"Whom the Lord loves, He disciplines..." (Heb 12:5)
“Strive
to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you,
will attempt to enter but
will not be strong enough. (Lk 12:24)
Several years
ago, I waited nervously in a long confession line, preparing to reconcile after
many years away from the Catholic Church. Opening my pocket bible randomly, I
read: “…whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he
acknowledges.” Endure your trials as “discipline”; God treats you as sons. For
what “son” is there whom his father does not discipline?” (Heb 12:5-7).
Had I not been
drawn to confession that day by the message of the Divine Mercy, that passage
might have caused me to slip out and disappear for at least another decade! Fortunately,
at that time, the Divine Mercy messages were just beginning to spread in this
area and reading them had given me the courage to return to confession. Jesus asked
for the Feast of Mercy to be celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter,
promising, “On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out
a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My
mercy. The soul that will go to
Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins
and punishment… Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as
scarlet” (Diary, 699).
Fear had long
kept me from approaching the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but Jesus’s promise
was the invitation I needed to finally come back. I stayed in line that day and
was washed clean by God’s mercy and welcomed home. Even the promised discipline,
which I gradually learned from Church teachings as I rediscovered the “narrow
gate” that leads to life, was truly a gift. As Paul goes on to say, “At the
time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it
brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it…”
(Heb 12:11).
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