Sourdough

«Why give scandal lacking respect for the Law? One must walk in front of the others if one wants to say: “Follow me”. And to lead people on to a holy path, one must walk on the same path. How could I have said, or how could I say: “Be faithful”, if I were without faith?»

«I think that error is the cause of our decay. The rabbis and Pharisees crush the people with their precepts and then… then they behave like the man who desecrated John’s house, making it a place of sin» remarks Simon.

«He is one of Herod’s…»

«Yes, Judas, but the same faults are to be found also in the classes which are said — by themselves of course — to be holy. What do you think about it, Master?» asks Simon.

«I say that only if there is a handful of true yeast and true incense in Israel, the bread will be made and the altar perfumed.»

«What do you mean?»

«I mean that if there is anyone coming to the Truth with a sincere heart, the Truth will spread like the yeast in the mass of flour and like incense all over Israel.»

• Hypocrisy - Duplicity
• Israel's mistake - The Jews' mistake
• Jewish precepts
• Pharisees
• Sciammaï d'Elchi (master of Aglaia and favorite of Herod Antipas)
• Sourdough

A few minutes ago I spoke to you of the yeast which is mixed with the flour and turns it into holy bread. Listen now to a short parable.

That woman is the flour. A flour in which the Evil One has mixed his hellish powders. I am the yeast. That is, My word is the yeast. But if there is too much chaff in the flour, or if sand, or little stones or ashes are mixed in it, is it possible to make bread with it, even if the yeast is good? It is not possible. It is necessary to patiently remove the chaff, the ashes, stones and sand from the flour.

Then Mercy passes by and offers the first sieve… The first one: made from short basic truths, which may be understood by one entangled in the net of total ignorance, vice and Gentilism. If the soul accepts it, the first purification begins. The second takes place by means of the sieve of the soul itself, which compares its own being with the Being that revealed Itself. And the soul is horrified. And it starts its work. By means of a more and more particular operation, after the stones, the sand and the ashes, it reaches the point of also removing that part of the flour consisting of grains too heavy and too coarse to make good bread. The soul is now ready. Mercy then passes by once again and penetrates into the flour now ready — that is a preparation too, Judas — and raises it and turns it into bread. But it is a long operation: an operation of the “will power” of the soul.

That woman already has within herself the minimum which was fair to give her and which may be used by her to accomplish her work. Let her do it, if she wishes to, but we must not disturb her. Everything upsets a soul which is working: curiosity, unadvised zeal, intolerance as well as excessive compassion.

• Sourdough