GRM 45.1-5
The Gospel as revealed to me
Quotation
45.1 I see a bare, flat country, without any villages or vegetation. There are no cultivated fields, but a few odd plants are growing here and there in clusters, like vegetable families, where the deep soil is less parched. Imagine that the arid waste land is on my right-hand side, with my back turned to the north, and the harsh area stretches southwards.
On my left instead, I can see a river with very low banks, flowing slowly from north to south. The very slow flowing water leads me to believe that there are no falls in the level of the riverbed and that it flows in such a flat country as to form a depression. The movement of the water is just enough to avoid the formation of marshes. The river is so shallow that the bottom can be seen: I would say the water is a metre deep, or a metre and a half, at the most. It is as wide as the river Arno in the S. Miniato-Empoli area: about twenty metres. However, I am not good at estimating. And yet its colour is blue with a light green hue near the banks, where on the humid soil, there is a strip of thick green vegetation, very pleasant to look at: the sight of the stony, sandy bleakness of the ground lying before it, is instead, a very monotonous one indeed.
The internal voice, which I told you I hear and tells me what I must take note of and know, is now warning me that I am looking at the Jordan valley. I call it a valley, because that is the name used to indicate the place where a river flows, but here it is incorrect to call it so, because a valley presumes the presence of mountains, but I do not see any mountains in the neighbourhood. In any case, I am near the Jordan, and the waste land on my right is the desert of Judah.
If it is correct to call a desert a place where there are no houses or man’s works, it is not so according to our idea of a desert. There are none of the undulating sands of the desert, as we understand it, but only bare ground strewn with stones and rubble, like alluvial grounds after a flood. There are hills in the distance.
And yet, near the Jordan there is great peace, something special and unusual, as one often feels on the shores of lake Trasimeno. It is a place that seems to be full of memories of angels’ flights and celestial voices. I cannot describe exactly what I feel. But I feel that I am in a place that communicates with my soul.
45.2 While I am watching these things, I notice that the right bank of the Jordan (according to my position) is becoming crowded with people. There are many men dressed in different fashions. Some seem ordinary people, some rich, and there are some who appear to be Pharisees, because their tunics are adorned with fringes and braids.
In the midst of them, standing on a rock, there is a man whom I recognise at once to be the Baptist, although it is the first time I see him. He is speaking to the crowds, and I can assure you that his sermon is not a sweet one. Jesus called James and John «the sons of thunder». Well then, what should we call this impetuous orator? John the Baptist deserves the names of thunderbolt, avalanche, earthquake, so impetuous and severe he is in his speech and gestures.
He is announcing the Messiah and exhorting the people to prepare their hearts for His coming, eradicating all obstructions and rectifying their thoughts. But it is a violent and harsh speech. The Precursor does not possess the light hand Jesus used to cure the wounds of hearts. He is a doctor who lays the wound bare, scrutinises it and cuts it mercilessly.
45.3 While I am listening — I am not repeating the words, because they are related by the Evangelists, but here they are amplified in impetuosity — I see my Jesus proceeding along a path, which is at the edge of the grassy shady strip coasting the Jordan. This rustic road (it is more a path than a road) seems to have been opened by the caravans and the people who throughout years and centuries passed along it to reach a point where it is easy to wade, because the water is very shallow. The path continues on the other side of the river and disappears from sight in the green strip of the other bank.
Jesus is alone. He is walking slowly, coming forward, behind the Baptist. He approaches noiselessly and listens to the thundering voice of the Penitent of the desert, as if He also were one of the many who came to John to be baptised and purified for the coming of the Messiah. There is nothing to distinguish Jesus from the others. His clothes are those of common people, but He has the appearance and handsomeness of a gentleman. There is no divine sign discriminating Him from the crowd.
But it would appear that John perceives a special spirituality emanate from Him. He turns around, and at once identifies the source of the emanation. He descends impulsively from the rocky pulpit and moves quickly towards Jesus, Who has stopped a few yards away from the crowd and is leaning against the trunk of a tree.
45.4 Jesus and John stare at each other for a moment: Jesus, with His very sweet blue eyes; John with his very severe black flashing ones. Seen from nearby, one is the antithesis of the other. They are both tall — their only resemblance — for all the rest, they differ immensely. Jesus is fair haired. His hair is long and tidy, His face is white ivory, His eyes blue, His garment simple, but majestic. John is hairy: his straight, black hair falls unevenly onto his shoulders, his sparse dark beard covers his face almost completely, but his cheeks, hollowed by fasting, are still noticeable, his feverish eyes are black, his complexion is dark, tanned by the sun and weather-beaten, his body is covered with hairs, he is half-naked in his camel-hair garment, which is tied to his waist by a leather belt and covers his trunk, reaching down to his thin sides, whilst his right side is uncovered and bare, completely weather-beaten. They look like a savage and an angel, seen close together.
