Notes for this theme

Biblical facts and elements in the Old Testament

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GRM 174.9 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

You already know how Eve was corrupted and how Adam became corrupt through her. Satan kissed the woman’s eyes and bewitched them, so that every aspect, so far pure, became impure for her and aroused strange curiosities. Then Satan kissed her ears and opened them to the words of a new science: his own. Eve’s mind also wanted to know what was not necessary. Then Satan showed her eyes and mind, now awake to Evil, things that previously they had not seen or understood, and everything in Eve became sharp and corrupt. And the Woman went to the Man, revealed her secret and persuaded Adam to taste the new fruit, so beautiful to the eye and so strictly forbidden so far. And she kissed him and looked at him with mouth and eyes already fouled by Satan’s gloomy disorder. And corruption penetrated Adam who saw, and through his eyes he craved for what was forbidden and he bit it with his helpmate and fell from such height into mud.
A corrupt person will draw another person to corruption, unless the latter is a saint in the true sense of the word.
Watch your eyes, men. Both the eyes of your bodies and the eyes of your minds. If they are corrupt, they can but corrupt all the rest. The eye is the light of the body. Your thought is the light of your heart. But if your eye is not pure — because since the organs are subject to thought, a corrupt thought will corrupt also senses — everything in you will become obscure, and a seducing haze will create impure phantasms in you. Everything is pure in him who has a pure thought which causes a pure look, and the light of God descends as a master where there is no obstruction of senses. But if out of ill will you have accustomed your eyes to disorderly visions, everything will become darkness in you. In vain you will look at the most holy things. In the darkness they will be nothing but blackness and blackness will be the deeds accomplished by you.

Keywords

GRM 174.19 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

It has also been said to you: “Anyone who divorces his wife, must give her a writ of dismissal”. But that is to be condemned. for it does not come from God. God said to Adam: “This is the helpmate I made for you. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and conquer it”. And Adam, full of superior intelligence, because Sin had not yet dimmed his reason made perfect by God, exclaimed: “This at last is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh. This is to be called woman, that is: another I, because this was taken from man. This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife and the two become one body”. And in an increased splendour of light the Eternal Light approved smiling Adam’s word, which became the first indelible law. Now, if owing to the ever increasing hardness of man, the human lawgiver had to give a new law; if owing to the ever increasing inconstancy of man. the lawgiver had to put a restraint and say: “If you have dismissed her you cannot take her back”, that does not cancel the first genuine law, passed in the Earthly Paradise and approved by God.

Annotation

We'll call her Virago. This Latin word comes from vir (man) and designates a woman who is like a man. It is not used here in the pejorative French sense of a shrill woman.

The human legislator here is Moses.

Deuteronomy 24, 1 and 24, 3-4

Dt 24, 1: When a man takes a wife and marries her, and she ceases to find favor in his eyes, because he discovers a blemish in her, he shall write her a letter of repudiation and give it to her, sending her away from his house.

Deut 24:3-4: But if the latter husband dislikes her, writes a letter of divorce for her and hands it over to him, sending her out of his house; or if the latter husband who took her as his wife dies, 4then the former husband who sent her away will not be able to divorce her.for it is an abomination before Yahweh, and you shall not sin in the land which Yahweh your God is giving you for an inheritance.

Book of Genesis 1, 28 and 2, 22-24

Gn 1, 28 : God blessed them and said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Be rulers over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every animal that comes and goes on the earth."

Gn 2, 22-24 : With the rib he had taken from the man, he fashioned a woman and brought her to the man. The man said: "This time, this is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh! She shall be called woman - Ishsha - who was taken from man - Ish." For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and the two will become one.

Gospel of Matthew 5, 31-32

Mt 5, 31-32 : It has also been said, "If anyone sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of repudiation. Well, I say to you, every man who sends away his wife, except in the case of an illegitimate union, leads her to adultery; and if anyone marries a woman who has been sent away, he is an adulterer.

Keywords

GRM 174.19 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

Before the original sin, Adam was "full of superior intelligence, because Sin had not yet dimmed his reason made perfect by God".

