God knows his

"The Lord knows those who are his." 2 Timothy 2:19

22 July 1209, seat of the city of Béziers. In this year 1209, the crusade to eradicate the Cathar heresy is raging. Government troops besieged Beziers where the Cathars took refuge. As soon as a breach is made in the ramparts, the besiegers can penetrate into the city. The officers did not know how to recognize their enemies, and came to Arnaud Amaury, abbot of Citeaux, the legate of Pope Innocent III. The abbe (probably wrongly) is attributed to this sentence which has become infamous : "Kill them all, God will acknowledge his own !". And it was the devastation of the city, a particularly cruel and bloodthirsty rampage. Among the victims, God recognized his own, but not on the criterion Cathar or non-Cathar ! He distinguished those who had placed their trust in him and those who had turned their backs on the cross of Jesus; To one he opened the door of heaven; To others it remained closed.

In the twenty-first century, as in the Middle Ages, God recognizes His own on the same criterion: those who confessed their sins, who are safe from the blood shed by Jesus in Golgotha ​​and who placed their trust in him : The Lord is good, a strong place in the day of trouble, and he knows those who trust in him" (Nah 1: 7). He knows all those who belong to him in those countries where persecution is raging today, where those who bear the name of Christians are persecuted and put to death. "Not a single one of them is forgotten before God" (Luke 12: 7), because "God is not unjust to forget your work and the love you have shown for his name" (Heb 6 10). Let us ask God to help all who suffer for his name to remember that he knows them name by name ; None is anonymous in his eyes.

To others of his children, God grants to live in more free countries. Let them be grateful and understand that all are known to him. Let them place their trust in him, love him every day a little more, knowing that "if someone loves God, this one is known to him" (1 Cor 8: 3).

Source (To pleasing the Lord)