These two rays issued forth from the very depths of My tender mercy when My agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross. These rays shield souls from the wrath of My Father. Happy is the one who will dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him (299). We have to remember that the “just hand of God” or His “wrath/anger” are ever directed to the removal of evil and its agent — sin, wherever He encounters them. The rays — instruments of divine life by means of the Sacraments — represent safe refuge for the one who takes shelter under them, when God goes out against what is completely contrary to His holy nature. God hates the sin, but not the sinner, for whom He has only tender compassion. Just as the “lightning rod” attracts lightning to itself, while safe-guarding the object against loss or destruction, sin can be seen as such a lightning rod attracting the cleansing wrath of God. If we cling to sin, when the lightning of God’s anger strikes it, we burn. But the lightning rod metaphor can also be an image of our Savior whom “For our sake [God]made Him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21). By his Passion and death for us Jesus absorbed all the wrath of God against all sin in His own person. When we cling to our Risen Lord who conquered sin (His life through the Sacraments – the rays – being our truest lightning rod) not only shall the just hand of God not lay hold of us, but we shall not perish; I also promise victory over [its] enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death. I Myself will defend it as My own glory (48). 19
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==