Keywords

GRM 180.1-2 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

I do not know which remark of a companion originated the clearcut reply of Peter who says: «It will happen to them what happened to the founders of the Tower of Babel. Their own pride will provoke the collapse of their theories and they will be crushed.»
Andrew objects to his brother: «But God is Mercy. He will prevent the collapse to give them time to mend their ways.»
«Do not believe that. They will crown their pride with false accusations and persecutions. Oh! I can already see it. They will persecute us to disperse us as unpleasant witnesses. And since they attack the Truth by laying snares for it, God will take revenge and they will perish.»
«Shall we have the strength to resist?» asks Thomas.
«Well… as for me, I would not have it. But I put my trust in Him» and Peter nods to the Master Who is listening and is silent, His head slightly inclined, as if He wished to hide His understanding countenance.
«I think that God will not put us to tests beyond our strength» says Matthew.
«Or He will at least increase our strength in proportion to the tests» concludes James of Alphaeus.
«He is already doing that.»

Annotation

What happened to the builders of the Tower of Babel will happen to them. Allusion to Genesis 11:1-9.

He has already done so: it's Simon the Zealot speaking. The conversation then continues. See next note.

Book of Genesis 11, 1-9

Gn 11, 1-9 : All the earth had one language and the same words. When the men set out from the East, they found a plain in the land of Sennaar, and they settled there. They said to each other, "Come on, let's make bricks and bake them in the fire. "And they used bricks instead of stones, and bitumen instead of cement. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in heaven, and let us make ourselves a monument, lest we be scattered over the face of all the earth. "But Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building. And Yahweh said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have for themselves all one language; and this work is the beginning of their undertakings; now nothing will stop them from accomplishing their plans. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, so that they no longer hear each other's language. "So Yahweh scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased to build the city. That's why it was called Babel, because that's where Yahweh confused the language of the whole earth, and that's where Yahweh scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Keywords

GRM 180.2 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

« I was rich and powerful. If God had not decided to preserve me for a purpose of His, I would have surrendered myself to despair and perished when I was persecuted and a leper. I would have acted harshly against myself… Instead a new wealth, which I had never possessed before, descended upon my desolation: the wealth of a conviction: “God exists”. First… God… Yes, I believed, I was a faithful Israelite. But mine was a faith of formalism. And I thought that the reward of my faith was always inferior to my virtue. I took the liberty of debating with God because I felt that I was still something on the earth. Simon Peter is right. I, too, was building a tower of Babel[1] by praising myself and satisfying my ego. When everything collapsed around me and I was like a worm crushed by the weight of all this human futility, then I no longer debated with God, but with myself, with my stupid self and I ended up by demolishing it. And as I did so, by making room for what I think is the God immanent in our earthly beings, I gained a new strength and wealth: the certainty that I was not alone and that God was watching over man defeated by men and by evil.»
«According to you, what is God, “the God immanent in our earthly beings” as you said? What do you mean? I do not understand you and I think it is a heresy. God is the One we know through the Law and the Prophets. There is no other God» says rather sternly Judas of Kerioth.
«If John was here he would tell you better than I can. But I will tell you as best I can. God is the One we know through the Law and the Prophets. That is true. But in what do we know Him? And how?»
Judas of Alphaeus exclaims: «Little and badly. The Prophets, who described Him for us, knew Him. The idea we have is a muddled one, as we can just see through a mound of explanations piled up by sects…»
«Sects? What do you mean? We have no sects. We are the children of the Law. We all are» the angry aggressive Iscariot says.
«The children of the laws. Not of the Law. There is a slight difference. Plural, not singular. In actual fact, we are the children of what we created, no longer of what God gave us» retorts Thaddeus.
«The laws derive from the Law» says the Iscariot.
«Also diseases originate in our bodies, but that does not mean that they are good» replies Thaddeus.
«But let me hear what this immanent God of Simon Zealot is.» The Iscariot, who cannot argue against the remark of Judas of Alphaeus, endeavours to take the discussion back to where it started.

Detail

Simon the Zealot speaks.

