Main and secondary characters

70.2 They have arrived at the little house. They enter the low smoky kitchen. The landlord greets them: «Peace be with You.»

Jesus replies: «Peace to this house, to you and to those who live here with you. I have a disciple with Me.»

«There will be bread and oil for him, too.»

«I brought some dried fish that James and Peter gave me. And passing by Nazareth, Your Mother gave me some bread and honey for You. I walked all the time without stopping, but it will be dry now.»

«It does not matter, John. It will always have the flavour of My Mother’s hands.»

John pulls out his treasures from the knapsack that he had put in a corner. And I see them prepare the dried fish in a strange way. They put it for a few minutes in hot water, they then put some olive oil on it and they roast it on the fire.

Jesus blesses the food and sits at the table with His disciple. Also the landlord, whose name I hear is Jonah, and his son, sit at the same table. The landlady comes and goes bringing fish, some black olives, boiled vegetables dressed with oil. Jesus offers also some honey. And He offers it to the landlady, spreading it on some bread. «It comes from My beehive» He says. «My Mother looks after the bees. Eat it. It is good. You are so good to Me, Mary, and you deserve much more than this» He then adds, because the woman does not want to deprive Him of the sweet honey.

The supper ends in a short time, while they hold a brief conversation on common topics. As soon as they finish, and after thanking for the food, Jesus says to John: «Come. Let us go out into the olive-grove for a little while. It is a clear, mild night. It will be pleasant to be out there for a short time.»

The landlord says: «Master, I say “good night” to You. I am tired and also my son is tired. We are going to bed. I will leave the door ajar and the lamp on the table. You know what to do.»

«Go, Jonah. And put out the lamp. There is such a bright moonlight, that we will be able to see without any light.»

«But where will Your disciple sleep?»

«With Me. On My mat there is room also for him. Is that right, John?»

John is enraptured at the idea of sleeping beside Jesus.

• James of Zebedee (apostle)
• Jonah (keeper of the olive grove at Gethsemane)
• Locations - House of Jonah (keeper of the olive grove in Gethsemane)
• Marie de Jonas (wife of the olive grove keeper)
• Mark of Jonah (son of the keeper of the olive grove in Gethsemane)
• Simon-Pierre - Simon de Jonas (apostle)
• The Virgin Mary

70.4 They are quiet for a few moments, then John carries on speaking. «Master, I know Annas and Caiaphas. My family has been on business relations with them, and when I came to Judaea to see John, I used to come to the Temple, and they were good to the son of Zebedee. My father always sends them the best fish. That is the custom, You know? If you want them to be friendly and to continue so, you must do that…»

«I know.» Jesus is serious.

«Well, if You wish, I will speak to the High Priest about You. And… if You want, I know a man who is on business terms with my father. He is a rich fish merchant. He has a lovely big house near the Hippicus Tower, because they are very rich people, but they are also very good. You would be more comfortable and You would not get so tired. To come here, You have to come through the suburb of Ophel, which is so wild and always full of donkeys and quarrelsome boys.»

«No, John. Thank you. But I am alright here. See how much peace there is? I told also the other disciple who made the same suggestion. He said: “To enjoy a higher reputation”.»

«I mentioned it that You might not get so tired.»

«I do not get tired. I will walk so much, and I will never tire. 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…»

• Caiaphas (high priest)
• Hanne or Anne (former high priest)
• John and Judas
• Judas de Kérioth (apostle)
• Zebedee (father of James and John of Zebedee)

70.5 John, listen. I told you that I stayed here to teach a new disciple. He is a young Jew, educated and well known.»

«Well, then. You will have to work much less with him than You have to with us, Master. I am glad that You have someone who is more capable than we are.»

«Do you think I will work less?»

«Yes, if he is less ignorant than we are, he will understand You better, and serve You better, especially if he loves You.»

«What you say is right. But 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. But if God wants… Listen, John. I would ask you to be friendly with him. My heart shudders at the thought of putting you, an unshorn lamb, near the expert in life. But it subsides considering that you may well be a lamb, but you are also an eagle, and if the expert will endeavour to make you touch the ground, which is always muddy, the soil of good human sense, with a stroke of your wings, you will be able to free yourself and desire only the clear blue sky and the sun. That is why I ask you to remain as you are and be friendly to the new disciple, inspiring him with your love, because he will not be loved very much by Simon Peter and the others…»

«Oh! Master! Are You not sufficient?»

«I am the Master. Not everything will be said to Me. You are a companion, a little younger, to whom it will be easier for him to unbosom himself. I am not suggesting you should repeat to Me what he tells you. I detest spies and traitors. But I ask you to evangelise him with your faith, your charity, your purity, John. 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.»

«If You say I can… Yes! If You say I can do that, I will do it. For Your sake…»

«Thank you, John.»

• John and Judas
• Judas de Kérioth (apostle)
• Peter and Judas

«What is Thomas doing?»

«He carried out Your instructions, he left Simon the Cananean and by the sea road he went to meet Philip and Bartholomew.»

• Barthélémy - Nathanaël (apostle)
• Philip (apostle)
• Simon the Zealot (apostle)
• Thomas (apostle)

«Master, You mentioned Simon Peter. And that reminded me of something I should have told You immediately, but the joy of listening to You made me forget about it. When we went back to Capernaum after Pentecost, we found the usual amount of money from that unknown person. The boy had taken it to my mother. I gave it to Peter, and he handed it back to me, saying I should use some of it on my way back and in my stay at Doco and I should bring You the rest, for whatever need of Yours… because also Peter thought this place might not be comfortable… but You say it is… I took only two coins for two poor people I met near Ephraim. For the rest, I lived with what my mother had given me and what I was given by some good people to whom I preached Your Name. Here is the purse.»

