“God never tires of forgiveness.” (Pope Francis).
I heard a story recently about Saint John Vianney, who is also known as the Cure of Ars.
When Saint John Vianney first went to his parish in Ars he promised God that he would suffer anything that God wished for the salvation of the souls within his parish. And true to his promise, the Saint suffered greatly. Not only did he live a poor and simple life, surviving on potato and herbs without drinking water, but he also suffered through the jealousy of other priests and religious within his community.
But there was a greater suffering than that as well for the Cure of Ars. You see, the Evil One himself tempted the Saint very often. You see, Saint John Vianney thought very often of leaving his parish and retiring to pray in solitude and devote himself entirely to solitary prayer. The Evil One knew this, and once, he spoke to the Saint through the mouth of a woman who was possessed, saying, “How you torment me! You ‘Vilain crapaud noir!’ (which means ‘ugly black toad’).” The Evil One continued, “You are a miser of souls. You rob me of all you can... You are a liar! You said, a long while ago, that you wished to depart from this place, and here you still remain. What do you mean by that? Why do you not retire and rest, as others do? You have worked long enough... You talked of retiring into solitude. Why do you not do so?”
And I have been thinking about that incident in the life of that Saint, because it occurs to me that if Saint John Vianney had called it quits when he was suffering such terrible torment and temptation, multitudes of souls would not have been saved.
And that reminds me of my Beloved, for He said, “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” (Matthew 18:12-14).
You see, Saint John Vianney never gave up because he knew, as Pope Francis reminds us, that “God never tires of forgiveness.”
And all it takes for the salvation of souls is that we continue to do the work that our Beloved has set for us. For if we do that, we are truly made in the image and likeness of God – for “God never tires of forgiveness.” And neither should I – for I am a daughter of His Majesty, King of the Universe, and I have a job to do… And my work has only just begun…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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