The great promise of Jesus: a devotion you must know
What is the Great Promise?
It is an extraordinary and very special promise of the Sacred Heart of Jesus with which he assures us of the most important grace of death in the grace of God, hence eternal salvation.
Here are the precise words with which Jesus manifested the Great Promise to St. Margaret Maria Alacoque:
«I PROMISE YOU, IN THE EXCESS OF THE MISE MEMORY OF MY HEART, THAT MY ALMIGHTY LOVE WILL GIVE THE GRACE OF FINAL PENANCE TO ALL THOSE WHO WILL COMMUNICATE THE FIRST FRIDAY OF THE MONTH FOR NINE MONTHS FOLLOWING. THEY WILL NOT DIE IN MY DISCRETION, NOR WITHOUT RECEIVING THE HOLY SACRAMENTS, AND IN THE LAST MOMENTS MY HEART WILL GIVE THEM A SAFE ASYLUM ».
The promise
What does Jesus promise? He promises the coincidence of the last moment of earthly life with the state of grace, whereby one is eternally saved in Paradise. Jesus explains his promise with the words: "they will not die in my misfortune, nor without having received the Holy Sacraments, and in those last moments my Heart will be a safe refuge for them".
Are the words "nor without having received the Holy Sacraments" a security against sudden death? That is, who has done well on the first nine Fridays will be certain not to die without first confessing, having received the Viaticum and the Anointing of the Sick?
Important Theologians, commentators of the Great Promise, answer that this is not promised in absolute form, since:
1) who, at the moment of death, is already in the grace of God, by himself does not need the sacraments to be saved eternally;
2) who instead, in the last moments of his life, finds himself in God's misfortune, that is, in mortal sin, ordinarily, in order to recover himself in God's grace, he needs at least the Sacrament of Confession. But in case of impossibility to confess; or in case of sudden death, before the soul separates from the body, God can make up for the reception of the sacraments with inner graces and inspirations that induce the dying man to make an act of perfect pain, so as to obtain the forgiveness of sins, to have sanctifying grace and thus to be eternally saved. This is well understood, in exceptional cases, when the dying person, for reasons beyond his control, could not confess.
Instead, what the Heart of Jesus promises absolutely and without restrictions is that none of those who have done well on the Nine First Fridays will die in mortal sin, granting him: a) if he is right, final perseverance in the state of grace; b) if he is a sinner, the forgiveness of every mortal sin both through Confession and through an act of perfect pain.
This is enough for Heaven to be truly assured, because - without any exception - its lovable Heart will serve as a safe refuge for all in those extreme moments.
Therefore in the hour of agony, in the last moments of earthly life, on which eternity depends, all the demons of hell may arise and unleash themselves, but they will not be able to prevail against those who did well the Nine First Fridays requested by Jesus, because his Heart will be a safe refuge for him. His death in God's grace and his eternal salvation will be a consoling triumph of the excess of infinite mercy and the omnipotence of love of His Divine Heart.