Ave Maria Meditations
Do you want to give yourself an idea of the goodness of God and the hardness of creatures? Consider how God acts when He is offended and how men act. Oh, how light is human mercy, even nonexistent! Man pretends to pardon, but in reality does nothing but treat his offender harshly while always remembering the offense. He forgives when he no longer feels the impact and the anger; he forgives with difficulty. Yet the offender is a being like him, perhaps better than him.
Look how inflexible man is when he punishes: the guilty person, repentant, begs, weeps, but the law strikes him, obliterates him, deprives him of freedom and is not placated until he has paid in full.
God is infinite, he that offends Him is a poor worm. The offense which He receives is incommensurable, yet God calls the sinner to His Heart, He entices him with the most delicate expressions, He searches for him like a lost treasure, like a little lamb from His own fold, like a beloved son. If God wants him to confess his sin, it is for the benefit of the sinner, so that by humiliating himself, he may feel free of his weight and deserve forgiveness and may look on this as a blessed right and not a humiliating concession.
God does not despise the sinner, he does not look on him with severity nor prove him, what embraces him, riches him with grace, puts the ring of sonship on his finger and prepares the banquet of the Eucharist for him. One single sincere word of love, one single sigh of the soul is enough to reconcile him to God, even before mildly humbling himself before God’s minister.
It is true that adversities befall sinners, but it is not God who wills the punishment and death of the wicked, it is rather the wicked who brings the adversities and disasters upon himself. And even these serve God’s purpose to call the sinner to Himself when he does not listen to the voice of love. Oh, how great is God’s mercy! Are you still unsure about Him? Do you not know that He considers Himself greatly offended by lack of trust precisely because He is infinite goodness? Throw yourself into His arms, then, weep at His feet. In Him, you will always find the most tender and loving of fathers
The Servant of God, Don Dolindo Ruotolo
