Day Nineteen
Therese thought she was going straight to heaven, and that’s what she did. She got what she dared to desire. Heaven—perfect joy—is what God wants for me, so if I want what the Almighty wants, it will be given to me. It’s that simple. You get the good you really want.
Simple but not easy, because: how badly do I want the Good? “When you seek me you will find me, when you seek for me with your whole heart,” God told the prophet Jeremiah (29:13). It’s hard to love God “with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” as Jesus taught (Mark 12:29), but we must try. How do we try? By praying (loving God) first, but then by serving (loving neighbor). Jesus taught that love of God is the first commandment, but love of neighbor is the second. Unless we show mercy to every one of God’s children, we cannot hope for mercy ourselves. If you want love, give love.
Fr. Gaitley mentions the curious case of Sister Marie Febronie, the elderly subprioress in Therese’s monastery. She criticized Therese as presumptuous. How could this 19-year-old imagine that she could avoid God’s wrath after death? Within the year, Sr. Febronie died of the flu and appeared to Therese in a dream. She was indeed enduring Divine Justice in Purgatory, but she asked Therese to pray that she trust in Divine Love enough to enter heaven.
We finally obtain what our hearts desire. Certainly God wants us with Him, so let’s try to desire what He desires, with our whole heart. “I want to love God,” Therese wrote, “as He’s never been loved before.”
Prayer
Come, Holy Spirit, fire of mercy. Take away any fears or anxieties I may have about making the Offering.