The devil likes to define us by our past failures. He wants us only to see our sin. He wants us to see so many failures that we fear to turn to God’s Divine Mercy.
God knows our sins but chooses to see us for what we can be. He looks past our past to see the sunrise on our horizon. Even if the soul is covered darkly in sin and waking away from Him in the night – He never loses sight of who He created us to be.
There is a scene in an old movie, LadyHawke, in which Matthew Broderick’s character (a thief) is escaping from a death sentence prison. He squeezes out a small floor hole and through the sewer under the city. He talks to God in one tight spot, saying basically, “if you get me out of here, I won’t cut another purse, I’ll amend my life.” The next scene he is free, swimming across the moat. He stretches over a wall and as he is cutting the guards purse, says to God, “you know the kind of person I am…”
This is the devil talking in our soul. When we fall again (and again), the soul can look to God saying, “You made me, you know what kind of person I am, what do You expect?”
The soul needs to look past the past. No matter how many, how dark or how repetitive the sins upon the soul may be, they are NOT the story of the soul.
The soul needs to change. He needs to stop viewing himself through the devil’s whispers and start seeing himself through God’s, the Creator of the soul, view.
God sees the soul as the saint He created and dreamed of when He gave him His breath. That breath, the Holy Spirit is alive and can change our inclinations and viewpoint. But, we must ask and desire this change.
“Jesus: My child, know that the greatest obstacles to holiness are discouragement and an exaggerated anxiety. These will deprive you of the ability to practice virtue. All temptations united together ought not disturb your interior peace, not even momentarily. Sensitiveness and discouragement are the fruits of self-love. You should not become discouraged, but strive to make My love reign in place of your self-love. Have confidence, My child. Do not lose heart in coming for pardon, for I am always ready to forgive you. As often as you beg for it, you glorify My mercy.” Divine Mercy in My Soul # 1489
Trust God. Trust that His mercy is greater than all your sins – period. Trust His vision of you – see yourself in His loving eyes.
We can all be saints. It is easy as trusting God and believing what He believes of us. He has ‘faith’ that you can be all He desires of you.