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Persecution

Theme: The mystery of redemption and suffering · Page 3 of 3

Reading comfort

Aa

GRM 180.1-2 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

I do not know which remark of a companion originated the clearcut reply of Peter who says: «It will happen to them what happened to the founders of the Tower of Babel. Their own pride will provoke the collapse of their theories and they will be crushed.»

Andrew objects to his brother: «But God is Mercy. He will prevent the collapse to give them time to mend their ways.»

«Do not believe that. They will crown their pride with false accusations and persecutions. Oh! I can already see it. They will persecute us to disperse us as unpleasant witnesses. And since they attack the Truth by laying snares for it, God will take revenge and they will perish.»

«Shall we have the strength to resist?» asks Thomas.

«Well… as for me, I would not have it. But I put my trust in Him» and Peter nods to the Master Who is listening and is silent, His head slightly inclined, as if He wished to hide His understanding countenance.

«I think that God will not put us to tests beyond our strength» says Matthew.

«Or He will at least increase our strength in proportion to the tests» concludes James of Alphaeus.

«He is already doing that.»

Annotation

What happened to the builders of the Tower of Babel will happen to them. Allusion to Genesis 11:1-9.

He has already done so: it's Simon the Zealot speaking. The conversation then continues. See next note.

Book of Genesis 11, 1-9

Gn 11, 1-9 : All the earth had one language and the same words. When the men set out from the East, they found a plain in the land of Sennaar, and they settled there. They said to each other, "Come on, let's make bricks and bake them in the fire. "And they used bricks instead of stones, and bitumen instead of cement. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in heaven, and let us make ourselves a monument, lest we be scattered over the face of all the earth. "But Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building. And Yahweh said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have for themselves all one language; and this work is the beginning of their undertakings; now nothing will stop them from accomplishing their plans. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, so that they no longer hear each other's language. "So Yahweh scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased to build the city. That's why it was called Babel, because that's where Yahweh confused the language of the whole earth, and that's where Yahweh scattered them over the face of the whole earth.