Keywords

GRM 180.3 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

«Our senses need a term to catch an idea. Each of us, I am referring to us believers, believes, by the virtue of faith, in the Most High Lord and Creator, Eternal God, Who is in Heaven. But every being needs more than such bare, pure, incorporeal faith, which is fit and sufficient for the angels who see and love God spiritually, as they share with Him a spiritual nature and can see God. We have to create a “picture” of God for ourselves, which picture is made with the essential features that we ascribe to God, to give a name to His infinite absolute perfection. The more a soul concentrates, the more it succeeds in achieving an exact knowledge of God. That is what I say: the immanent God. I am not a philosopher. Perhaps I have applied the word wrongly. In short, I think that the immanent God is to feel, to perceive God in our spirits, to feel and perceive Him no longer as an abstract idea, but as a real presence, bestowing strength and a new peace upon us.»
«All right. But, to sum up, how did you feel Him? What is the difference between feeling by faith and feeling by immanence?» asks the Iscariot somewhat ironically.
«God is safety, boy. When you perceive Him, as Simon says, by means of that word, which I do not understand literally, but I understand its spirit — and believe me, the trouble is that we understand only literally and we do not understand the spirit of God’s words — it means that you are able to grasp the idea of the terrible majesty, but also of the most sweet paternity of God. It means that, should all the world judge and condemn you unjustly, you would feel that One only, He, the Eternal One, Who is your Father, does not judge you, but absolves and comforts you. It means that if all the world should hate you, you would feel over you a love greater than any this world can offer. It means that if you were isolated in jail or in a desert you would always hear One speak to you and say: “Be holy, that you may be like your Father”. It means that for the true love for this Father and God, Whom at last you perceive as such, you accept, work, take and leave without any human consideration, as you are concerned only to return love for love and to copy God as much as possible in your actions» says Peter.
«You are proud! To copy God! You are not entitled to» declares the Iscariot.
«It is not pride. Love leads to obedience. To copy God seems to me a form of obedience because God said that He made us in His own image and likeness» replies Peter.
«He made us. We must not go higher up.»
«You are a poor wretch, my boy, if that is what you think! You are forgetting that we fell and that God wants to take us back to what we were.»
180.4
Jesus begins to speak: «Even more, Peter, Judas and you all. Even more than that. Adam’s perfection was still susceptible of improvement through love, which would have made him a more precise image of his Creator. Adam without the stain of sin would have been a most shining mirror of God. That is why I say: “Be perfect as your Father Who is in Heaven is perfect”. Like your Father. Therefore like God. Peter is quite right. And so is Simon. I ask you to remember their words and apply them to your souls.»

Detail

Simon the Zealot expresses one of his reflections on God. Love, pride, obedience and the case for redemption are discussed at the end of the note.

Keywords

GRM 180.4 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

Adam’s perfection was still susceptible of improvement through love, which would have made him a more precise image of his Creator. Adam without the stain of sin would have been a most shining mirror of God. That is why I say: “Be perfect as your Father Who is in Heaven is perfect”. Like your Father. Therefore like God.

Keywords

GRM 181.7 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

«If You maintain that Satan and his followers are always to be blamed… it seems to me that the responsibility of the disciple diminishes» says Matthew.
«Do not believe that. If there is Good there is also Evil and man is gifted with discernment and freedom.»
«You say that God does not allow more than what is useful to the triumph of His loving will. Therefore such an error is useful too, if He allows it, and it serves the triumph of the divine will» says the Iscariot.
«And you infer, as Matthew does, that that justifies the disciple’s crime. God created the lion without ferocity and the snake without poison, now one is ferocious and the other poisonous. That is why God separated them from man. Ponder over that and draw conclusions. »

Detail

Jesus has just spoken of the disciple who becomes the Master's enemy, following Satan and the demons.

Annotation

"God does not allow us to oppose, any more than is useful, the triumph of his will of love". On a leaf inserted in the typed copy, Maria Valtorta wrote:

"God has given man the intellect to understand, the reason to guide himself as a reasonable creature, the conscience to advise, the law to know how to regulate himself, the freedom to deserve what he wants to deserve: God and glory, or Hell and damnation.

Moreover, He gave him grace, or predestination to grace, so that it might be a stimulus, or a means, to raise the things listed below to a level capable of giving him a holy taste for the supernatural and for God.

Now, in the man who is intelligent, reasonable, conscious, free, and above all instructed in the Faith, knowing his last end and the divine Law, there should be only such actions as the Law prescribes and the knowledge of the end incites us to practice, even as reason and conscience indicate them as good to all, even to those who do not know revealed religion, in order toto obtain the eternal reward that the human intellect, all the more so when enlightened by Grace, is infinitely superior to all conceptions a believer can imagine.

But it sometimes happens that man, acting against reason, turns his freedom into a yoke of the cruellest of slaveries: that of the devil and sin, preferring Evil to Good.

Even if God allows man to do what he chooses of his own free will, in order to judge and confirm him in grace, or to judge that he deserves punishment, nothing lessens man's guilt. For while it is true that man, at God's prompting or Satan's instigation, can do good or evil, it is no less true that man should follow God alone and his loving invitations, for it is from him that he has received all those natural, moral and supernatural gifts capable of making him a child of God, heir to the Kingdom."

