…but I hope you will bear with me, because the quote is just so amazing:
You must believe in mercy to the point of believing that you are a joy for Jesus… The life of the Christian is a life of love. Can people love one another without knowing that they are joy for each other?
Ask yourself, “How does Jesus see me?” He sees me as His child since my baptism…He sees me as His lamb which has so often let itself be led back to the fold in His arms, purified by absolution. He sees my sould transformed into Himself by Mass and Communion — my soul, where His Father and He have made their dwelling place… These are the actual realities of sacramental graces!
How many causes of joy for Him there are in us!
What more does He see? All you have done for Him: your prayers, your good impulses, all the acts which, in the course of your life, have been determined by your faith, your hope, and your love; your acts of charity, especially which you have forgotten in part but which Jesus has not forgotten, because they are engraved in His heart. On the day of judgment, with what happiness and what approval He will remind you of all that, in detail, for His own glory, since He is the author of all that is good, but for yours, also, because you have believed in His love. “Come, you blessed of My Father.”
And if, in addition to all that, you give Him your many miseries with great humility, but also with great confidence, then you give Him His great joy — His joy of being Savior.
—I Believe in Love, Fr. Jean C.J. d’Elbee