The mystery of redemption and suffering

«Very often a worthless person is not satisfied with ingratitude, but goes much further, even to the extreme of ruining one’s reputation, wealth and one’s very life.»

«True. But would that diminish your merit? No, it would not. Even if the whole world should believe in slander, even if you became poorer than Job, even if the cruel person should take your life, what would change in the eyes of God? Nothing. Or rather, something would change. But to your advantage. God, to the merits of your bounty, would add the merits of your intellectual, financial, physical martyrdom.»

• Cruelty
• Ingratitude
• Job
• Libel - Slander
• Martyrdom
• Moral martyrdom

«I beg you all never to discuss merits and positions. I could have been born a king. I was born poor, in a stable. I could have been rich. I lived with My work and now I live out of charity. And yet, believe Me, My friends, there is no one greater than I in the eyes of God. Greater than I am, Who am here: the servant of man.»

«You a servant? Never!»

«Why not, Peter?»

«Because I will serve You.»

«Even if You served Me as a mother serves her child, I have come to serve man. I will be a Saviour for him. What service is there like that?»

• Humility of Jesus Christ
• Redeemer
• Sauveur
• Servant of God

My father is very old and I did not have the courage to hurt him. But now… Now, no longer so. Now I am going where my heart and my mind tell me. I am going to Jesus. I don’t think I am offending the Law by doing so. In any case… if what I want to do was not right, Jesus would tell me. I will do what He says. Is it right for a father to prevent a son from doing good? If I feel that my salvation is there, why prevent me from reaching it? Why, at times, are our fathers our enemies?»

Simon sighs as if he were overwhelmed by sad memories, he lowers his head, but does not speak.

• Family martyrdom

«Tell me, Master, is it not right for a son to say to his father, without lacking respect: “Father, I love you. But God is above you and I will follow Him”?»

«Judas, My cousin and My friend, I tell you: you have made good progress on the way to Light. Come. It is lawful to speak thus to a father, when it is God Who calls. There is nothing above God. Also the laws of relationship cease, that is they are raised to a dignity, because with our tears we give our fathers and mothers a greater help and for something everlasting, not for a short time in this world. We draw them with us to Heaven, and by sacrificing our affections, to God.

• Family martyrdom

There are no slaves or freemen in the eyes of God. There is only one slavery in His eyes: sin. And I have come to abolish it. I am calling everybody, because the Kingdom is of all men.

• Kingdom of God - Kingdom of Heaven
• Sin
• Slavery
• Words of wisdom

58.4 Please, Master, be careful, it is our daily bread. Keep an eye on the net, that jolts may not overturn it. The fish fight for their freedom with strong strokes of their tails, and if there is a lot of them… You will understand… They are small things, but if ten, one hundred, a thousand get together, they become as strong as Leviathan.»

«The same happens with sins, Peter. After all, one fault is not irreparable. But if one is not careful in controlling oneself, and one adds fault to fault, at the end a little fault, perhaps a single omission, or a simple weakness, becomes bigger and bigger, it becomes a habit, it becomes a capital vice. At times one starts with a lustful glance and ends up by committing adultery. At times, while simply lacking charity when speaking to a relative, one ends up by doing violence to one’s neighbour. Never, never allow faults to increase in seriousness and in numbers, if you wish to avoid trouble! They become dangerous and overbearing like the infernal Snake himself, and they will drag you down into Gehenna.»

«What You say is right, Master… But we are so weak!»

«Care and prayer are necessary to become strong and obtain help, together with a strong will not to sin. And you must have full trust in the loving justice of the Father.»

• Capital sin
• Fighting temptation
• God's justice
• Goodwill
• How to perfect and sanctify yourself
• Prayer
• Sin
• Trust in God
• Vice
• Vigilance
• Weakness

Remove the barrier of sin from all your hearts, if you want God to gather you together tomorrow and say to you: “My people, yours is the Kingdom that will never be defeated, or invaded, or undermined by enemies”.

Tomorrow. Which tomorrow? In a year or a month’s time? Oh! Do not be inquisitive! Do not allow an unhealthy thirst to inquire into the future by means which taste of guilty witchcraft. Leave the Python spirit to the heathens. Leave to Eternal God the secrecy of time. As from tomorrow, the morrow that will rise after this evening, and the morrow that will come after tonight and will rise at cock-crow, come and be purified by sincere penance.

Repent of your sins to be forgiven and to be ready for the Kingdom. Remove from yourselves the barrier of sin. Each of you has his own. Each has the one against the ten commandments of eternal salvation. Examine your consciences with sincerity and you will find your errors. Repent with sincere humbleness. You must repent. Not just with your mouths. You cannot laugh at or deceive God. But repent with a firm will, that will make you change your ways of living and return to the Law of the Lord. The Kingdom of Heaven is waiting for you. Tomorrow.

Tomorrow? you may ask. Oh! the hour of God is always an early morrow, even when it comes at the end of a life as long as the Patriarchs’. Eternity does not use as a measure of time the slow flowing of a sandglass. And the measures of time which you call days, months, years, centuries are but heartbeats of the Eternal Spirit that keeps you alive. But your souls are eternal and you must adopt the same measure of time for your souls as your Creator does. You must, therefore, say: “Tomorrow will be the day of my death”. No, not death for the faithful. But rest of expectation, waiting for the Messiah to open the gates of Heaven.

• Idolatry
• Penance
• Repentance and contrition
• Sin

59.6 «Do You not consider Yourself bold in avowing Yourself a representative of God? None of the Prophets dared so much and You… Who are You, Who are speaking? And by whose order do You speak?»

«The Prophets could not say of themselves what I state of Myself. Who am I? The Expected One, The Promised One, the Saviour. You have already heard His Precursor say: “Prepare the way for the Lord… Here the Lord God is coming… Like a shepherd He will feed His flock, although He is the Lamb of the true Passover”. Many amongst you heard these words from the Precursor and they saw the heavens brighten with a light that descended in the shape of a dove and they heard a voice speak and say who I am. By whose order do I speak? By the order of Him Who is and Who sends Me.»

«You say that, but You may be a liar or a dreamer. Your words are holy, but Satan sometimes uses deceitful words painted with holiness to deceive people. We do not know You.»

«I am Jesus of Joseph of the House of David, I was born at Bethlehem Ephrathah, as was promised, named Nazarene, because I live at Nazareth. And that according to the world. According to God I am His Messenger.»

• Jesus Christ
• Messiah
• Redeemer
• Sauveur

A brother who makes a mistake is not to be insulted. Everybody has his sins. No one is perfect but God.

• Charity
• Sin
• Words of wisdom

It is for the sake of man that I took flesh, without which I would not be able to redeem the faults of the flesh of man.

• Incarnation
• Jesus Christ - Son of Man
• Redemption
• Who is Jesus? How Christ defines himself