72.3 «It grieves Me only to notice how much man has been corrupted by Satan who perverts his thoughts. All men, you know! The thoughts of all of you have been misled by him! But the day will come, when you will have the Strength and the Grace of God, you will have Wisdom with His Spirit… you will then have everything to enable you to judge rightly.»
«And will we all judge rightly.»
«No, Judas.»
«But are You referring to us, disciples, or to all men?»
«I refer firstly to you, and to all the others. When the time comes, the Master will nominate His workers and send them all over the world…»
«Are You not doing that already?»
«For the time being, I use you only to say: “The Messiah is here. Come to Him”. Later I will make you capable of preaching in My name, of working miracles in My name…»
«Oh! Also miracles?»
«Yes, on bodies and on souls.»
«Oh! How they will admire us, then!» Judas is overjoyed at the thought.
72.4 «But, then, we shall not be with the Master… and I will always be afraid to do with my human capacity what comes only from God» says John, and he looks thoughtfully and somewhat sadly at Jesus.
«John, if the Master will allow me, I would like to tell you what I think» says Simon.
«Yes, tell John. I want you to advise one another.»
«Do You already know it is advice?»
Jesus smiles and is quiet.
«Well, I tell you, John, that you must not, we must not be afraid. Let us rest upon His wisdom of a holy Master and upon His promise. If He says: “I will send you”, it means that He knows that He can send us without any fear that we may do harm to Him or to ourselves, that is to the cause of God, that is so dear to each of us, like a newly-wed bride. If He promises to dress our intellectual and spiritual misery with the brightness of the power His Father gives Him for us, we must be certain that He will do so and that we will be successful, not by ourselves, but through His mercy. All this will most certainly happen, providing our deeds are free from pride and human ambitions. I think that if we contaminate our mission, which is entirely a spiritual one, with earthly ingredients, then also Christ’s promise will no longer stand. Not because of any inability on His part, but because we shall strangle such ability with the rope of pride.
72.5 I do not know whether I have made myself understood.»
«You have spoken very clearly. I am wrong. But you know… I think that after all, to wish to be admired as the Messiah’s disciples, so close to Him as to deserve to do what He does, is the same as wishing to increase even more the powerful figure of Christ among people. Praise to the Master Who has such disciples, that is what I mean» answers Judas.
«What you say is not entirely wrong. But… see, Judas. I come from a caste which is persecuted because… because what and how the Messiah should be is misunderstood. Yes. If we had waited for Him with the correct vision of His being, we would not have fallen into errors, which are blasphemy against the Truth and a rebellion against the Law of Rome, so that we have been punished both by God and by Rome. We fancied Christ as a conqueror who would free Israel, as a new Maccabaeus, greater than the great Judas… Only that. And why? Because rather than have regard to the interest of God we took care of our own interests: of the fatherland and of the people. Oh! The interests of the fatherland are most certainly sacred. But what are they when compared to the eternal Heavens? In the long hours of persecution, first, and then of isolation, when as a fugitive, I was compelled to hide in the dens of wild beasts, sharing food and a bed with them, to escape Roman power and above all the impeachments of false friends; or when, waiting for death I was already tasting the savour of the sepulchre, in the cave of a leper, how much did I meditate, and how much did I see: I saw the figure of the Messiah… Yours, my humble and good Master, Yours, Master and King of the Spirit, Yours, O Christ, Son of the Father, leading to the Father, and not to the royal palaces of dust, nor to the deities of mud. You… Oh! It is easy for me to follow You… Because, forgive my daring, which avows itself to be correct, because I see You as I thought of You, I recognise You, I recognised You at once. No, it was not a question of meeting You, but of recognising One whom my soul had already met…»
«That is why I called you… and that is why I am taking you with Me, now, in this first journey of Mine in Judaea.
72.6 I want you to complete your recognition… and I want also these, whom age makes less capable of reaching the Truth by means of deep meditation, I want them to know how their Master has come to this hour… You will understand later.»