From “The Way of the Pilgrim”
The love of God gives grace a thousandfold more than human actions deserve. If you give Him the merest mite, He will pay you back with gold. If you but purpose to go to the Father, He will come out to meet you. You say but a word, short and unfeeling – “Receive me, have mercy on me” – and He falls on your neck and kisses you. That is what the love of the Heavenly Father is like towards us, unworthy as we are. And simply because of this love He rejoices in every gesture we make towards salvation, however small. It looks like this to you: What glory is there for God, what advantage for you, if you pray a little and then your thoughts wander again, or if you do some small good deed, such as reading a prayer, making five or ten acts of reverence, or giving a heartfelt sigh and calling upon the name of Jesus, or attending to some good thought, or setting yourself to some spiritual reading, or abstaining from some food, or bearing an affront in silence – all that seems to you not enough for your full salvation and a fruitless thing to do. No! None of these small acts is in vain; it will be taken into account by the all-seeing eye of God, and receive a hundredfold reward, not only in eternity, but in this life. St John Chrysostom asserts this, “No good of any sort,” he says “however trifling it may be, will be scorned by the righteous Judge. If sins are searched out in such detail that we shall be given an answer for words and desires and thoughts, then so much the more for good deeds, however small they are, will be taken into account in all detail, and will be reckoned to our benefit before our Judge, who is full of love.”
May the LORD continue to strengthen you and me in those small steps towards Him who loves us. LORD in your mercy, Brian+
No comments:
Post a Comment