Keywords

GRM 190.1-2 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

«Have You seen Doras’ fields?»
«I have come from Nain…»
«In that case You have not seen them. They are a complete ruin. (The man whispers that in a low but clear voice, like someone imparting a secret concerning something dreadful.) They are all ruined! There is no hay, no fodder, no fruit. Vines and orchards withered… Dead… everything is dead… like Sodom and Gomorrah… Come, I will show You. (...) Oh! Here are the ones who ploughed the field for me…» and the man runs to meet Peter and Andrew.
But Peter greets him briefly and proceeds on his way and begins to shout: «Oh! Master! There is no one left! They are all new faces. And everything is laid waste! He could very well do without any peasants here. It is worse than the Salt Sea!…»
«I know. Isaiah told Me.»
«But come and see! What a sight…»
(...) The sight of Doras’ fields is really distressing. Fields and meadows are dry and barren, vineyards are withered, the foliage and fruit of trees are completely destroyed by millions of insects of all kinds. Also the garden-orchard near the house looks like a desolate dying wood. The peasants wander to and fro uprooting weeds, crushing caterpillars, snails, earth-worms and the like, shaking branches under which they place basins full of water to drown little butterflies, aphides and other parasites which cover the leaves and eat away the plant until it dies. They endeavour to find a sign of life in the vine-shoots, which break like dry wood as soon as they are touched and sometimes fall off the main branch, as if the roots had been cut by a saw. The contrast with Johanan’s fields, vineyards and orchards is most striking and the ruin of the cursed fields seems more impressive when compared to the fruitfulness of the others.
«The hand of the God of Sinai is a heavy one» whispers Simon the Zealot.
Jesus makes a gesture as if to say: «How right you are!» but He does not say anything. He only asks: «How did it happen?»
A peasant replies between his teeth: «Moles, locusts, worms… but go away! The steward is faithful to Doras… Don’t cause us trouble…»
Jesus sighs and goes away.

Detail

Jesus talks to Isaiah, a peasant from Yokhanan.

Annotation

"The man runs to meet Peter and Andrew. Cf. EMV 109.4: Peter and Andrew, James and John, who took the place of the ploughmen to enable them to listen to Jesus' word.

We speak of You, with what we have learned from Jonah, from Isaac who often comes to us, and from your speech at Tisri. Cf. EMV 109.5.

He has a heavy hand, the God of Sinai. Direct reference to Jesus' words in EMV 109.12.

Keywords

GRM 194.4 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

«Well! Let us go on. Towards the Holy City. We must arrive there tomorrow, towards evening. Why such a hurry? Can you tell me? Is it not the same if we arrive the day after tomorrow?»
«No. It would not be the same. Because tomorrow is Parasceve and after sunset one can walk only for six stadia. You are not allowed to go farther because the Sabbath and its rest have begun.»
«So one idles about on the Sabbath.»
«No. You pray to the Most High Lord.»
«What is His name?»
«Adonai. But saints can pronounce His name.»
«Also good children. Tell Me if you know.»
«Jaave» (the boy pronounces it thus: a very soft G, which is almost a J, and a very long ‘a’).
«And why does one pray to the Most High Lord on the Sabbath?»
«Because He told Moses, when He gave him the tables of the Law.»
«Oh! Did He? And what did He say?»
«He said that we must keep it holy. “For six days you shall labour, but on the seventh day you shall rest and make others rest, because that is what I did, too, after the creation”.»
«What? Did the Lord rest? Did He become tired creating? And was it He Who created? How do you know? I know that God never tires.»
«He was not tired, because God does not walk and does not move His arms. But He did it, to teach Adam and us, and to have a day on which we think of Him. And He created everything, most certainly. The Book of the Lord tells us.»
«But was the Book written by Him?»
«No. But it is the Truth. And one must believe it unless one wants to go to Lucifer.»
«You said that God does not walk and does not move His arms. How did He create then? What is He like? A statue?»
«He is not an idol: He is God. And God is… God is… let me think and remember what my mother said, and even better than she did, that man who, in Your name goes to visit the poor people at Esdraelon… My mother used to say, to make me understand God: “God is like my love for you. It has no body, but it exists”. And that little man, but with such a gentle smile, would say: “God is an Eternal Spirit, One and Triune, and the Second Person became flesh for the sake of us, poor people, and His name is… “ Oh! My Lord! Now that I think of it… it’s You!» The child, dumbfounded, prostrates himself on the ground adoring.
They all run thinking that he has fallen, but Jesus with His finger on His lips beckons them to be silent and then says: «Stand up, Jabez. Children must not be afraid of Me!»
The boy looks up reverently and looks at Jesus with a changed expression, almost of fear.
But Jesus smiles and stretches out His hand saying: «You are a wise little Israelite.»