They get up and go towards Hebron, towards the Baptist’s house. When they are almost there, they see a serried group of citizens coming forward rather hesitatingly. They seem curious and embarrassed. But Jesus greets them smiling. They take heart, they open out and that severe person, the head of the synagogue, whom they had met in the previous year, emerges from the group.
«Peace to you!» greets Jesus instantly. «Will you allow us to stop in your town? I am here with all My favourite disciples and with some of their mothers.»
«Master, but do You not bear us, or me, a grudge?»
«Grudge? I do not know what it is, neither do I know why I should bear it.»
«Last year I offended You…»
«You offended an Unknown man, thinking it was your right to do so. Later you understood and you were sorry you had done it. But that is past. And as repentance cancels sin, so the present deletes the past. Now I am no longer Unknown to you. So what are your sentiments towards Me?»
«Of respect. Lord. Of… desire…»
«Desire? What do you want from Me?»
«To know You better than I do at present.»
«How? In what way?»
«Through Your word and Your deeds. We have received news about You, Your doctrine, Your power, and we were told that You were involved in the liberation of the Baptist. So You did not hate him, You did not try to oust our John!… He himself admitted that it was through You that he saw the valley of the holy Jordan once again. We went to him and spoke to him of You and he said to us: “You do not know what you have rejected. I should curse you, but I forgive you because He taught me to forgive and to be meek. But if you do not wish to be anathematised by the Lord and by me, love the Messiah. And have no doubts. This is his evidence: spirit of peace, perfect love, greatest wisdom, heavenly doctrine, absolute meekness, power over everything, total humility, angelical chastity. You cannot be wrong. When you breathe peace near a man Who says He is the Messiah, when you drink the love emanating from Him, when you pass from your darkness into Light, when you see sinners being redeemed and flesh being cured, then say: ‘This is truly the Lamb of God!’ “. We know that Your deeds are those mentioned by John. Therefore forgive us, love us, give us what the world expects from You.»
«That is why I am here. I have come from far away to give to the town of John also what I give every place that accepts Me. Tell Me what you wish from Me.»
«We also have sick people, and we are ignorant. We are ignorant particularly with regards to what is love and goodness. John, in his total love for God, has an iron hand and a fiery word and he wants to bend everybody as a giant bends a blade of grass. Many give way to dejection, because man is more sinful than holy. It is difficult to be saints!… You… they say that You raise, You do not bend, You do not cauterise, You use balms, You do not crush, You caress. We know that You are paternal with sinners and You are powerful against diseases, whichever they may be, and above all the diseases of hearts. Our rabbis can no longer do that.»
211.4
«Bring Me your sick people and then gather in this garden, which has been abandoned and was desecrated by sin, after it had been made a temple for the Grace that lived in it.»
The people of Hebron spread out in all directions as fast as swallows. Only the head of the synagogue remains and together with Jesus and the disciples he goes in beyond the enclosure of the garden, to the shade of a bower where entangled roses and vines have grown wild. The population is soon back. With them there is a paralytic in a stretcher, a blind young woman, a dumb boy and two sick people, whose trouble I do not know. The last two are walking supported by other people.