Father Geiermann continues his discussion of the qualities that dispose a person to yield a bountiful spiritual harvest. The second quality is confidence in God. Geiermann gives seven reasons why we ought to have such confidence. Here are the first three:
We have confidence in God because of His goodness, love, and mercy. Consider this: “God made man to His own image and likeness, destined him for the Beatific Vision, and endowed him with superabundant means of working out his exalted destiny. When sin closed heaven to man and made him a slave of Satan, God was so lavish in His mercy that He did not hesitate to sacrifice His only begotten Son for man’s redemption. And He solemnly assures us that He loves every one of us with an everlasting love and watches over us with a greater solicitude than the fondest mother bestows upon her infant child.”
We have confidence in God because of His promises. “Behold” He says, “I stand at the gate and knock” (Rev 3:20). “Come to Me, all you that labor, and are burdened, and I will refresh you” (Matt 11:28). “Turn ye to Me, saith the Lord of hosts; and I will turn to you” (Zech 1:3). “As I live, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ezek 33:11). “If the wicked do penance and keep My commandments, I will not remember his iniquities” (Ezek 18:21).
We have confidence in God because of the merits of Jesus Christ. “As God His actions have infinite value; in His human nature He paid the price of our redemption. . . . St. John Chrysostom calls his crucified Master ‘the hope of Christians, the staff of the lame, the comfort of the poor, . . . the refuge of those who are in danger, the counsellor of the just, the rest of the afflicted, the physician of the sick, and the glory of martyrs.'”
Quotations from Peter Geiermann, The Narrow Way (New York: Benziger, 1914).
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