11:11, 666, dreams, certain words or events… these are things that plague the minds of some; they are afraid that it might be some kind of bad “omen.”
God tells us not to fear. ‘Fear not, for I am with thee: turn not aside, for I am thy God…’ (Isaiah 41:10). He created us for eternal life. While we are alive, there is always hope of salvation. God cannot deceive; if He calls us to Himself; if we hear His voice, or feel the touch of His grace – however weak it might seem, then we can have absolute confidence that if we trust in God and love Him, we will be saved.
… Aren’t all these other things superfluous? Besides, God is the Father of Lights; when He communicates with us, His message brings clarity. All these oppresive fears are not the work of God.
If it can be demonstrated that the greatest fear – damnation – is vain and irrational (so long as we desire to do God’s will), then all the lesser fears will hopefully lose their power.
St. Alphonsus does just this. Read his consoling words:
“I wish here to propose a doubt, which may rise in the mind of one who loves God, and strives to conform himself in all things to his blessed will. If it should be ever revealed to such a one that he would be eternally lost, would he be obliged to bow to it with resignation, in order to practise conformity with the will of God? St. Thomas says no; and further, that he would sin by consenting to it, because he would be consenting to live in a state that involves sin, and is contrary to the last end for which God created him; for God did not create souls to hate him in hell, but to love him in heaven: so that he does not wish the death even of the sinner, but that all should be converted and saved. The holy Doctor says that God wishes no one to be damned except through [i.e. as a consequence of] sin; and therefore, a person, by consenting to his damnation, would not be acting in conformity with the will of God, but with the will of sin. But suppose that God, foreseeing the sin of a person, should have decreed his damnation, and that this decree should be
revealed to him, would he be bound to consent to it? In the same passage the saint says, By no means; because such a revelation must not be taken as an irrevocable decree – but made merely by way of communication, as a threat of what would follow if he persists in sin.
But let every one banish such baneful thoughts from his mind, as only calculated to cool his confidence and love. Let us love Jesus Christ as much as possible here below; let us always be sighing to go hence and to behold him in paradise, that we may there love him perfectly; let us make it the grand object of all our hopes, to go thither to love him with all our strength.”
“When you advance in virtue, you give up the imperfection of fear.”
– God to St. Catherine of Siena
**Given that this is my 200th post on Littlest Souls, I would like to sincerely thank every reader, commenter and pray-er (i.e. those who have prayed for me or the “success” of Little Souls).
Thank you and God bless!
Littlest Souls 