252nd Meditation
“I have dispelled your acts of revolt like a cloud and your sins like a mist. Come back to me, for I have redeemed you” (Is 44:22).
This is what we can expect especially in the Lenten Season that has begun, because our Father keeps His promises.
He responds to the ugliness of sin with the depth and beauty of His love; to the alienation of humanity, with His coming into this world; to the wandering of humanity, with the search of the Good Shepherd (cf. Jn 10:11).
What great joy it is for the Father and for the whole of heaven when a “prodigal son” is converted (cf. Lk 15:7)! We know that God goes out in search of him and cries out: “When will you come? Where are you lost? Why do you allow yourself to be deceived by demons?” And if a person, even at the end of his life, calls on the name of the Father just one time, the Father will not let that person perish, but will redeem him through His beloved Son. What a joy!
But the Father does not only rejoice for those whom He can still rescue from eternal darkness. In the Message to Mother Eugenia He tells us: “As for the souls who live in justice and sanctifying grace, I show My happiness by living in them.”
Now, if I consider these two reasons for joy for the Father, I think the following: What a cause of joy can I be to Him if, on the one hand, I strive to remain in a state of grace and, on the other hand, go out with Him in search of the “prodigal sons” and tell the strays that God dispels all sins as a cloud and the mist dissipates.
Surely that will make the Father glad, and me too, to be able to give Him this joy!
People must know that they are to turn to the Father and thus receive redemption. And they must know that God awaits them day after day, hour after hour, always as a loving Father who wants to shower us with His love.
If only mankind knew this….