Human Person: A Receptacle of God’s Communications
[Though] I have merited … the eternal loss of your gifts … [your divine mercy] through the merits of Jesus Christ … assures me the continued communication of your gifts, graces and mercies. (OOCC, X, pp. 732 - 733; STA, 532)
St. Vincent Pallotti acknowledged himself as “nothingness and sin” as he had nothing of his own to offer to God except his sinfulness as he stood face to face with him. St. Vincent wondered how God could bear him because he had merited the eternal loss of the gifts of God by his sin. But he was amazed at the fact that God, out of love for him, visited him and communicated himself to him. Hence, he was certain of God’s gifts, graces and mercies, which God the Father offered him through the merits of Jesus Christ. The communication of God’s divinity and all the graces associated with it were not merely one-time gifts, but rather St. Vincent had God’s assurance that he would communicate them on a continuous basis. As a result, the one who was “nothingness and sin” became a “receptacle of God’s communications.” Hence, the unworthiness associated with “nothingness and sin” had vanished and St. Vincent had become a genuine dwelling place of God, a receptacle of his graces and a medium that manifested the glory of God.
Despite my sinfulness, do I acknowledge that I am the receptacle of God’s communications? Do I acknowledge that God deals with me in a wonderful manner though I am unworthy? Am I open to God’s gifts, graces and mercies which God showers on me? Have I realized that I am a dwelling place of God, a receptacle of his graces and a medium for manifesting God’s glory?
I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief. (I Tim 1:12 – 13)