, in His wisdom, even uses our faults as a means to combat this evil, which is the root of so many other evils.
A heart that loves will know how to discover even more deeply in this the inexpressible faithfulness of God. Then gratitude to the Father will melt all the rough edges that remain in it and its love for God will grow. May our Father keep us from all error! But more importantly: May we never cease to love Him and may this love never cease to grow!