Honoring Jesus with Our Confidence

Hence, we trust in our Lord, and we draw near to him, tranquil and sure, not because of what we are, but because of what he is.  We can be ingrates, wretches, criminals; and still our ingratitude, our wickedness, and our crimes should not diminish by one jot the trust that we should have in our Lord, for the simple reason that our trust is based, not on ourselves, but on him; and Jesus is the same forever, ever good, ever loving, ever merciful.  I was the one who changed, but these changes in no wise affect my confidence, since my confidence is based on God, not on myself….

May God deliver us from confiding in ourselves!  May God deliver us from lacking trust in him because of our deficiency!  If we are laggards or ingrates or sinners, we shall do very well to mistrust ourselves.  But why go to the extent of lacking confidence in God?  What relationship have our sins and our ingratitudes with the goodness, the mercy, and the love of God?  All his attributes are infinite…. Hence, the only thing that could shake our confidence would be to come to the knowledge that God is no longer so good and so merciful as hitherto.  But as long as this does not occur — and it will never occur — we must confide completely in him.

Furthermore, I dare to say that if we should have this knowledge by means of a private revelation, we must not believe it.  If an angel from heaven should come to say to us, "God no longer loves you; hence, you must no longer confide in him," do not believe him.  Rather, we could say to him, "You are not a messenger of God, but an envoy of the devil," since a messenger of God does not speak in this manner…. Above this feigned revelation stands the Word of Jesus, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.  Jesus is the one who brought us a message from heaven.  He came to tell us that God loves us with an infinite love, with an eternal love; that he loves us to the extent of having given us his own Son and having delivered him to death for love of us…. Hence, we must believe in the love, in the goodness, and in the mercy of God toward us.  And on this most solid foundation we must base our hope.