God's mercy and forgiveness

They shout: «Jesus, our Saviour, have mercy on us!» and they stretch out their deformed or ulcerated hands. «Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us!»

«What do you want Me to do for you?» asks Jesus looking towards their misery.

«We want You to save us from sin and from this disease.»

«Your will and repentance will save you from sin…»

«But if You wish, You can cancel our sins. At least those, if You do not want to cure our bodies.»

«If I say to You: “Choose either one or the other”, which one would you prefer?»

«God’s forgiveness, Lord. To be less desolate.»

Jesus has a gesture of approval. He smiles brightly, raises His arms and shouts: «Let it be granted. I want it.»

Granted! The grace might be granted for their sins, or for their disease, or for both, and the five unhappy people remain uncertain. But the apostles have no uncertainty and they can but shout their hosannas when they see the leprosy disappear as fast as a flake of snow that falls on a fire. The five then understand that the full grace has been granted to them. Their shouting resounds like a cry of victory. They embrace one another and throw kisses at Jesus, as they cannot prostrate themselves at His feet. They then turn to their companions saying: «And you still refuse to believe? What miserable wretches are you?»

«Good! Be good! Your poor brothers need time to think. Say nothing to them. Faith is not imposed, it is preached with peace, kindness, patience and perseverance. That is what you will do after your purification, exactly as Simon did with you. After all, the miracle preaches by itself. You who have been cured, will go to the priest as soon as possible. You, who are still ill, wait for us this evening. We will bring you some food. Peace be with you.»

• God's mercy and forgiveness
• Illness - Disability - Handicap
• Repentance and contrition
• Sin

Aglae puts down the little bag she was carrying on her shoulder, then she kneels down at Jesus’ feet and bursts into tears. She prostrates herself on the floor, her head resting on her arms crossed on the floor.

«Do not weep thus. This is not the time for tears. You should have wept when you were hateful to God. Not now that you love Him and are loved by Him.»

But Aglae continues to weep…

«Do you not believe that it is so?»

She manages to speak through her sobs: «I love Him, it is true, as best I can… But although I know and believe that God is Bounty I cannot possibly hope to be loved by Him. I have sinned too much… Perhaps one day I will be loved… But I still have to weep so much… For the time being I am alone in my love. All alone… It is not desperate solitude of past years. It is a solitude full of longing for God, so it is no longer hopeless… but it is so sad…»

«Aglae, how little you still know the Lord! This longing for Him is the proof that God is replying to your love, that He is your friend, Who calls you, invites you and wants you. God is incapable of remaining insensitive to the desire of a creature, because He, the Lord and Creator of all creatures, excited that desire in that heart. He excited it because He loved with privileged love the soul that is now longing for Him. The desire of God always precedes the desire of the creature, because He is Most Perfect and therefore His love is by far more eager and ardent than the love of the creature.»

«But how can God love my filth?»

«Do not endeavour to understand with your intelligence. He is an abyss of mercy, which human intelligence cannot understand. But what the intelligence of man cannot understand, the intelligence of love, the love of the spirit does. It understands and confidently penetrates the mystery, which is God, and the mystery of the relationship of the soul with God. Enter, I tell you. Enter, because God wants it.»

«Oh! My Saviour! So I am really forgiven? I am really loved? Must I believe it?»

«Did I ever lie to you?»

«Oh! no, Lord! Everything You told me[1] at Hebron came true. You saved me because Your Name is salvation. You looked for me, a poor lost soul. You gave me the life of this soul, which I was carrying dead within me. You told me that if I had looked for You I would find You. And it was true. You told me that You are wherever man needs a doctor and medicine. And it is true. Everything, everything You told poor Aglae, from the words on that

morning in June, to the other words at the Clear Water…»

«So you must believe these too.»

«Yes, I believe, I do believe! But say to me: “I forgive you”!»

«I forgive you in the name of God and of Jesus.»

«Thank You…»

• Desire
• Friendship with God
• God's love
• God's mercy and forgiveness
• Jesus Christ's words to a sinner
• Loving God
• Repentance and contrition
• Tears - Crying

“Forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are in debt to us”.

There are material debts and spiritual ones. There are also moral debts. The money or the goods that one has received as a loan and must give back, are a material debt. Esteem extorted and not given back and love wanted and not returned are a moral debt. To obey God, from Whom one would exact much giving Him very little, and to love Him are a spiritual debt. He loves us and is to be loved, as a mother, a wife, a son, from whom so much is exacted, are to be loved. A selfish man wants to receive, but does not give. But an egoist is poles apart from Heaven. We are in debt to everybody. From God to a relative, from a relative to a friend, from a friend to our neighbour, to a servant, to a slave, because they are all beings like ourselves. Woe to him who does not forgive! He will not be forgiven. God, out of justice, cannot remit the debt of a man who is in debt to Him, the Most Holy One, if man does not forgive his fellow man.

