“Since you know My favourite place of rest, are you not going to offer Me it? I am your Father and your God; will you dare refuse Me this? Oh, do not let Me suffer because of your cruelty towards a Father Who is asking you for this one grace for Himself”.
How our Father humbles Himself before us! Who can remain indifferent when hearing these words? The Heavenly Father, the Creator of all that exists, spares no effort to save us from our wanderings. He asks for our love, He wants to dwell in us and find His rest in our souls. And why? Because He loves us and wants to give us all that He has in store for us, and He does not want us to go astray.
Let us listen carefully to the words our Father chooses: THIS ONE GRACE He asks of us is to let Him into our hearts. Our Father does not insist that it is His right or that He will force it on us if we do not willingly open our hearts to Him.
No, He addresses us in a very different tone, not as a sovereign imposing His power. No! Will we not get to know our Father better if we let these words settle in our hearts? Will we not understand Him a little better and see how far His love reaches?
This is our Father!
Let us remember the words of the Apocalypse: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him” (Rev 3:20). Let us also think of the scene in Gethsemane when our Lord asked His disciples to spend an hour with Him in His agony (Mt 26:38).
Could we deny our Father this wish which He asks with infinite humility? Would we dare to make Him, who is nothing but love, suffer? We should never do that! Let us rather ask Him Himself, so that we may understand His love better and better, so that our fickle hearts may never depart from Him and remain faithful to Him. Then our heart will be a great treasure for our Father, in which He can dwell and find a hidden paradise in the midst of a world that is yet so peaceless.