GRM 182.5 · Volume 3
The Gospel as revealed to me
Quotation
This boy is the neighbour entrusted to you by God in a special manner. Teach him to be good, a faithful believer, honest and free from vices.
Notes for this theme
The Decalogue and the Old Testament Commandments
Page 30 of 36
Reading comfort
Aa
GRM 183.2-5 · Volume 3
The Gospel as revealed to me
Quotation
A loud noise of crying people can be heard from a sumptuous house. It is the voices of women and children. The shrill voice of a woman shouts: «My son! My son!»
Jesus turns around and looks at His apostles. Judas steps forward. «No, not you» orders Jesus. «You, Matthew. Go and find out.»
Matthew goes and comes back: «A brawl, Master. A man is dying. A Jew. The man who wounded him, a Roman, has run away. His wife, mother and children have rushed to help him… But he is dying.»
«Let us go.»
«Master… Master… It happened in the house of a woman… who is not his wife.»
«Let us go.»
183.3 Through the wide open door they enter a large hall which opens onto a lovely garden. The house seems to be divided by this kind of covered peristyle, which is full of pots with green plants, statues and inlaid articles. It is a mixture of a hall and greenhouse. In a room, the door of which opens onto the hall, there are some women weeping. Jesus goes in confidently. But He does not pronounce His usual greeting.
Among the men present there is a merchant who obviously knows Jesus, because as soon as he sees Him, he says: «The Rabbi of Nazareth!» and greets Him respectfully.
«Joseph, what is the matter?»
«Master, a stab wound in his heart… He is dying.»
«Why?»
A grey-haired unkempt woman stands up – she was kneeling near the dying man holding his limp hand – and with distracted face and voice she shouts: «Because of her, because of her… She has turned him into a devil… Mother, wife, children no longer existed for him! Hell will have you, satan!»
Jesus looks up and His eyes follow the trembling accusing hand and in a corner, against the dark red wall, He sees Mary of Magdala, more immodest than ever, wearing, I would say, nothing on half of her body, because she is half naked from the waist upwards, draped in a kind of hexagonal net decorated with little round objects which look like tiny pearls. But as she is in a half-light, I cannot see her well.
Jesus lowers His eyes once again. Mary, lashed by His indifference, stands up, whereas before she seemed somewhat depressed, and strikes a defiant pose.
«Woman» says Jesus to the mother. «Do not curse. Tell Me. Why was your son in this house?»
«I told You. Because she infatuated him. She did.»
«Silence. So, he was in sin, too, because he is an adulterer and an unworthy father of these innocent children. He therefore deserves his punishment. In this life and in the next one there is no mercy for those who do not repent. But I feel sorry for your grief and for these innocent children.
183.4 Is your house far?»
«About one hundred yards.»
«Lift the man and take him there.»
«It is not possible, Master» says Joseph, the merchant. «He is breathing his last breath.»
«Do as I tell you.»
They place a board under the body of the dying man and the procession slowly moves out. They cross the street and go into a shady garden. The women carry on crying loudly.
As soon as they enter the garden, Jesus addresses the mother. «Can you forgive? If you forgive, God will forgive. We must be kind-hearted, to obtain grace. He has sinned and will sin again. It would be better for him to die, because, if he lives, he will fall into sin again and he will also have to answer for his ingratitude to God Who has saved him. But you and these innocent ones (and He points at the wife and children) would give yourselves up to despair. I have come to save, not to lose. Man, I tell you: stand up and be cured.»
The man begins to recover. He opens his eyes, sees his mother, wife and children and lowers his head shamefully.
«Son, son» says the mother. «You were dead, if He had not saved you. Come to your senses. Don’t be infatuated for a…»
Jesus interrupts the old woman. «Be quiet, woman. Have mercy as mercy was granted to you. Your house has been sanctified by a miracle, which is always the evidence of God’s presence. That is why I could not work it where there was sin. You, at least, must endeavour to keep it such, even if he will not. Take care of him now. It is fair that he should suffer a little. Be good, woman. And you. And you little ones. Goodbye.» Jesus has laid His hand on the heads of the two women and of the children.
183.5 He then goes out passing in front of the Magdalene who followed the procession as far as the entrance of the house where she remained leaning against a tree. Jesus slackens His pace as if He were waiting for His disciples, but I think He does so to give Mary a chance of making a gesture. But she does not.
The disciples reach Jesus and Peter cannot help muttering between his teeth an epithet appropriate to Mary, who, wishing to strike an attitude, bursts into a laugh of a weak triumph. But Jesus heard Peter’s word and addresses him severely: «Peter. I do not insult. Do not insult. Pray for sinners. Nothing else.»
