Notes for this theme
Reading comfort
GRM 69.6
All classes of people are worthy or unworthy. And without lacking in charity, but to avoid offending justice, I tell you that the unworthy, the mischievously unworthy, are often to be found amongst the great ones. It is not necessary and it is of no use being influential to be good or to hide sins from the eyes of God. Everything will be turned over under My Sign. And not he who is mighty will be great, but he who is humble and holy.
GRM 70.3
70.3 They go out into the olive-grove. But before going out, John takes something out of the knapsack in the corner. They walk for a little while and they reach a brow from which the whole of Jerusalem can be seen.
«Let us sit down here and talk a little» says Jesus.
But John prefers to sit at Jesus’ feet on the short grass, and he rests his arm on Jesus’ knees, with his head reclined on his arm, looking now and again at Jesus. He looks like a little boy near the person dearest to him. «It is beautiful also here, Master. Look how large the town seems at night. Larger than by day.»
«It is because the moonlight shades the outlines. See: the borders seem to widen out in a silver brightness. Look at the top of the Temple, up there. Does it not look as if it were suspended in mid air.»
«It seems supported by angels on their silver wings.»
Jesus sighs.
«Why are You sighing, Master?»
«Because the angels have abandoned the Temple. Its feature of purity and holiness is now confined to its walls only. Those who should impress it into its soul — because every place has its soul, that is the spirit for which it was built, and the Temple has, or should have, a soul of prayer and holiness — those who should energise such spirit, are instead the first to suffocate it. You can not give what you do not possess, John. And if there are many priests and Levites living there, not even one tenth of them are capable of giving life to the Holy Place. They give death instead. They transmit the death of their own souls, which are dead to what is holy. They have their formulae. But they do not have the essence of them. They are corpses that are warm only because putrifaction swells them.»
«Have they done You wrong, Master?» John is all upset.
«No. On the contrary they allowed Me to speak when I asked to.»
«Did You ask them? Why?»
«Because I do not want to be the one who starts war. There will be war in any case. Because I shall be the cause of a silly human fear for some, and the cause of reproach for others. But this must be written in their book, not in Mine.»
Jesus is with John, in the olive grove of Gethsemane. They see the whole city of Jerusalem.
GRM 70.4
«Do you know what tires Me? Indifference. Oh! What a burden it is! It is like carrying a weight on your heart.»
«I love You, Jesus.»
«Yes, and you comfort Me. I love you so much, John, and I always will, because you will never betray Me.»
«Betray You! Oh!»
«And yet there will be many who will betray Me…»
Jesus said to John:
GRM 70.5
I ask you to evangelise him with your faith, your charity, your purity (...). It is a land defiled by stagnant waters. It must be dried up by the sun of love, purified by the integrity of thoughts, desires and deeds, and cultivated with faith. You can do that.
Jesus speaks to John about Judas. His words can potentially apply to all evangelists and all Christians.
GRM 70.5
Love is not proportionate to education or formation. A virgin loves with all the strength of her first love. That applies also to the virginity of mind. And the beloved penetrates and is more deeply impressed on a virgin heart and a virgin mind, rather than on hearts and minds imbued with other loves.
GRM 70.6
« (...) I want you to love one another, without preferences, helping one another mutually and bearing with one another, No one is perfect, John, Neither the young nor the old. But if you have goodwill, you will reach perfection and what is wanting in you, I will supply. You are like the children of a holy family. In it there are very different characters. One is strong, another is sweet, or brave, or shy, or impulsive or very cautious. If you were all alike, you would be really strong in one character, but very weak in all the others. Whereas you thus form a perfect union, completed by you all. Love unites you, it must unite you, for the sake of God’s cause.»
«And for Your sake, Jesus.»
«First the cause of God and then the love for His Christ.»
GRM 70.8
He is the one who divests himself also of his own way of thinking and judging, in order to be “the disciple”. He is the one who gives himself without wishing to withhold even a particle of himself, as his self was before becoming a disciple. Judas is the one who does not want to divest himself of himself. His donation is therefore unreal. He carries with himself his ego diseased with pride, sensuality and greed. He maintains his way of thinking. And he thus counteracts the effect of the donation and of Grace.
Judas: the first of all the apostles who failed. And they are so many! John: the first of those who become victims out of love for Me. And you are one of them.
My Mother and I are the sublime Victims. It is difficult to reach us, in fact it is impossible, because our sacrifice was of total bitterness. But My John! He is the victim that all My lovers can imitate: virgins, martyrs, confessors, evangelisers, servants of God and of the Mother of God, devoted to activity or contemplation: he is an example for everyone. He is the one who loves.
Note their different ways of reasoning. Judas investigates, quibbles, is obstinate, even when he pretends to give in, he still has mental reservations. John feels he is nothing, he accepts everything, he does not ask for reasons, he is satisfied with making Me happy. That is the example.
Jesus tells Maria about John and says:
GRM 71.2
There are no distinctions in My heart between the first and the last. If the first one should err and the last one were a holy man, then there would be a distinction in the eyes of God. But I will love just the same: I will love the holy living man with a blissful love, and the sinner with a suffering love.
Judas declares that he believed he was the first to be called, and that he was therefore the favorite of the disciples. Jesus replies:
GRM 71.4
The more one is deformed, the more assistance one needs. The others… oh! the others form properly, also by themselves, by simple contact. I do not want to do everything by Myself. I want the will of man and the help of other people to form a man. I ask you to help Me… and I am grateful for the help.
GRM 72.3-4
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.»
The apostles (John, Judas, Simon the Zealot) discuss and come to the subject of miracles and sending out disciples when Jesus is no longer with them.
Jesus says to the three apostles: