In heaven, "everyone will receive from God the praise that is due to them" (1), and the one who wanted to be the poorest, the most forgotten on earth out of love for Jesus will be the first, the most exalted, and the richest. (AS 119)
As for the little ones, they will be judged with supreme kindness (2). And a person can really remain small even in the most feared offices, even if they live for a very long time. Even if I died at the age of 80, even if I were in China, I would die just as small as today, I know that well. And it is written that "in the end the Lord will rise to save all the meek and humble on earth" (3). It does not say judged, but saved. (VDŽ 140)
God has given me his infinite mercy, and through it, I see and worship the other divine perfections!... Then it is shown to me that all shine with love, yes, it seems to me that even justice is clothed in love (and perhaps even more than any other quality)... What a sweet joy it is to think that God is just, meaning He takes our weaknesses into account, that he perfectly knows the fragility of our nature! What then should I fear? When infinitely just God has so graciously forgiven all the sins of the prodigal son, shouldn’t He also be just to me, who "am always with Him"? (4)... (As 171)
Since I have been given the understanding of the love of Jesus’ Heart, I must confess that it has driven out all fear from my heart. The memory of my faults humbles me, it makes me never lean on my strength, which is only weakness. But even more, this memory speaks to me of mercy and love. When we throw our faults with childlike trust into the burning furnace of Love, how could they not be irreversibly burned away?
I know that there were saints who spent their lives in remarkable mortifications to atone for their sins. But what do you want, "in the house of the heavenly Father there are many rooms" (5). Jesus said this, and therefore I am following the way He has indicated to me. I try not to dwell on anything about myself anymore, and what Jesus does in my soul, I leave to Him... (D 247)
He did indeed cry out in the days of his mortal life in a surge of joy: "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to the little ones" (6). He wanted his mercy to be manifest in me. Because I was small and weak, he lowered himself to me and taught me in secret about the things of his love. Oh, if the scholars who spent their lives studying had come to ask me, they would surely have been amazed to see that a fourteen-year-old child understands the mystery of perfection that they could not discover with all their erudition, because to possess it one must be poor in spirit!... (AS 102n)
(1) 1 Cor 4:5; (2) cf. Wis 6:7; (3) Ps 45:10; (4) cf. Lk 15:31; (5) John 14:2; (6) Mt 11:25.
(D = Letters, AS = Autobiographical Writings, VDŽ = Entrance to Life)
