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Jesus' entourage

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GRM 52.7

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

52.7 Jesus explains the meaning of the sentence to me.

«That “still”, which is omitted by many translators, is the keyword of the sentence and explains its true meaning.

I was the Son, submissive to My Mother, up to the moment when the will of My Father told Me that the hour had come when I was to be the Master. From the moment My mission started, I was no longer the Son submissive to My Mother, but I was the Servant of God. My moral ties with My Mother were broken. They had turned into higher bonds, all of a spiritual nature. I always called Mary, My Holy “Mother”. Our love suffered no interruptions, neither did it even cool down, on the contrary, it was never so perfect as when I was separated from Her as by a second birth and She gave Me to the world and for the world, as the Messiah and Evangeliser. Her third sublime mystical maternity took place when She bore Me to the cross in the torture of Golgotha, and made Me the Redeemer of the world.

“What is there still between Me and You?” Before I was Yours, only Yours. You gave Me orders, and I obeyed You. I was “subject” to You. Now I belong to My mission.

Did I not say: “He, who lays his hand on the plough and looks back to bid farewell to those who are staying, is not fit for the Kingdom of God”? I had laid My hand on the plough not to cut the ground with the plough, but to open the hearts of men and sow there the word of God. I was to take My hand away from the plough only when they would tear it away to nail it to the Cross and to open with My torturing nail My Father’s heart, out of which forgiveness for mankind was to flow.

That “still”, forgotten by most, meant this: “You were everything for Me, Mother, as long as I was only Jesus of Mary of Nazareth, and You are everything in My spirit; but since I became the expected Messiah, I belong to My Father. Wait for a little while and once My mission is over, I will be, once again, entirely Yours; You will hold Me once again in Your arms, as when I was a little child, and no one will ever again contend with You for Your Son, considered as the disgrace of mankind, that will throw His mortal remains at You, to bring on You the shame of being the mother of a criminal. And afterwards You will have Me once again, triumphant, and finally You will have Me forever when You are triumphant in Heaven. But now I belong to all these men. And I belong to the Father, Who sent Me to them”.

That is the sense of that short but so full of meaning “still”.»

Detail

Objection raised: The "henceforth" is not found in the Gospel.

Second edition notes on the passage *This henceforth that many translators pass over in silence: in translating the words that can be read in Jn 2:4.

GRM 52.9

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

52.9 Jesus teaches me as follows:

«When I said to the disciples: “Let us go and make My Mother happy”, I had given the sentence a deeper meaning than it seemed. I did not mean the happiness of seeing Me, but the joy of being the initiator of My miraculous activity and the first benefactress of mankind.

Always remember that. My first miracle occurred because of Mary. The very first one. It is a symbol that Mary is the key to miracles. I never refuse My Mother anything and because of Her prayer I bring forward also the time of grace. I know My Mother, the second in goodness after God. I know that to grant you a grace is to make Her happy, because She is All Love. That is why I said, knowing Her: “Let us go and make Her happy”.

Besides, I wanted to make Her power known to the world, together with Mine. Since She was destined to be joined to Me in the flesh, it was fair She should be joined to Me in the power that is shown to the world. Because we were one flesh: I in Her, She around Me, like the petals of a lily round its scented lively pistil; and She was united to Me in sorrow: because we were both on the cross, I with My body, She with Her soul, as a lily is scented because of its corolla and because of the essence extracted from it.

I say to you what I said to the guests: “Thank Mary. It is through Her that you had with you the Master of the miracle and you have My graces, particularly those of forgiveness”.

Rest in peace. We are with you.

GRM 53

The Gospel as revealed to me

Detail

Jesus, James, John, Andrew, Peter, Philip and Bartholomew go to the Temple. But it's a real fair, where the Temple merchants are usurers of the poorest. An old couple is bullied by a shopkeeper, and Jesus tells them that their behavior is not right: the shopkeeper must give them a better lamb. The man doesn't listen, and Jesus, faced with all the commotion in the Temple, becomes terrible. He builds a whip and overturns the tables and the money on them. The priests arrive and ask him who he is and why he is doing this. Jesus replies that he is the One who can, and that if the true Temple is destroyed, he will raise it up. He promises that they will know him and where he comes from. The Master then gives a speech in the Temple, recalling words from Deuteronomy. He reminds us that we must be fair to the poor, and that priests must have purity and charity as their wealth, not purely material wealth. God the Father is their inheritance. Finally, he invites everyone to follow him, for the hour of grace has come.

