Let’s begin with a brief passage from God the Father’s message:
“Here is the true purpose of my coming:
1) I come to remove the excessive fear that my creatures have of me, and to make them understand that my joy lies in being known and loved by my children, that is, by all mankind, present and future.”
So much for the quote…
In the hearts of men, there can still be many wrong ideas of God. Our Father’s intention is, first of all, to eliminate excessive fear; that which makes man scrupulous and timid. This kind of fear distorts the image of God, and if our witness is permeated by fear, then other people will not be able to know through our message what God is really like.
We know that the false image of God arose already in paradise, and from then on, the Devil has worked hard so that man does not trust his Father. Unfortunately, it must be said that he has often succeeded. Here, too, negative experiences in the family or with other people who have exercised their authority in a negative way can have an impact. Through the love of the Heavenly Father, all these negative images and imprints on the soul must be overcome.
By overcoming excessive fear, the true fear of God can remain, and even shine through even more. The latter, which is a wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit, consists in the fear of hurting the Father’s love. On the other hand, the “excessive fear” of which the Father speaks here is a product of fear and is extremely unjust towards His love; perhaps it even seeks to give justification and a reason not to approach God confidently.
Of course, there must also be no carelessness in the relationship with God; a false familiarity, perhaps connected to a false concept of His mercy, as if sin were not so tragic and represented a rejection of His love.
Far be it from us to have such an attitude! The Father, instead, wants to bring us into the right relationship with Him.
We must know – and not only with our heads – that for our Father it is a joy if we correspond to His love. That is what He wants for all mankind, because everyone is called to receive the fullness of His grace, as His child.
If we internalize these words, every day He entrusts us with a wonderful task: We can live for the joy of the Father, thus resembling our Lord Jesus Christ! In everything, He lived for the glory and joy of the Father. He wanted to glorify Him!
We could adopt “living for the Father’s joy” as the motto of our existence… It would help us to know each day better the love of our Father and to feel more sure of it. On such a path, the spirit of piety becomes effective, freeing us from all entanglement and attachment to ourselves… Since we are very forgetful, it is good that we bring this purpose to our memory again and again. Just as monks, priests and consecrated persons make the “examination of conscience” during the prayer of Compline, we should – at the latest before going to bed – question ourselves as to whether we have fulfilled our purpose. Certainly we will have to confess with humility that it is not always easy to put this noble resolution into practice, and tell our Father so with a contrite heart. But surely our Lord will raise us up and let us know that he is pleased with our efforts, even though we are still weak, scattered and defective!
One thing that might help us to keep alive the awareness of “living for the joy of the Father” is to keep in mind that He would really like to be known and loved by all mankind. And, as perhaps St. Therese of the Child Jesus would say, we want, for our part, to do everything to make this happen, and at least we want to try.
Harpa Dei accompanies the daily scriptural interpretation or spiritual teaching of Br. Elija, their spiritual father. These meditations can be heard on the following website www.en.elijamission.net
