God Fills Human Emptiness
My God, by myself I can do no good. … But I abandon myself entirely in the most loving bosom of your infinite mercy. … I firmly trust that you will destroy my … unworthiness, and transform me completely in you. (OOCC, X, p. 253; STA, 548)
St. Vincent Pallotti was convinced that by himself he could not achieve any good. By making this statement, he did not say that he was good for nothing, nor did he claim that he had no goodness in him. For if St. Vincent had any goodness in him, he could never claim it as his own but must ultimately attribute his goodness to God, because in the last analysis every good he possessed came from God. Whenever he attempted to do any good by himself without any reference to God, often he failed to achieve the good he intended to do. St. Vincent believed that it was God who filled his emptiness and made him great. Every good he achieved in this world was always with reference to God. Therefore, whenever he attempted to do any good, he abandoned himself entirely into the infinite mercy of God. He firmly trusted that God would transform him completely into God’s own self, destroying all forms of unworthiness from him. With the assurance that God would provide whatever was lacking in him made St. Vincent march ahead in everything he undertook and achieve success with the power of God and his own hard work.
Do I recognize that God is the author of everything that is good in me? Do I believe that God fills my emptiness and makes me great? Do I take God as my partner in every good I attempt to do in my life?
Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (Rom. 5: 5)