GRM 53

The Gospel as revealed to me

Detail

Although he is not named, Judas is present during the purification of the Temple and will come to Christ because of this episode.

GRM 53.1-2

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

53.1 I see Jesus entering the enclosure of the Temple with Peter, Andrew, John, James, Philip and Bartholomew. There is a very large crowd both inside and outside the enclosure. Pilgrims are arriving in flocks from every part of the town.

From the top of the hill on which the Temple is built, one can see the narrow twisted streets of the town, swarming with people. It seems as though a mobile, multi-coloured ribbon has been laid between the white houses. The town looks like a rare toy indeed, a toy made of gaily-coloured ribbons between two white threads, all converging onto the point where the domes of the House of the Lord are shining.

Inside it is… a real market. The concentration of a holy place has been destroyed. Some run, some call, some bargain for lambs, shouting and cursing because of the extortionate prices, some drive the poor bleating animals into their enclosures (rough partitions made of ropes and pegs, at the entrance of which stand the merchants or owners, awaiting buyers). Blows with cudgels, bleatings, curses, shouts, insults to the boys who are not quick in gathering together or selecting the animals, abuses to the purchasers who haggle over prices or who go away, more serious insults to those who wisely brought their own lambs.

Near the benches of the money-changers there is more bawling. It is obvious that either always, or at Passover time, the Temple operated as a… stock exchange or black market. There was no fixed rate of exchange. There must have been a legal rate, but the money-changers imposed a different one, making whatever profit they fancied for exchanging the money. And I can assure you they were not joking in their usury transactions!… The poorer the people were and the farther they came from, the more they were fleeced: old people more than young people, those coming from beyond Palestine more than the old folk.

Some poor old men looked over and over again at the money they had saved in a whole year, I wonder with how much hard work, they took it out and put it back into their purses dozens and dozens of times, going from one money-changer to another and at times ending up by going back to the first one, who took avenge for their original desertion by increasing the premium for the exchange. And the big coins passed from the hands of the sighing owners into the clutches of the usurers and were changed into smaller coins. Then a further tragedy would take place with vendors over the choice and payment of their lambs, and the poor old men, particularly if they were half blind, were fobbed off with the most wretched little lambs.

53.2 I see an old couple, man and wife, come back pushing a poor little lamb which must have been found faulty by the sacrificers. They cried and begged the vendor, who, far from being moved, replied with nasty words and rude manners.

«Considering what you want to spend, Galileans, the lamb I gave you is even too good. Go away! Or if you want a better one, you must pay five more coins.»

«In the name of God! We are poor and old! Are you going to prevent us from celebrating this Passover which may be our last one? Are you not satisfied with what you wanted for a poor little lamb?»

«Go away, you filthy lot. Joseph the Elder is now coming here. I enjoy his favour. God be with you, Joseph! Come and make your choice!»

The man whose name is Joseph the Elder, that is Joseph of Arimathea, enters the enclosure and picks a magnificent lamb. He passes by, stately and proud, magnificently dressed, without even looking at the poor old people weeping at the gate, that is the enclosure entrance. He almost bumps into them when he goes out with the fat, bleating lamb.

Detail

Joseph of Arimathea appears in 53.2. The description of the Temple has also been added for a better understanding of the context.

GRM 54

The Gospel as revealed to me

Detail

Jesus is at the olive grove in Gethsemane. The master of the house - Jonah - tells Christ that three men are waiting for him, including one who is presumably sick and a leper. Jesus goes to the latter first: it's Simon the Zealot, asking for healing. The Savior grants his wish, and the future apostle is completely healed. Then he turns his attention to the two newcomers: Judas of Keroth and Thomas. The former ardently wants to follow the Savior, to share in his glory "according to Heaven". But Jesus asks him to think it over and refuses to take him on straight away. He thinks he's being impulsive, but doesn't believe in his constancy. Jesus asks him to discern and tells him that he will be in the Temple for Pentecost. Thomas, for his part, wants to follow him too, but is frightened by the words spoken to Judas. Jesus reassures him, saying that presumption is ruin, but that fear coupled with humility can be a help. After the disciple has left, Jesus explains to John and the others why he has made a difference between the two disciples. Thomas is in this sense more perfect, because he wants to follow him out of love, not because of a desire for human glory. All the disciples present then affirm that they love Jesus, and when they ask if they are perfect, Jesus explains that God alone is perfect, but that they will become so if they persist in their will to love.

