"If you wish to please Me, trust in Me; if you wish to please Me more, trust more; if you wish to please Me immensely, trust Me immensely. . .trusting souls are the robbers of My graces."

Let us meditate on these words, we souls who desire to console the Heart of Jesus. Let us meditate on the consoling truth they enclose – words that Jesus said to a confidant of His who, not so long ago, lived here below on earth: sister Benigna Consolata Ferrero, a nun of the Visitation, "the Apostle of confidence," as He Himself called her.

Indeed! God Our Lord seeks nothing of us as much as to convince us that we must approach Him with confidence. He always invites all of us, just and sinners: "Come to Me." Let us approach Him with the confidence of children, of brothers (through Christ and in Christ, the first-born), as friends, as espoused souls.

If we descend to the meadows of Sacred Scripture we will find, even in the Old Testament, that God Our Lord has lavished His gifts and the means of making us aware of His love in order to draw us to confidence.

The last means He employed in the divine economy of His exquisite Providence was to give us His Son, Jesus, the promised Christ, the Redeemer, His only-begotten Son, His Word made flesh, so He might speak to us with His own mouth, so He might tell us that He is the God of love, that He is our Creator, our Preserver, our Redeemer! He Who loves us. . .from all eternity and seeks us to bring us to His glory and to make us happy for all eternity. Therefore, let us not be afraid of the punishment He must impose on us to purify us and to atone to His offended Justice. Rather, on the contrary, He has insisted on convincing us that His Justice is Love. Precisely because He, Christ, is paying for our sins. This is why Divine Justice has been changed into mercy, into a tender compassion He has for us on seeing us fallen. And He wants to lift us up. That is why He said, "I am not come to call the just, but sinners." (Matt 9, 13) He is the Good Shepherd Who goes after His lost little sheep to rescue it and, once He finds it, He carries it paternally, lovingly, upon His shoulders to bring it to the fold, to free it from the wolves, that is, from the enemies of our soul, which are the world, the devil and our own flesh, because we have inherited it with original sin and it wars against us, instigated by the demon so we might lose Heaven, for He well knows Heaven cannot be entered with sin. But Jesus has come for that and He continues crucified. He is crucified in the Consecrated Host, offering His sacrifice of the Cross, His sacrifice of Calvary, there on the altars, in atonement for us. In such a way that, what can we fear now? Have we sinned? Well, let us go to Him. He will cleanse us. Perhaps, indeed, to cleanse us He might impose a penance on us, because without penance there is no pardon. But what is to be feared of a God Who has made Himself a Victim for love of us?

Jesus awaits the greatest of sinners. He calls them with loving calls because He left related for us, "There shall be joy in Heaven upon one sinner that does penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance." (Lk 15, 7)

Do we bear the burden of our sins? Do we feel it so heavy that it has been converted into a bundle that inclines us toward the abyss of perdition? What are we waiting for. . .? Let us go to Him!

Do we bear the burden of scruples that keeps us away from Holy Communion? Let us go to Him! Whatever our burden may be and however heavy it may be – afflictions, sins, misery, misfortunes, troubles, etc., etc. – let the person be who he may – pious, lukewarm, cold, indifferent, irreligious, impious, a heretic, vicious – everyone! He invites everyone, "Come to Me, all of you," and He says sweetly, "I will refresh you," without making exceptions – Jews or gentiles – "Come to Me."

He calls us to teach us the holy fear of God. He calls us to enlighten us with His light, to make us the object of His exquisite love.

In Sacred Scripture are these words of His through the mouth of the Psalmist (Ps. 33, 12, 6), "Come, children, hearken to me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Come ye to him and be enlightened: and your faces shall not be confounded." It is as if He were to say to us: Approach Me and, although you come stained by guilt, if you approach, trusting in Me, you will see that I will transform you with My grace. I will exchange that heart of human flesh for another new one that comprehends the great love I have for you.

You will see that I forgive everyone who repents and, with sincere repentance, confesses his sin. Solely by desiring it and by renouncing your perverted inclinations, I will forgive you, and not only will I forgive you but also I will fortify you with My powerful arm so now you may not fall into temptation and will keep yourselves in My love. Because, inflamed in My love, you would never more want to separate yourselves from Me nor offend Me. Then you will understand that the holy fear of God is not to be fearful of Me, but to fear sin, because it makes you lose the immense good of My grace and My friendship and losing My friendship makes you lose everything, even in this life but, above all, in eternity. Because the holy fear of God consists in a reverential love of My commandments, of My divine law, which is above all the laws of men and above all human conventions.

Yes! To go to God is the principle of all our goods. In whatever circumstances of life – afflictions, desolations, misfortunes, sins, miseries – we repeat, the best thing and what we need most, is to have recourse to God and to have recourse with complete confidence. For He not only wants to, but also is able to, alleviate our burden, for He is all-powerful and He will deny us only what would hurt us because He is the best of fathers, of friends, of brothers (in Christ), and of spouses.

The worst that we can do is to flee from Him, to be afraid of Him. To be afraid of God is the greatest of man’s follies. And the devil, after suggesting to us the levity of sinning, infuses in us that fright, precisely so that, giving in to his temptations, we continue falling to the abysses of eternal condemnation.

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