«We will give the money to the poor tomorrow. So Judas also will be acquainted with our custom.»

«Has Your cousin come? How was he so quick? He was at Nazareth and he did not tell me he was leaving…»

«No. Judas is the new disciple. He comes from Kerioth. But you saw him at Passover, here, the evening I cured Simon. He was with Thomas.»

«Ah! It’s him?» John is a little perplexed.

«Yes, it is he.»

• John and Judas
• Judas de Kérioth (apostle)
• L'enfant Jacques de Capharnaüm
• Matthew (apostle)
• Simon-Pierre - Simon de Jonas (apostle)

« (...) 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.»

• Catholic Church
• Family
• How to perfect and sanctify yourself
• Lessons and Teachings for the Apostles
• Love
• Love of neighbor
• Sanctification
• The Twelve

70.8 Then Jesus says:

«Another comparison between My John and another disciple. A comparison that makes the figure of My beloved disciple clearer and clearer.

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.

70.9 And did you not feel completely peaceful before his simple dear love? Oh! My John! And My little John, whom I want to be more and more like My beloved. Accept everything, always saying as the apostle: “Everything You do, is well done, Master”, in order to deserve to always hear Me say to you: “You are My loving peace”. I need comfort as well, Mary. Give Me it. My Heart for your rest.»

• Dictations of Jesus and the Virgin Mary in the EMV
• John and Judas
• John of Zebedee (apostle)
• Judas de Kérioth (apostle)

• Jesus Christ
• John of Zebedee (apostle)
• Judas de Kérioth (apostle)
• Places - Jerusalem Temple
• Simon the Zealot (apostle)
• Summary of EMV

71.1 I see Jesus with Judas Iscariot walking up and down near one of the gates of the Temple enclosure.

«Are You sure he will come?» asks Judas.

«I am certain. He was leaving Bethany at dawn and at Gethsemane he was to meet My first disciple…»

There is a pause, then Jesus stops and stares at Judas. He is standing in front of him. He studies him. He then places a hand on his shoulder and asks: «Why, Judas, do you not tell Me your thoughts?»

«Which thoughts? I have no special thought, Master, at the present moment. I ask You even too many questions. You certainly cannot complain of my silence.»

«You ask Me many questions and You give Me many details on the town and its inhabitants. But you do not unburden yourself to Me. What do you think it matters to Me what you tell Me about the wealth of people and the members of this or that family? I am not an idler who has come here to while away the time. You know why I have come. And you may well realise that I am concerned with being the Master of My disciples, as the most important thing. I therefore want sincerity and trust from them.

71.2 Was your father fond of you, Judas?»

«He was very fond of me. He was proud of me. When I went back home from school, and even later, when I went back to Kerioth from Jerusalem, he wanted me to tell him everything. He took an interest in everything I did and he would rejoice if they were good things, he would comfort me if they were not so good, if – sometimes, You know, we all make mistakes – if I had made a mistake and had been blamed for it, he would show me the fairness of the reproach I had received, or the injustice of my action. But he did it so gently… he seemed like an older brother. He always ended by saying: “I am saying this because I want my Judas to be just. I want to be blessed through my son”. My father…»

Jesus, Who has been carefully studying His disciple all the time, truly moved at the evocation of his father, says: «Now, Judas, be sure of what I am going to tell you. Nothing will make your father so happy, as your being a faithful disciple. Your father, who brought you up as you said, must have been a just man and his soul will rejoice, where he is awaiting the light, seeing that you are My disciple. But in order to be such, you must say to yourself: “I have found my lost father, the father who was like an older brother to me, I have found him in my Jesus, and I will tell Him everything, as I used to tell my beloved father, over whose death I am still mourning, that I may receive from Him guidance, blessings or a kind reproach”. May God grant it, and above all may you behave so that Jesus will always say to you: “You are good. I bless you”.»

«Oh! yes, Jesus! If You love me so much, I will strive to be good, as You want and my father wanted me to be. And my mother will no longer have an aching pain in her heart. She used to say: “You have no guide now, my son, and you still need one so much”. When she knows that I have You!»

«I will love you as no other man could possibly love you, I will love you so much, I do love you. Do not disappoint Me.»

«No, Master, I will not. I was full of conflicts. Envy, jealousy, eagerness to excel, sensuality, everything clashed in me against the voice of my conscience. Even quite recently, see? You caused me to suffer. That is: no, not You. It was my wicked nature… I thought I was Your first disciple… and, now You have just told me that You already have one.»

«You saw him yourself. Do you not remember that at Passover I was in the Temple with many Galileans?»

«I thought they were friends… I thought I was the first one to be chosen for such destiny, and that I was therefore the dearest.»

«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.»

• Conversations between Jesus and Judas
• Judas de Kérioth (apostle)

71.1 I see Jesus with Judas Iscariot walking up and down near one of the gates of the Temple enclosure.

«Are You sure he will come?» asks Judas.

«I am certain. He was leaving Bethany at dawn and at Gethsemane he was to meet My first disciple…»

• John of Zebedee (apostle)
• Lazare
• Simon the Zealot (apostle)