An important theme in the Diary of St. Faustina Kowalska is the theme of trust. The Lord says to St. Faustina:
Souls draw graces solely with the vessel of trust. If their trust is great, there is no limit to my generosity. The torrents of grace inundate humble souls.
In a sense, the greatest tribute we can give to God’s mercy is simply to trust it. Jesus pledges us this promise:
Sooner would heaven and earth turn into nothingness than would my mercy not embrace a trusting soul.
It almost seems too simple. But that is by God’s loving design. The world conditions us to be guarded, suspicious, skeptical, wary. From everyone and everything we expect some “angle.” We presume that others are poised to take advantage, even exploit us. Constant caution keeps us closed in.
To supremely pessimistic people in the Gospel, Jesus says directly, Fear is useless. What is needed is trust. It is a huge risk to trust Jesus Christ and believe … but if we do, what comes forth — as it did in the Gospel — is new life from death (Mk 5:42).
The perfection we are striving for comes to fruition by adoring Christ’s mercy:
I desire that these souls distinguish themselves by boundless trust in my mercy. I myself will attend to the sanctification of such souls. I will provide them with everything they will need to attain sanctity. The graces of my mercy are drawn by means of one vessel only, and that is trust.
Even more, our prayerful trust will have a beneficial effect on those around us:
When a soul approaches me with trust, I fill it with such an abundance of graces that it cannot contain them within itself, but radiates them to other souls.
A simple, potent, consoling prayer we can utter often: Jesus, I trust in you!
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Follow Fr. Cameron’s series on prayer here.
And today we celebrate...