After speaking of his nature as the Word of God, and his perfection as the God-Man, Jesus describes himself as the Son of Man. He then answers Peter's question about Jude's absence, and answers Andrew's question about why he performed a miracle in Cana and not in his homeland. The Lord also speaks of his Mother.

Finally, Christ welcomes Dydymus, who has retraced his steps, and thus welcomes Thomas among his disciples.

GRM 54.1

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

It must still be Passover time, because there is always a lot of people in town.

It is evening and many people are hurrying home. Jesus also goes towards the house where He is a guest. It is not the house of the last Supper, which is in town, although not far from its walls. This house, instead, is a real country house, amongst thick olive-trees. From the rustic open space in front of the house one can see the olive-trees down the terraces of the hill, right down to a little torrent, with very little water, which flows away along the valley formed by two hills: on the top of one there is the Temple, on the other hill there are only olive-trees. Jesus is at the first slopes of the latter hill, which rises smoothly, completely covered with peaceful trees.

«John, there are two men awaiting your friend» says an elderly man, who must be the farmer or the owner of the olive-grove. I would say that John knows him.

«Where are they? Who are they?»

«I don’t know. One is certainly a Judaean. The other… I don’t know. I didn’t ask him.»

«Where are they?»

«In the kitchen, waiting, and… and… yes… there is another man who is all covered with sores. I made him stay over there, because I am afraid he may be a leper. He says he wants to see the Prophet Who spoke in the Temple.»

Jesus, Who up to this moment had been silent, says: «Let us go to him first. Tell the others to come if they so wish. I will speak to them there, in the olive-grove.» And He makes for the place indicated by the man.

«And what about us? What shall we do?» asks Peter.

«Come, if you want.»

GRM 54.2-3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

A man, muffled up, is leaning against the rustic wall supporting a terrace, the nearest to the boundary of the property. He must have climbed up there along a path coasting the torrent.

When he sees Jesus approaching him, he shouts: «Go back. Back! Have mercy on me!» And he uncovers his trunk dropping his tunic to the ground. If his face is covered with scabs, his trunk is one big sore. Some of the sores have already become deep wounds, some are like burns, some are whitish and glossy, as if there was a thin white pane of glass on them.

«Are you a leper? What do you want of Me?»

«Don’t curse me! Don’t stone me. I have been told that the other evening You revealed Yourself as the Voice of God and the Bearer of Grace. I was also told that You gave assurance that by raising Your Sign, You will cure all diseases. Please raise it on me. I have come from the sepulchres… over there… I crept like a snake amongst the bushes near the torrent to reach here without being seen. I waited until evening before leaving because at dusk it is more difficult to see who I am. I dared… I found this man, the man of the house, he is good. He did not kill me. He only said: “Wait over there, near the little wall”. Have mercy on me” and as Jesus is going near him, all by Himself, because the six disciples and the landlord, as well as the two strangers, are far away and are evidently disgusted, he adds: «Don’t come nearer. Don’t! I am infected!» But Jesus proceeds. He looks at him so mercifully, that the man starts crying and kneels down almost touching the ground with his face, moaning: «Your Sign! Your Sign!»

«It will be raised when it is time. But now I say to you: Stand up. Be healed. I want it. And be the sign in this town that must recognise Me. Rise, I say. And do not sin, out of gratitude to God!»

The man rises slowly. He seems to emerge from the long flowery grass as from a shroud… and is healed. He looks at himself in the last dim light of the day. He is healed. He shouts: «I am clean! Oh! What shall I do for You now?»

«You must comply with the Law. Go to the priest. Be good in future. Go.»

The man is on the point of throwing himself at Jesus’ feet, but he remembers he is still impure, according to the Law, and he restrains himself. But he kisses his own hand, and throws a kiss to Jesus and weeps. He weeps out of joy.

54.3

The others are dumbfounded. Jesus turns away from the healed man and rouses them smiling. «My friends, it was only a leprosy of the flesh. But you will see leprosy fall from hearts. (...) »

Detail

Simon the Zealot is healed of leprosy. Six disciples are present: John and James of Zebedee, Peter and Andrew, Philip and Nathanael.