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GRM 188.3-4 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

«Are You an Israelite?» asks the man.

«Yes, I am.»

«I, too, or almost, although I do not look like one. But I lived a long time abroad and I got into many habits, of which these fools here disapprove. I am better than the others. But they say that I am a demon, because I read a great deal, I breed poultry which I sell to the Romans and I can cure people by means of herbs. When young, because of a woman, I quarrelled with a Roman – I was at Cintium then – and I stabbed him. He died, I lost one eye and all my wealth and I was sentenced to life imprisonment. But I knew how to cure people, and I cured the daughter of one of the guards. I thus won his friendship and some freedom… I used it to escape. I acted badly, because the man certainly paid for my flight with his life. But freedom seems so beautiful when one is a prisoner…»

«Is it not really beautiful afterwards?»

«No. Jail, where one is alone, is better than being in contact with men who do not allow you to be alone and come around us to hate us…»

«Did you study philosophy?»

«I was a teacher at Cintium… I was a proselyte…»

«And now?»

«Now I am nothing. I live according to the reality of facts. And I hate, as I was and am still hated.»

«Who hates you?»

«Everybody. And God is the first. She was my wife… and God allowed her to be unfaithful to me and ruin me. I was free and respected, and God allowed me to become a convict serving a life sentence. God abandoned me, men were unfair. Both He and they destroyed me. There is nothing left here…» and he strikes his forehead and his chest. «Rather, here, in my head, there are my thoughts, my knowledge. It is in here that there is nothing» and he spits contemptuously.

«You are wrong. You still have two things there.»

«Which?»

«Remembrance and hatred. Remove them.

188.4

Become really empty… and I will give you something new to put in there.»

«What?»

«Love.»

«Ah! Ah! You make me laugh. I have not laughed for thirty-five years, man. Since I had the proof that the woman was unfaithful to me with the Roman wine merchant. Love! Love to me! It is like me throwing jewels to my chickens! They would die of indigestion, unless they passed them out with their excrement. The same would happen to me. Your love would be a burden to me, if I could not digest it…»

«No, man! Do not say that!» Jesus lays His hand on the man’s shoulder, He is deeply and openly distressed.

The man looks at Him with his only eye and what he sees on that most sweet and beautiful face causes him to be struck dumb and to change his expression. From being sarcastic he becomes very serious and then really sad. He lowers his head and with a different voice he asks: «Who are You?»

«Jesus of Nazareth. The Messiah.»

«You!!!»

«I. Did you not know about Me, since you read so much?»

«I knew… But I did not know that You were alive and… above all, I did not know this. I did not know that You are good to everybody… thus… to murderers too… Forgive me for what I said… about God and love… Now I understand why You want to give me love… Because without love the world is hell, and You the Messiah want to make a paradise of it.»

«A paradise in every heart. Give Me the remembrance and the hatred that make you ill and let Me put love into your heart!»

«Oh! I wish I had known You before!… then… But when I killed, You were certainly not born yet… But later… when I was free, as free as a snake in a forest, I lived to poison people with my hatred.»

«But you did some good as well. Did you not say that you cured people by means of herbs?»

«Yes. To be tolerated. But how many times I had to struggle against my desire to poison people by means of potions!… See? I took refuge here because… it is a place where the world is ignored and which the world ignores. A cursed place. In other places I hated and was hated and I was afraid of being recognised… But I am wicked.»

«You regret having harmed the prison guard. Do you not see that there is still some goodness in you? You are not wicked… Your only trouble is that you have a large open wound, which nobody is curing… Your goodness runs out of it as blood from a wound. But if someone would cure your wound and heal it, My dear brother, goodness would increase in you, because it would no longer vanish as it forms…»

The man weeps with a bent head trying to conceal his tears. Only Jesus Who is walking beside him notices them. He notices but does not say anything else.

Detail

Jesus is talking to a one-eyed man he has just met. His name is Felix, and he's full of hatred for God and man.

Annotation

So many times I've struggled against the desire to poison with philtres!... The filter is used to clear a liquid of its impurities. A philtre is a magical beverage generally used to obtain love.

GRM 191.5-7 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

(...) Listen to the parable that I have thought out for you.

There was once a very rich man. He wore the most beautiful garments, and in his purple and byssus clothes he used to strut about in squares and at home, respected by his citizens as the most powerful man in the country, and by his friends, who gratified his pride to gain benefits thereby. They feasted every day in his halls, where the multitude of his guests, all rich and none therefore needy crowded flattering Dives. His banquets were famous for the copiousness of food and of choice wines.

In the same town there lived a beggar, a great beggar. He was great in his misery as the other was great in his wealth. But under the crust of the human misery of Lazarus, the beggar, there was a treasure, which was even greater than Lazarus’ misery and Dives’ wealth. And it was Lazarus’ true holiness. He had never infringed the Law, not even when urged by need, and above all he had complied with the precept of love for God and for his neighbour. He, as is wont with poor people, used to go near the doors of rich people to ask for alms, so that he would not starve to death. And every evening he would go to Dives’ house, hoping to receive at least the crumbs of the pompous banquets which took place in the magnificent halls. He would lie in the street, near the door, and wait patiently.

But if Dives noticed him, he would have him driven away because that underfed body, covered with sores and ragged clothes, was too sad a sight for his guests. That is what Dives used to say. In actual fact, it was because the sight of so much misery and goodness was a continuous reproach to him. His well fed dogs, adorned with precious collars, were more pitiful than he was and they used to go near poor Lazarus and lick his sores, showing their great joy at being caressed by him. They even took the remains of the bountiful tables to him, so that Lazarus survived malnutrition thanks to animals. If he had relied on man he would have died, because man did not even allow him to enter the halls, after the banquet, to pick up the crumbs which had fallen from the tables.

