201. Fourth Wednesday of Ordinary Time

Meditations no. 80 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

We must first acknowledge our faults, before we can atone for them.

The Second Book of Samuel narrates that King David, forgetting that all his glory came from God’s graciousness and not from his own human strength, gave in to vanity and ordered a census of all the tribes of Israel.

But David’s heart smote him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, I pray, take away the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.”

God wants us to acknowledge our sins and not hide our iniquities from him. Sincerity is the first step towards repentance. We cannot forget, our Father says, that original sin makes us proni ad peccatum, prone to sin. We are of the same stock as that first fallen couple. We have a great propensity to fall. We still have a lingering taste in our mouths of the inheritance they left us. Propter peccata, on account of our sins - original sin and our personal sins - we experience all those feelings that are not feelings of peace; all those errors: because human nature is very prone to error. 2

We have all sinned; and we all have faults and imperfections that distance us from God. If you step slightly off the straight path, says St Jerome, it doesn’t really matter whether it is to the left or to the right. What matters is that you have left the true path. And so we should acknowledge our contrition, together with David: I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. In thinking of all the things we have done wrong, we should bear in mind our own particular circumstances, because God has given us so much, and he is going to demand a lot of us. St John Chrysostom tells us that if a person favoured by the Holy Spirit and abundantly gifted by God falls into sin, it is not the same as when a person without such privileges commits the same fault. Given that God’s faithful love for us is so very great, so superabundant and generous, no infidelity on our part can be considered small. But we mustn’t be afraid to call sins by their name, however many years we may have spent serving God. We must have clear ideas and a clear conscience. We cannot allow ourselves to do things that are wrong and say they are holy.

The sacrifice that pleases God is a contrite heart.

In what can we take glory? our Father asked himself. I am nothing but wretchedness. If I have anything that is acceptable, it comes from God. And this isn’t false humility. With my human intellect, in God’s presence, all I see is wretchedness. I see it as clearly as two plus two equals four. But I have God’s grace: Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat. (I can do all things in him who strengthens me. ) And I struggle to convert my wretchedness into something divine. Everyone who struggles is on the road to sanctity. My children, make good use of this light from God, because - as you have heard me say many times - even though God doesn’t want our shortcomings, nevertheless he uses them to help our humility and our sanctification.

Our faults serve to reveal the inadequacy of our human condition. We are like the servant in the parable who had no way of repaying his master. A humble person feels the need to ask God for pardon many times each day. And a sure path to humility is contrition.

I have often told you that the best devotion is to make acts of contrition. We are always returning like the prodigal son. There’s no reason why we should drag a trail of wretchedness behind us. We should place it all in God’s hands, and with true humility tell him, along with St Peter after his denials: Domine, tu omnia nosti: tu scis quia amo te! (Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you. ) You know that I love you in spite of my weaknesses. That way our wretchedness doesn’t separate us from God. Rather it brings us closer to him, just as a child who has fallen down does not turn away from his mother. “Mummy!” he shouts, and he runs to his mother’s arms. Or if he is a bit older, he runs to his father, whose arms are stronger… If we have made a mistake, big or small, let’s run to God! Cor contritum et humiliatum, Deus, non despicies; God will not disdain a contrite and humble heart.

Contrition brings gaudium cum pace, joy and peace. How can we keep our calm? As I’ve told you before, by keeping a right intention. And now I add: by making acts of contrition. With acts of contrition, our spiritual life improves, and we are serene, at peace; and at times even our physical health improves.

We should desire to make reparation for our sins and for all the offences of mankind.

And when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, “Go and say to David, Thus says the Lord, Three things I offer you; choose one of them, that I may do it to you.” God forgave David’s pride, but he asked him to make atonement, to do penance. “Shall three years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land?”

As our Father teaches us: The Christian vocation is one of sacrifice, penance, expiation. We must make reparation for our sins - for the many times we turned our face aside so as to avoid the gaze of God - and all the sins of mankind. We must try to imitate Christ, always carrying about in our body the dying of Christ, his abnegation, his suffering on the cross, so that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies. Our way is one of immolation and, in this denial, we find gaudium cum pace, both joy and peace.

God doesn’t want us to be unhappy, nor does he take delight in our suffering. He is not a tyrannical master or a rigid and implacable judge; he is our Father. He speaks to us about our lack of generosity, our sins, our mistakes; but he does so in order to free us from them, to promise us his Friendship and his Love.

Only God, who is the one we have offended, can move us to tears for even our smallest infidelities; only he can remove from our hearts the hardness that keeps us from recognizing who it is that we have offended. So if he ever sends us suffering, we should see it as a divine crucible to purify our soul, and as a special opportunity to show true Love and make up in some way for our previous lack of love. If God wills that we be struck down by some affliction, take it as a sign that he considers us mature enough to be associated even more closely with his redeeming Cross.

David accepted from Yahweh the three days of pestilence, saying: Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man. Through his prayer and penance David won from God a shortening of the punishment: I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray you, be against me and against my father’s house.

By means of our expiation and spirit of penance -which our Father tells us consists mainly in the fulfilment of the duty of each moment, however costly it may be - we will be co-redeemers in the middle of the world.

Our Mother, Refuge of sinners: obtain for us from your Son true contrition for our sins and for the sins of all mankind.