Triumph of God’s Mercy over Man’s Misery
I intend at all times that you deign to work everything in me in order that I may be everything in you … and may be transformed in all that you are, your infinite mercy triumphing perpetually over my inconceivable misery. (OOCC, X, p. 202; STA, 316)
As a person journeys through life, he realizes that there are two laws that are operative in him, the law of sin and the law of grace. The former is rooted within a person and pulls him towards what is evil. The latter is founded on God and calls every person to choose what is good and honorable. Thus, in his daily living, a person is tossed between these two laws. St. Vincent Pallotti, attempting to live his spiritual life seriously, realized the way these two laws were operative in his daily living. He acknowledged that if he attempted to live his life by himself, he would end up in inconceivable misery, because by placing his total trust on his own abilities, he would succumb to the law of sin. Hence, he made every effort to open himself to the law of grace that has its foundation in God. St. Vincent wished that God would work everything in him in order that he could be everything for God. He did everything within his power that he might be transformed into God by opening himself to the law of grace, thereby allowing the mercy and the grace of God to triumph over his own misery and sinfulness. In this way, St. Vincent was able to bring the law of sin totally under the rule of the law of grace.
Do I recognize the operation of the law of sin and the law of grace in my spiritual life? Do I succumb to the insinuations of the law of sin? Do I place the law of sin under the rule of the law of grace so that God’s mercy can triumph over my limitations?
The law entered in so that transgression might increase but, where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through justification for eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 5: 20-21)