John, after scrutinising Him with his piercing eyes, exclaims: «Here is the Lamb of God. How is it that my Lord comes to
me?»
Jesus replies calmly: «To fulfil the penitential rite.»
«Never, my Lord. I must come to You to be sanctified, and You are coming to me?»
And Jesus, laying His hand on the head of John, who had bowed down in front of Him, replies: «Let it be done as I wish, that all justice may be fulfilled and your rite may become the beginning of a higher mystery and men may be informed that the Victim is in the world.»
45.5 John looks at Him with his eyes sweetened by tears and precedes Jesus towards the bank of the river. Jesus takes off His mantle and tunic, and is left with loin cloth. He then descends into the water, where there is John, who baptises Him, pouring on His head some water taken from the river by means of a cup, tied to his belt. It looks like a shell or a half pumpkin dried and emptied.
Jesus is really the Lamb. A Lamb in the whiteness of His flesh, in the modesty of His gestures, in the meekness of His appearance.
While Jesus climbs onto the bank and after putting on His clothes concentrates on praying, John points Him out to the crowd and testifies that he recognised Him by the sign that the Spirit of God had shown him as an infallible means to identify the Redeemer.
But I am enraptured in watching Jesus pray, and I can only see His bright figure against the green of the river bank.
Annotation
Matthew 3:1-17
In those days, John the Baptist appeared and proclaimed in the Judean desert: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. John is the one designated by the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah: Voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. He, John, wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his loins; his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea and the whole Jordan region came to him, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan, acknowledging their sins.
Seeing many Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said to them: "You offspring of vipers! Who taught you to flee from the wrath to come? Produce fruit worthy of conversion. Do not say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father'; for I tell you, God can raise up children for Abraham from these stones. The axe is already at the root of the trees: every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for conversion. But he who comes after me is stronger than I, and I am not worthy to take off his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. He holds the winnowing shovel in his hand, he will clean his threshing floor, and he will gather his grain into the barn; as for the straw, he will burn it in the fire that does not go out."
Then Jesus appeared. He had come from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. John wanted to stop him, saying, "I'm the one who needs to be baptized by you, and you're the one who's coming to me!" But Jesus replied, "Let it be for now, for it is fitting that we should fulfill all righteousness in this way." So John let him. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he came up out of the water, and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descend in a dove and come upon him. And from heaven a voice said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
Mark 1, 9-11
In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately, as he came up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. There was a voice from heaven: "You are my beloved Son; in you I rejoice."
Luke 3, 1-22
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod then ruling in Galilee, his brother Philip in the land of Ituraea and Traconitides, Lysanias in Abilene, the high priests being Hanne and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the desert. He went throughout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of conversion for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the oracles of Isaiah, the prophet: Voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every ravine shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; crooked passages shall become straight, rocky paths shall be made smooth; and every living creature shall see the salvation of God. John said to the crowds arriving to be baptized by him: "You offspring of vipers! Who taught you to flee from the wrath to come? Produce fruits that express your conversion. Do not begin to say to yourselves: "We have Abraham for our father", for I tell you that, from these stones, God can bring forth children to Abraham. Already the axe is at the root of the trees: every tree that does not produce good fruit is going to be cut down and thrown into the fire."
The crowds asked him, "What then shall we do?" John replied, "He who has two garments, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise!" Publicans (i.e. tax collectors) also came to be baptized; they said to him, "Master, what should we do?" He replied, "Demand nothing more than is set before you." Soldiers in turn asked him, "And what should we do?" He replied, "Do no violence to anyone, accuse no one falsely; and be content with your pay."
Now the people were waiting, and all were wondering within themselves whether John was not the Christ. Then John said to them all: "I baptize you with water, but he who is stronger than I is coming. I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. He holds in his hand the winnowing shovel to clean his threshing floor, and he will gather the grain into his barn; as for the chaff, he will burn it with the fire that does not go out."
With many other exhortations, he announced the Good News to the people. Herod, who was in power in Galilee, had received reproaches from John about his brother's wife Herodias, and about all the misdeeds he had committed. To all this he added this: he had John locked up in prison.
As all the people were being baptized, and Jesus was also being baptized and praying, the heavens opened. The Holy Spirit, in bodily form, like a dove, descended on Jesus, and there was a voice from heaven: "You are my beloved Son; in you I rejoice."
John 1:29-34
The next day, seeing Jesus coming towards him, John declared: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world; of him I said, 'The man who comes after me has gone before me, for before me he was. And I did not know him; but if I came to baptize in water, it was so that he might be manifested to Israel." Then John testified: "I saw the Spirit come down from heaven like a dove, and it stayed on him. And I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me, "He on whom you will see the Spirit descend and remain, he it is who baptizes in the Holy Spirit." I have seen, and I bear witness: this is the Son of God."