Notes for this theme
Reading comfort
GRM 182.3 · Volume 3
A shepherd dares to ask: «You are the Messiah, are You not?»
«Yes, I am. How do you know?»
«I know that You are about in Palestine and I know that You speak holy words. That is why I recognised You.»
GRM 182.4 · Volume 3
Do you know the Law well enough and its ten commandments? And you, too, boy? In that case you know enough. If you faithfully practise what God commanded, you will be holy.
GRM 182.5 · Volume 3
My boy, remember that you are never alone. God sees you and so does the spirit of your father. When something upsets you and induces you to do wrong, say: “No, I do not want to be an orphan forever and ever”. You would be, if you damned your soul by sinning.
GRM 183.1 · Volume 3
The entire apostolic college is around Jesus. Sitting on the grass, in the cool shade of a thicket, near a stream, they are all eating bread and cheese and drinking the cool clear water of the stream. Their dusty sandals imply that they have walked a long way and perhaps the disciples wish but to rest on the long fresh grass.
But the Tireless Walker is not of the same mind. As soon as he deems that the hottest hour is over, He gets up, goes onto the road and looks… He then turns around and says: «Let us go.» Nothing else.
GRM 183.1 · Volume 3
Peter, Peter!… For My sake you will have to enter not towns of pleasure but real brothels… Christ did not come to save those who are already saved, but those who are Lost… and you shall be “Peter”, or Rock, not Simon, for that purpose. Are you afraid of becoming contaminated? No! Not even this one, see (and He points at the very young John) will suffer any harm. Because he does not want, as you do not want, as your brother and John’s brother do not want, as none of you, for the time being, wants. As long as one does not want, no harm is done. But one must not want resolutely and perseveringly. You will obtain will-power and perseverance from the Father, by praying with sincere intentions.
A thinly veiled announcement of Peter's future stay in Rome, "the great prostitute". Another mention of this stay is made in EMV 310.5, then in EMV 545.7. Houses of prostitution (lupanaria) were common in ancient Greece and Rome as early as the 6th century BC. In ancient Roman slang, lupa, the she-wolf, is the animal symbolizing the prostitute.
GRM 183.1 · Volume 3
Christ did not come to save those who are already saved, but those who are lost…
GRM 183.2-5 · Volume 3
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.
Case of adultery in Magdala.
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 183.4 · Volume 3
I have come to save, not to lose.
GRM 184.2 · Volume 3
« Come here. You wanted to hear Me speak? Why?»
«Because You are the Messiah. No one but You can be the Messiah, considering the miracle You have worked… And I was anxious to hear You. I never go out of Magdala because I have… a difficult husband and five children. The youngest is four months old… and You never come here.»
«I have come, and to your house, as you can see.»
«That is why I wanted to hear You.»
GRM 184.3-5 · Volume 3
184.3 «May I stay here?»
«Yes, stay. I will tell Benjamin a nice parable and those who are no longer children will apply it to themselves and to Mary of Magdala. Listen.
You doubt Mary’s conversion to Good. There is no sign in her in that direction. Brazen and impudent, conscious of her rank and power, she dared to defy the people and come to the very threshold of the house where they are weeping because of her. She laughed at Peter’s reproach. She replied to My inviting look by striking a proud attitude. Perhaps some of you, either for Lazarus’ sake or for mine, would have liked Me to speak to her directly, at some length, subduing her with My power, showing My strength as Messiah and Saviour. No. All that is not needed. I already said so many months ago with regards to another sinner. Souls must react by themselves. I pass and sow the seed. The seed works in secret. A soul is to be respected in this work. If the first seed does not take root, another must be sown, and a third one… and one must give up only when there is definite proof that it is useless to sow. And one prays. Prayer is like dew on the clods of earth: it keeps them soft and nourishes them, so that the seed can sprout. Is that not what you do, woman, with your vegetables?
184.4 Now listen to the parable of how God works in the hearts of men to establish His Kingdom there. Because every heart is a small kingdom of God on the earth. Later, after death, all these small kingdoms will agglomerate into one, immeasurable, holy eternal Kingdom of Heaven.
The Kingdom of God is created in men’s hearts by the Divine Sower. He comes to his field – man belongs to God, because every man is initially His – and sows His seed. He then goes to other fields, to other hearts. Days follow the nights and nights the days. The days bring sunshine and rain, in our case rays of divine love and effusion of divine Wisdom speaking to the spirit. The nights bring stars and restful silence: in our case enlightening calls of God and silence for the soul so that it may collect its thoughts and meditate.
The seed, in this course of imperceptible but powerful influence, swells, splits, takes root, sprouts, grows. And all that happens without any help from man. The soil spontaneously produces grass from seeds, the herb becomes strong and supports the rising ear, the ear grows, swells, hardens, becomes golden and perfect when seeding. When it is ripe, the sower comes back and cuts it because the time of perfection has arrived for that seed. It cannot develop any further and so it is harvested.
My word does the same work in hearts. I am referring to the hearts which receive the seed. But it is a slow process. One must not spoil everything by being hasty. How troublesome it is for the little seed to split and take root! Such work is painful also for a hard wild heart. It must open itself, allow people to search it, accept new things and nourish them laboriously, appear different being covered with humble useful things, instead of the fascinating, pompous, useless, exuberant flourishing that covered it previously. It must be satisfied with working humbly for the benefit of the divine Thought, without drawing other people’s admiring attention. It must exert all its talent to grow and burst into ear. It must burn with love to become corn. And after overcoming all fears of human opinion, which are so grievous, after toiling, suffering and becoming attached to its new dress, it must be deprived of it by a cruel cut. It must give everything to receive everything. It must be divested to be clad again in Heaven with the stole of sainthood. The life of a sinner who becomes a saint is the longest, most heroic and glorious fight. I tell you.
184.5 You will realise from what I told you that it is fair that I should deal with Mary as I am doing. Did I behave differently with you, Matthew?»
«No, my Lord, You did not.»
«And tell Me the truth: what convinced you more, My patience or the bitter reproaches of the Pharisees?»
«Your patience, so much so that I am here. The Pharisees, by despising and anathematizing me, made me scornful, and out of contempt I did more harm than I had done so far. That is what happens. Sinners become more obstinate when they realise that they are treated as sinners. But when we are caressed instead of being insulted, we are dumbfounded and we weep… and when one weeps, the whole framework of sin collapses… One is left naked before Goodness and one implores it wholeheartedly to be reclothed by It.»
«You are right.»
Mary Magdalene doesn't seem to be converted, and Jesus gives a parable in this context.
I said this about another sinner, several months ago. For Aglaé, the veiled woman from Belle-Eau. See EMV 79.6.
Gospel of Mark 4, 26-32
Mk 4, 26-32 : He said: "The reign of God is like a man who casts seed into the earth: night and day, whether he sleeps or rises, the seed germinates and grows, he knows not how. Of its own accord, the earth first produces grass, then an ear of corn, and finally a full ear of wheat. And as soon as the wheat is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, since harvest time has arrived." He went on to say: "To what shall we compare the reign of God? What parable can we use to represent it? It's like a mustard seed: when you sow it in the ground, it's the smallest of all seeds. But when you sow it, it grows and surpasses all vegetable plants; and it spreads out long branches, so that the birds of the air can make their nests in its shade."