Simple and Powerful Message from the Holy Father
TRUST IN THE LORD: THE KEY TO SUCCESS IN LIFE
“Jesus is called the Lamb: He is the Lamb Who takes upon Himself the sin of the world. One might think, how can a little lamb, so weak, take on so many sins, so much malice? With love. With his meekness. Jesus never ceased to be a lamb: meek, good, full of love, close to the little ones, close to the poor. … But he had the strength to bear the weight of all our sins, all of them. 'But, Father, you don't know my life: I have one that... I wouldn't be able to carry that weight, even with a truck'. So often, when we look into our conscience, we find some sins that are very great! But He takes them on. He came to us for this reason – to forgive, to make peace in the world, but first of all in our hearts. Perhaps some of us have sorrow in our hearts, perhaps we have darkness in our hearts, perhaps we feel a little sad for the guilt we bear... He came to relieve us of all this - He gives us peace, and He forgives all”.
“We often place our trust in a doctor, and this is good, because doctors are there to cure us. We trust in people: brothers and sisters who are able to help us. It is good to have this human trust between us. But we forget our trust in the Lord: and this is the key to success in life. Trust in the Lord – let us entrust ourselves to the Lord!”. He concluded, “this is a gamble we must take: to entrust ourselves to Him. And He never disappoints. Never, never! Listen carefully, boys and girls, those of you who are starting out in life now: Jesus never disappoints”. (Taken from the Holy Father's homily on Sunday, January 19 at the parish of “Sacro Cuore di Gesù a Castro Pretorio”.)
Reflection
Jesus came to take away the sins of the world and He didn't do it merely as something he would check off his "to do" list, he did it out of pure unending love and mercy.
I think sometimes we feel we can be a burden to the Lord, almost like we're in the mind set that since he took our sins on himself and gave his life for us, by our continued sinning we re-open his "to do" list and he has the burden to now forgive us again. That disappointment in ourselves (that we keep sinning) can cause us to shy away from the Lord—to hide in the "Garden" when he comes looking for us. Perhaps our hiding is that we let our prayer time, our time with him slip away more easily. Maybe we don't frequent the sacraments like we use to. Perhaps we fill ourselves with distractions so we don't have to feel guilty for the time being.
Pope Francis assures us that Jesus does not want this at all! The Lord does not want us to turn away from him in our sin, but rather to turn toward him, to find comfort in his Divine Mercy—to trust him even more than we trust our doctor, our close friends, our family. Think how easy it is to trust your best friend. We should trust God even more! Pope Francis refers to this as a gamble. I don't think he means that we gamble on whether or not the Lord will forgive us. (In fact, I am certain he does not mean that!) He is talking about us taking the risk in our own lives to turn toward him, to not hide in the "garden" but to walk up to the Lord in full trust of his forgiveness.
Jesus hasn't checked forgiving us off on his "to-do" list, and he is never the gamble. He is infinite mercy and he is never disappointed in us when we take the gamble in our own lives and turn to him in our sin! And best of all—he never disappoints. Never, never!