191.6

One day Lazarus died. No one on earth noticed it, no one mourned him. On the contrary, Dives rejoiced not seeing on that day or afterwards that misery which he called a “disgrace” near his door. But the angels noticed it in Heaven. And when he was about to breathe his last breath in his cold barren cave, the celestial cohorts were present and in a bright dazzling light they picked up his soul and singing hosannas they took it to the bosom of Abraham.

Some time went by and Dives died. Oh! What a grand funeral! The whole town, already aware of his agony, crowded in the square where his abode was, some to be noticed as friends of the great man, some out of curiosity, some to gain favour with the heirs, and they all joined in the mourning, and their cries rose to the sky and with their cries also the false praises of the “great, just benefactor” who had died.

Can the word of man change God’s judgement? Can human apology cancel what is written in the book of Life? No, it cannot. What has been judged is judged and what has been written is written. And notwithstanding the grand funeral, the soul of Dives was buried in hell.

Then, in that horrible jail, eating and drinking fire and darkness, finding hatred and torture everywhere and in every moment of eternity, he raised his eyes to heaven. He raised his eyes to heaven which he saw in the brightness of lightning, in the fraction of a second, and the indescribable beauty of heaven remained present in his mind and tormented him in the midst of atrocious tortures. And he saw Abraham up there. Far, but bright, happy… and in his lap, bright and happy there was also Lazarus, poor Lazarus, once miserable, despised, revolting… and now? He was handsome in the light of God and of his holiness, full of God’s love, admired not by men but by the angels of God.

Dives weeping cried: “Father Abraham, have mercy on me! Send Lazarus, as I cannot possibly hope that you will do it yourself, send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and touch my tongue with it, to cool it, for I am in agony in these flames which pierce me continuously and burn me!”.

Abraham replied: “Remember, son, that you had all good things during your life, whereas Lazarus had all bad things. But he turned evil into good, whereas you did nothing but evil of all the good things. It is therefore just that now he should be comforted here and that you should suffer. In any case it is not possible to do it. Holy people are spread over the earth so that men may take advantage of them. But, if notwithstanding all the opportunities, he remains what he was – in your case, a demon – it is useless to make recourse to saints. We are now separated. Herbs are mixed when they are in the field. But when they are cut, the good ones are separated from the evil ones. That is what happens to you and to us. We were together on the earth and you rejected and tortured us in every possible way, you forgot us, acting against the law of charity. We are now divided. There is an abyss between you and us, and those who wish to cross it and come to you, cannot do it. Neither can you, where you are, cross the dreadful abyss and come to us”.

191.7

Dives, crying more loudly shouted: “Holy father, at least please send Lazarus to my father’s house. I have five brothers. I have never understood what love is, not even among relatives. But now I understand what a terrible thing it is not to be loved. And since where I am there is hatred, in the fraction of a second, when my soul saw God, I understood what Love is. I do not want my brothers to suffer the pains that I am suffering. I am terrified because they are leading the same life as I did. Oh! send Lazarus to tell them where I am, and why I am here, and let them know that hell does exist, and it is dreadful, and that those who do not love God and their neighbour come to hell. Send him! So that they may provide in good time, and may not come here, to this place of eternal torture” .

But Abraham replied: “Your brothers have Moses and the Prophets. They should listen to them”.

And with a deep groan of a tormented soul Dives replied: “Oh! Father Abraham! They will be more impressed by a dead person… Listen to me! Have mercy!”.

But Abraham said: “If they have not listened to Moses and the Prophets, they will not believe either one who has risen from the dead for one hour to speak words of Truth to them. In any case it is not fair that a blessed soul should leave my bosom to go and be insulted by the sons of the Enemy. The time of insults is over for such souls. They are now in peace by the order of God Who sees that it is useless to endeavour to convert those who do not even believe in the word of God and do not practice it”.

That is the parable and its meaning is so clear that no clarification is required.

Annotation

In his dictation of August 2, 1943, Jesus refers to this bad rich man as Epulon, the name of the priests in charge of organizing banquets in ancient Rome, which the original of this episode uses "Epulone" as the equivalent of bad rich man.

"He turned his eyes to the Heaven he had glimpsed". This is to be understood as Maria Valtorta commented on a typed copy: "He turned his eyes towards the limbo of the saints he had glimpsed ... and whose peaceful beauty was already unspeakable ...".

"During that second when my soul glimpsed God" is to be understood in the sense of "at the moment of particular judgment", as Maria Valtorta notes in a typescript.

Gospel of Luke 16:19-31

Lk 16, 19-31 : "There was a rich man, dressed in purple and fine linen, who made sumptuous feasts every day. Outside his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with ulcers. He wished he could have eaten what fell from the rich man's table, but the dogs came and licked his ulcers. So the poor man died, and the angels took him to Abraham. The rich man also died, and was buried.

In Hades, he was tortured; lifting up his eyes, he saw Abraham from afar and Lazarus close by. Then he cried out: "Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip his fingertip in water to cool my tongue, for I am suffering terribly in this furnace. - My child," replied Abraham, "remember: you received happiness during your life, and Lazarus, misfortune during his. Now he finds consolation here, and you, suffering. And in addition to all this, a great chasm has been established between you and us, so that those who would cross over to you cannot, and that, from there either, no one crosses over to us." The rich man replied, "Well, Father, I beg you to send Lazarus to my father's house. For I have five brothers: let him bear his testimony to them, lest they too come to this place of torture!" Abraham said to him, "They have Moses and the Prophets: let them listen to them! - No, Father Abraham," he said, "but if someone from the dead comes to them, they will be converted." Abraham replied, "If they won't listen to Moses and the Prophets, someone may rise from the dead: they won't be convinced."""