Novena to God the Father, Day 7
Dear Father, it is true that only in eternity, as we contemplate You from face to face, will we experience the fullness of happiness, towards which we are heading. There is no doubt about it!
However, it is not that You want us to experience only tribulation until then, even if this sometimes helps us not to enjoy a false happiness. If this were so, Beloved Father, You would not have told us through our friend St. Paul that we should always rejoice (Phil 4:4).
But, Beloved Father, how can we always be joyful? It is certainly not in the first instance an earthly joy, nor is it an artificial or feigned joy, but an authentic joy.
In the Message you entrusted to Sister Eugenia Ravasio, you give us a beautiful guideline:
“If you love Me and call Me by the sweet name of Father, you will begin to live, here and now, in the love and the trust which will make you happy in eternity and which you will sing in heaven in the company of the elect. Is this not a foretaste of the happiness of heaven, which will last for ever?”
Yes, it is!
Because of the first sin in Paradise, the relationship of trust with You was deeply affected, and the same is true throughout history. The devil works successfully to precipitate people into misfortune.
But if we do not trust in You, in whom shall we trust? In fallible people? In our fallen nature? Or, worse still, in the seductions of Satan?
No! We call upon You as our Father, as the best of fathers, as the most tender of fathers; who is personally present wherever we are at any given moment, who is always with us, even if we forget or even deny it. This is Your wish, as You expressed it to Mother Eugenia Ravasio:
“I would like to make My home in every family, as in My domain, so that all can say with absolute assurance: ´We have a Father who is infinitely good, infinitely rich and greatly merciful.´”
When we internalise this Your desire, love and trust grow, and You heal this terrible wound of mistrust and fear deep within us.
You even tell us that this will be an anticipation of the joy we will sing in heaven in the company of the chosen ones.
Beloved Father, these are wonderful words, which totally awaken my heart.
If already here, in this world, Sacred Music can exalt me to the point that sometimes it’s almost too much to bear… St. Francis of Assisi once said that if he heard just one more heavenly tone, he would die of love.
Then, Father, in eternity we will sing of trust and love for You, which can already grow in us now.
Yes, it is an anticipation of heavenly joy to be able to praise You, for example, in a holy liturgy, even if here, in our earthly existence, we cannot yet constantly remain in this joy.
However, if we remain in “sung trust” and in love for You, day by day, hour by hour, in the most intimate dialogue with You and in the works of love, our joy will grow more and more.
Yes, Father, we need to heal the relationship of trust with You, which has been disturbed to the very depths. How wonderful it would be to be able to trust You without limits already here, in our earthly life!
Purify us, please, of all that still stands between You and us, and let Your holy Word penetrate us, take root and drive out all that is wrong which our soul has absorbed.
As an aid to this, let sacred music penetrate us and touch us, as we listen to Your holy Word:
“He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering lambs in his arms, holding them against his breast and leading to their rest the mother ewes.” (Isa 40:11)
“Yahweh is near to the broken-hearted,
he helps those whose spirit is crushed.
Though hardships without number beset the upright,
Yahweh brings rescue from them all.” (Ps 34:18-19)
“I have loved you with an everlasting love and so I still maintain my faithful love for you.” (Jer 31:3)
“Neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nothing already in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power, nor the heights nor the depths, nor any created thing whatever, will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:38-39)