• Esteem
• God's mercy and forgiveness
• Love
• Love of neighbor
• Loving God
• Mercy and forgiveness
• Obedience
• Silver

I will go back to my father! This pride of mine is silly, as it deprives me of my freedom. And why? Why should I suffer in my body and even more in my heart when I can be forgiven and receive comfort? I will go back to my father. That is settled.

• Confession - Sacrament of reconciliation
• Conversion
• God's mercy and forgiveness
• Mercy and forgiveness
• Pain and suffering
• Pride
• Silliness

One must always keep the dress clean through humility. It is so easy to dim the purity of the heart. And those

whose hearts are not pure cannot see God. Humility is like water that washes. A humble man soon notices that he has darkened his robe, because his eyes are not dimmed by the fumes of pride and thus he runs to his Lord and says: “I have stained the purity of my heart. I weep at Your feet to be cleansed. Oh! my Sun, purify my heart through Your benign forgiveness and Your paternal love!”

• Cleanliness
• Coming to God and Jesus
• Confession - Sacrament of reconciliation
• God's mercy and forgiveness
• How to perfect and sanctify yourself
• Humility
• Prayers from the EMV
• Pride
• Purity
• Repentance and contrition
• Sin
• Tears - Crying

«There are no orphans in Heaven. We have God. And God is everything. We are not orphans here either. Because the Father is always with us.»

«But Jesus in that lovely prayer, which You teach me by day and my mother at night, says: “Our Father Who are in Heaven”. We are not in Heaven yet. Therefore, how can we be with Him?»

«Because God is everywhere, son. He watches over the baby that is born and over the old man who is dying. The child who is born this moment, in the most remote part of the world, has God’s love and eye with him and will have them until he dies.»

«Even if he is as bad as Doras?»

«Yes.»

«But can God, Who is so good, love Doras who is so bad and makes my old father weep?»

«He looks at him with disdain and sorrow. But if he should repent. He would say to him what the father of the parable said to his repentant son.

208.3

You should pray that he may repent and…»

«Oh! no, Mother! I will pray that he may die!!!» says the child impetuously. Although his remark is not very… angelical, his impetuosity is so sincere that no one can help laughing.

Mary then resumes the sweet seriousness of a Teacher: «No, My dear. You must not do that to a sinner. God would not listen to you and would look sternly at you as well. We must wish our neighbour the greatest welfare, even if our neighbour is very bad. Life is a good thing because it gives man the possibility of gaining merits in the eyes of God.»

«But if one is bad, one gains sins.»

«We pray that he may become good.»

The boy is pensive… but he does not like this sublime lesson (...).

• God's love
• God's mercy and forgiveness
• God's severity
• Love of neighbor
• Repentance and contrition
• The wicked man

There is One here Who is by far greater than the Temple and can take anything He wants of what exists in creation, because God has made everything a footstool for the Word. And I take and give. And that applies both to the ears of corn of the Father, laid on the immense table of the Earth, and to the Word. I take and give. Both to the good and to the wicked. Because I am Mercy. But you do not know what is Mercy. If you knew what My being Mercy means, you would also know that I want nothing but mercy. If you knew what Mercy is, you would not have condemned innocent people. But you do not know. You do not even know that I do not condemn you, you do not know that I will forgive you and, more than that, I will ask the Father to forgive you. Because I want mercy and not punishment. But you do not know. You do not want to know. And that is a greater sin than the one you impute to Me, it is greater than the one you say these innocent men have committed. You must know that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath and that the Son of man is also master of the Sabbath.

• Creation
• God's mercy and forgiveness
• Jerusalem Temple (spiritual state - teachings - various episodes)
• Jesus Christ - Son of Man
• Jesus Christ - Word of God
• Rejection of God and Jesus Christ
• Who is Jesus? How Christ defines himself

• Apostolate - Evangelism
• God's justice
• God's mercy and forgiveness
• God's punishment
• Holiness
• Justice and Mercy
• Master of souls
• Mercy and forgiveness
• Modern self-righteousness (quibbling and bickering)
• Repentance and contrition

• Choosing death
• Death
• God's mercy and forgiveness
• Hope - Espoir
• Repentance and contrition
• Salvation of a soul
• Words of wisdom