THE PRODIGAL SON

116th Meditation on God the Father

“I spend days, sometimes years, close to some souls to be able to ensure their eternal happiness. They do not know that I am there waiting for them, calling them every moment of the day… However, I never become weary…

I will give you an example of a soul who is facing sudden death; this soul has always been for me like the Prodigal Son. 

I lavished benefits on this soul, but he wasted all these benefits, all these gifts that his most loving Father provided for him. More than this, he offended Me gravely. I waited for him, I followed him everywhere, I gave him more favours: health and wealth, that I caused to result from his work, to the point of superfluity. At times My providence granted him further gifts. He therefore had plenty of everything, but he saw it all in the sad light of his vices, and his whole life was a fabric of errors because of habitual mortal sin.

But My love never tired. I followed him all the same. I loved him and, most of all, in spite of his rebuffs, I was happy to live patiently close to him, in the hope that maybe one day he would respond to My love and return to Me, His Father and Saviour.

At last his final day is approaching: I have sent him an illness in order to make him come to his senses and return to Me, his Father. Time passes and My poor son – he is 74 – is at his last hour. I am still there, as always: I talk to him with even more kindness than usual. I persevere, I call My chosen ones and ask them to pray for him, so that he may ask for the forgiveness I am offering him… And now, before breathing his last, he opens his eyes, admits his errors and understands how far he has strayed from the true path that leads to Me. He recovers his senses and in a weak voice, which none of those around him can hear, he says:

 “My God, I can now see how great Your love for me has been and I have offended You continually with such a bad life. I never thought about You, my Father and Saviour. Now You see everything and I beg forgiveness for all this evil which You see in me and which I now discern in my confusion. I love You, my Father and my Saviour!”

He died at that very moment and now here he is, before Me. I judge him with a paternal love: he called Me Father and he is saved. He will spend a period of time in the place of expiation, and after this he will be happy for all eternity. Having taken pleasure during his life in the hope of saving him when he repented, I now rejoice even more, together with My celestial court, at having realized My desire to be his Father for ever.”