Mary stops her trilling laughter, lowers her head and runs away, like a gazelle, towards her house.
Detail
Case of adultery in Magdala.
Annotation
Your house is sanctified by the miracle, which is always proof of God's presence. In EMV 234.4/5, Jesus returns at length to this miracle and its context.
GRM 184.2 · Volume 3
The Gospel as revealed to me
Quotation
«Be patient, woman. Everybody has a cross.»
«Oh! No! Shameless women have but pleasure. You have seen the deeds of the shameless ones! They enjoy themselves and make other people suffer. They do not suffer the labour of childbirth neither do they break their backs working. Their hands do not blister digging, neither do they get spoiled washing clothes. They are beautiful and fresh looking. Eve’s punishment does not affect them. On the contrary, they are our punishment, because… men… You know what I mean.»
«I understand. But, believe Me, they have a terrible cross, too. The most dreadful one, which is not visible: their conscience which reproaches them, the world that sneers at them, their blood that disowns them, God that curses them. They are not happy, believe Me. They do not suffer the labour of childbirth, they do not break their backs working, they do not ulcerate their hands toiling. But they feel broken just the same, and ashamed. Their hearts are one big sore. Do not envy their fresh look, their apparent serenity. It is a veil laid over a ruin that bites and gives no peace. Do not envy their sleep, you, a mother who dreams of her innocent children… Their pillows are covered with nightmares. And in future, in their old age, in their agony, they will have nothing but remorse and terror.»
«It is true… Forgive me…»
GRM 184.8
The Gospel as revealed to me
GRM 184.8 · Volume 3
The Gospel as revealed to me
Quotation
“Everything that is obtained by deceit, becomes straw”. (...) It is not a tale. It is an eternal truth.What is done dishonestly is never successful. Because falsehood in words, deeds, and religion is always a sign of alliance with Satan, the master of falsehood.
GRM 184.8 · Volume 3
The Gospel as revealed to me
Quotation
If you enclose in your hearts a tiny seed of love for your Most Holy God and for your neighbour, and if you accomplish your deeds guided by love, you will not fail in any of the precepts of the Decalogue. You will not lie to God by means of a false religion of practices but not of the spirit. You will not lie to your neighbour, behaving as ungrateful children, as adulterers, as too exacting husbands and wives, as thieves in business, as liars in life, as violent avengers towards your enemies.
GRM 184.8 · Volume 3
The Gospel as revealed to me
Quotation
Love and you will be loved. Love and you will bear with one another. Love and you will not be cruel by wanting more than what is lawful from those who are under you. Love and sincerity to obtain the peace and glory of Heaven. Otherwise, (...) every action of yours accomplished by lying to love and to truth will turn into straw for your beds in hell.
GRM 185.5 · Volume 3
The Gospel as revealed to me
Quotation
Man is “man” and wants to do things by himself without feeling that God asks but to help him. (...) “They wanted to do by themselves”, although I was bent over their needs awaiting to be asked to help them.
GRM 185.5 · Volume 3
The Gospel as revealed to me
Quotation
I am not “man”, I am the God-Man. I do not behave as you do. When someone rejects your advice or your help, and you see him in trouble, even if you are not so bad as to rejoice at it, you are uncharitable enough to look at him disdainfully and indifferently, without being moved by his shouts for help. Your attitude means: “When I wanted to help you, you did not want me? Well, help yourself now”. But I am Jesus. I am the Saviour. And I save, Mary. I always save as soon as I am asked to.
GRM 185.6 · Volume 3
The Gospel as revealed to me
Quotation
The poor men might object: “In that case, why do You allow single or collective storms to break out?”. If by My power I should destroy Evil, you would consider yourselves the authors of Good, which in actual fact is a gift of Mine, and you would not remember Me any longer, You would never remember Me. My poor children, you are in need of sorrow to remember that you have a Father. As the prodigal son remembered he had a father when he was hungry.
Misfortunes convince you of your nothingness, of your ignorance, which is the cause of so many errors, of your wickedness, the cause of so much mourning and grief, of your faults, the cause of the punishments which you inflict upon yourselves, as well as of My existence, of My power and of My goodness.
That is what today’s Gospel teaches you. “Your” Gospel of the present time, my poor children. Call Me. Jesus does not sleep except when He is in anguish because He sees that He is not loved by you. Call Me and I will come.»
Detail
The meaning of misfortune.