Radical Self-purification
My God … destroy me completely; do everything in me. My God … absorb me, destroy me, reform me, be all in me, now and forever. (OOCC, X, pp. 216 - 217; STA, 435)
By God’s grace St. Vincent became a “receptacle of God’s communications,” despite the fact that by himself he was “nothingness and sin.” This change from a place of sin to a place of God’s graces, called for a radical self-purification on the part of St. Vincent. He prayed to God to destroy him completely and to do everything in him. He wished that God would absorb him into his own self, reform him and remain as his everything. The radical self-purification he yearned for was aimed at him becoming completely transformed into Christ, for the purpose of the manifestation of the glory of God. Glorification of God consisted of making God’s presence visible, tangible and alive in the lives of others. In this manner, the radical self-purification would arm St. Vincent with the power to manifest God’s glory by making the presence of Christ through his own person and his activities. Thus, self-purification destroyed everything that was unworthy in St. Vincent, made him a place of God’s communications and helped him to make God real in the lives of others by manifesting the glory of God in and through his person, his life, and activities.
Do I need radical self-purification in my personal life? Does it destroy in me anything unworthy and sinful? Does it help me to be totally transformed into Christ? Does radical self-purification help me to manifest the glory of God in and through my person and my activities?
Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart. (I Pet. 1:22)