I don't understand, brother, that you can, it seems, doubt your immediate entry into heaven, if the unbelievers took your life. I know that one must be very pure to appear before perfectly holy God. But I also know that the Lord is infinitely just, and this justice, which frightens so many souls, is the reason for my joy and my trust. To be just does not only mean to strictly punish the guilty. It is also the recognition of honest intentions and the reward of virtues. I hope just as much in God's justice as in God's mercy. Precisely because God is just, "He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in goodness." After all, He knows our fragility, remembers that we are but dust.
(Thérèse of Lisieux, Letter 226, to Father Roulland, May 9, 1897)
