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Saint Josemaria
Quotations from Saint Josemaria

A Judge who is our Father and our Friend

Tags: Heaven, Sacrament of Reconciliation, Examination of Conscience, Divine sonship
The image of the Last Judgement is not primarily an image of terror, but an image of hope; for us it may even be the decisive image of hope. Is it not also a frightening image? I would say: it is an image that evokes responsibility (…). God is justice and creates justice. This is our consolation and our hope.
(Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi, no. 44 )

‘I was amused to hear you speak of the “account” that our Lord will demand of you. No, for none of you will he be a judge — in the harsh sense of the word; he will simply be Jesus.’ These lines, written by a good bishop, have consoled more than one troubled heart, and could well console yours.
The Way, 168

Our Lord (…) is not a tyrannical master or a rigid and implacable judge: he is our Father. He speaks to us about our lack of generosity, our sins, our mistakes; but he does so in order to free us from them, to promise us his friendship and his love. Awareness that God is our Father brings joy to our conversion: it tells us that we are returning to our Father’s house.
Christ is Passing By, 64

Everything may collapse and fail. Events may turn out contrary to what was expected and great adversity may come. But nothing is to be gained by being perturbed. Furthermore, remember the confident prayer of the prophet: “The Lord is our judge, the Lord gives us our laws, the Lord is our king; it is he who will save us.”
Say it devoutly every day, so that your behaviour may agree with the designs of Providence, which governs us for our own good.
Furrow, 855

Let us be people of peace, people of justice, doers of good, and our Lord will not be our judge, but our Friend, our Brother, our Love.
Christ is Passing By, 187

Does your soul not burn with the desire to make your Father God happy when he has to judge you?
The Way, 746

Winning Heaven
Anyone who understands the kingdom Christ proposes, realizes that it is worth staking everything to obtain it. It is the pearl the merchant gets by selling all his property; it is the treasure found in the field. The kingdom of heaven is difficult to win. No one can be sure of achieving it, but the humble cry of a repentant man can open wide its doors. One of the thieves who was crucified with Jesus pleaded with him: “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Christ is Passing By, 180

Truth and justice, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. That is the kingdom of Christ: the divine activity which saves men and which will reach its culmination when history ends and the Lord comes from the heights of paradise finally to judge men. When Christ began to preach on earth he did not put forward a political program. He said: “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” He commissioned his disciples to proclaim this good news and he taught them to pray for the coming of the kingdom. The kingdom of God and his justice — a holy life: that is what we must first seek, that is the only thing really necessary.
Christ is Passing By, 180

Human life is in some way a constant returning to our Father’s house. We return through contrition, through the conversion of heart which means a desire to change, a firm decision to improve our life and which, therefore, is expressed in sacrifice and self-giving. We return to our Father’s house by means of that sacrament of pardon in which, by confessing our sins, we put on Jesus Christ again and become his brothers, members of God’s family.
Christ is Passing By, 64

Won’t you examine your heart in depth?
The first Apostles, when Our Lord called them, were by the side of an old boat busy mending the torn nets. Our Lord told them to follow him and statim — immediately — relictis omnibus — they left everything — everything! And followed him...
And it does happen sometimes that we, who wish to imitate them, don’t quite leave everything, and there remains some attachment in our heart, something wrong in our life which we’re not willing to break with and offer up to God.
Won’t you examine your heart in depth? Nothing should remain there except what is his. If not, we aren’t really loving him, neither you nor I.
The Forge, 356

Our life — a Christian’s life — has to be as ordinary as this: trying every day to do well those very things it is our duty to do; carrying out our divine mission in the world by fulfilling the little duty of each moment.
Or rather, struggling to fulfil it. Sometimes we don’t manage, and when night comes, in our examination, we’ll have to tell Our Lord, “I am not offering you virtues; today I can only offer you defects. But with your grace I will be able to count myself a victor.”
The Forge, 616

Justice and mercy
If you lose sensitivity for the things of God, it is very difficult to appreciate the sacrament of penance. Sacramental confession is not a human but a divine dialogue. It is a tribunal of divine justice and especially of mercy, with a loving judge who “has no pleasure in the death of the wicked; I desire that the wicked turn back from his way and live.”
Christ is Passing By, 78

Worldly souls are very fond of thinking of God's mercy. And so they are encouraged to persist in their follies.
It is true that God our Lord is infinitely merciful, but he is also infinitely just: and there is a judgment, and he is the Judge.
The Way, 747

Unafraid of death
Don’t be afraid of death. Accept it from now on, generously... when God wills it, where God wills it, as God wills it. Don’t doubt what I say: it will come at the moment, in the place and in the way that are best: sent by your Father-God.
The Way, 739

You talk of dying 'heroically'. Do you not think that it is more 'heroic' to die a bourgeois death, in a good bed, unnoticed... but to die of love-sickness.
The Way, 743