Forget the past, that is of course the sinful past, because the remembrance of a virtuous past is useful. It belongs to God and I can never recall it often enough to thank Him who helped me with so many graces.
But just as I can never recall too often my good past, and be sufficiently grateful for it, so I can allow the sinful past to obtrude itself to such an extent that at times it overcomes me and even crushes me with its reproaches; "I was there, I did that....On such a day, on such an occasion I committed cowardly deeds."
What is the use of brooding over all that, stirring up the old past? As Father Faber said, "The past and the future are two forms of myself."
Or as a contemporary author suggests: "God does not ask us what we have been, but what we are."
Certainly if I have a robust temperament and a strong soul, I ought to be able to look my life in the face. If I am a weak soul, however, the sight of my sinfulness will weaken my strength. Then retrospection is harmful for me.
Live in the present! Now is the time to surrender myself entirely. Whatever I may have been I abandon to God's mercy. I must let His mercy work. I no longer want to look back but forward to perfection. Forward! The past no longer belongs to me. I cannot undo what has been done. What is the use of burdening myself with what no longer exists. I can only see to it that the present is not the past. I can make the present what God wants it to be. The present moment is mine to give to God.
I must give a full measure now! That is always the best reparation for the past....I must repair the past without looking at it.
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Adapted from Meditations for Religious
by Father Raoul Plus, S.J. (© 1939, Frederick Pustet Co.)
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