Moving Away from God → Spiritual Death → The Heart of the Lord Jesus → Purgative Way
When it seems like everything is lost
We have reached the end of the descending spiritual path. The soul may have distanced itself to the point of ceasing to perceive God, to seek Him, and to desire Him. The soul may even have lost awareness of the soul’s own spiritual condition.
But here appears a truth that we must never forget: “The last word, always, always, is mercy.”
No matter how low the soul has fallen. the Good Lord comes to meet the soul with love and power. It does not even abandon the soul that has reached the state of spiritual Death.
How does the Good Lord come to meet them?
When the soul is so hardened that it no longer hears a soft call, the Good Lord can allow events capable of breaking that indifference.
Internal rupture: some event breaks the self-sufficiency on which the person had built their life.
Painful light: through a revealing grace, the soul is able to see itself as it is. It may be painful, but precisely that light allows the soul to search for God again.
Saving humiliation: a borderline experience, even close to death, makes the person recognize their need for mercy again.
Not to destroy, but to awaken
Crises, breaks, falls, voids and ruptures can then become instruments of mercy. Not because the Good Lord wants to destroy the soul, but because the soul wants to awaken it.
“Awake, you who sleep, rise from the dead and Christ will enlighten you.” — Ephesians 5:14
The Heart that never stops loving
The distancing of man does not diminish the love of the Lord Jesus.
Among the promises traditionally associated with the revelations of the Sacred Heart to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque is: “Sinners will find in my Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy.”
His love remains ready to rescue those dearly loved. That is why the Heart of the Lord Jesus is found precisely at the end of the Descending Path: to remember that no depth of human alienation is greater than the soul’s mercy.
A phrase to remember
“The last word, always, always, is mercy.”
And the return begins
The Heart of the Lord Jesus is not a Spiritual Age or a progressive state. It is the meeting point between the descent of man and the mercy of God.
The soul that had been sunken can be rescued. “Our Lord Jesus rescues the soul from everything that harms it, removing it from the waters of death.”
Moved again by grace, the soul can respond, turn towards God and begin the ascending spiritual path: the Purgative Way.