Our Lord revealed to Bl. Dina Belanger that if all religious souls would let Him act through them as He desires, all would be saved!
Jesus has an insatiable desire for our love.
But our love is merely a participation in God’s love.
It follows, then, that God desires to love us first, so that we may love Him!
Banish from your heart and mind any illusion that you can earn God’s love, or that you have nothing to offer Him – perhaps on account of your past sinfulness. This is surely a temptation. Whenever God asks for love, He first offers us His love! He redeemed even the most wretched sinners, because He desires our happiness. “The greatest gift you can make Me is to receive Me,” said Our Lord to Sr. Mary of the Trinity.
With such unspeakable love in mind, let us reflect on the touching words of Jesus to Bl. Battista Varani:
‘”Another sorrow, which pierced My Heart continually, like a three-edged and poisoned blade, was the impiety and ingratitude of Judas, first My beloved disciple, then My wicked betrayer… Consider first the ingratitude of Judas, whom I chose for one of My apostles, whose sins I forgave, upon whom I conferred the power of working miracles, and whom I made the dispenser of the offerings made to Me. When I saw the design of betraying Me forming in his heart, I redoubled the proofs of My tenderness, to turn him from his criminal thoughts, but it was of no avail; nothing would touch his wicked heart. On the contrary, the more affection I showed him, the more he was hardened in his perfidious resolution. When, at the Last Supper, I performed the humble and touching ceremony of washing My disciples’ feet, My Heart could not contain itself; but I wept bitterly, and watered his polluted feet with My tears, for I said within Myself: “O Judas! what have I then done to you, that you should betray Me thus? O unhappy disciple! is this to be the last proof I shall ever be able to give of My love for you? O son of perdition! why dost thou leave Thy Father and Master? O Judas, if you would have thirty pieces of silver, why not go and ask them from My Mother thine; she would sell herself to free thee and Me from danger and death. Ah! ungrateful disciple, today I wash thy feet, and kiss them with so much love, and in a few hours thou wilt kiss My Face, to deliver Me up to My enemies. O dear and beloved son, what a return thou makest to One who weeps the loss of thee more than His own Passion and death, because for this He came into this world.
While My Heart was speaking thus, My tears watered his feet, but he saw them not, because I was kneeling before him, My Head bent down, and My long hair falling about My Face, so that he could not see My tearful countenance. But John, my beloved disciple, to whom I had revealed all the mysteries of My Passion during this sad Supper, observed My every action, saw My tears flow on the feet of the traitor, and understood that they proceeded from the tenderness of My love. When a father sees his only son about to die, he is eager to serve him, and says in his heart, “Farewell, my son, this is the last service I shall be able to render you.” Thus did I act towards Judas, when I washed and kissed his feet.
When I caressed and kissed them with tender compassion, John, perceiving with his eager heart My gestures and actions, was more dead than alive with wonder and admiration. When at length I approached to wash his feet, for his humility had made him take the last place, on seeing me stoop he could no longer contain himself, but as I knelt he threw his arms round My neck, and held me fast in a long embrace as if fainting, weeping and sobbing and saying in his heart, without uttering a sound, “O my dear Master! My Brother, my Lord and my God! how hast Thou had the courage to wash and kiss with Thy sacred Mouth the cursed feet of this infamous traitor…”
Let us humbly consider the truth that for the entirety of our lives, God has been in search of us. What He asks of us – that we keep His commandments and love Him above all else – is such a small thing in comparison with what He offers us. God is all-deserving of our love, our compassion, our talents, our will, our mind, because they are His gifts.
“Know, My daughter, that the pains I bore in My Heart were innumerable and infinite; for innumerable and infinite are the souls, my members, who tear themselves from Me by mortal sin, for each soul separates itself from Me, its Head and source of life, as often as it sins mortally.”
– Jesus to Blessed Battista Varani
“Do not offend Me any more. Love Me as I have always loved you. Love Me.”
– Jesus to St. Gemma Galgani
Littlest Souls 