Sanhedrin, high priests and Pharisees

Look, Mary; listen, My children. Simeon waited all his long life before ‘seeing the Light’ and before knowing that God’s promise was fulfilled. But he never doubted. He never said to himself: ‘It is useless to persevere in hoping and praying’. He just persevered. And he deserved ‘to see’ what neither the priest nor the proud and dull members of the Sanhedrin saw: the Son of God, the Messiah, the Saviour in the flesh of a Child Who warmed him and smiled at him. He received the smile of God from the lips of a Child, his first reward for an honest and pious life.

• Doubt
• Hope - Espoir
• Loyalty
• Perseverance
• Prayer
• Sanhedrin

33.4 It is not a grand vision and it may be considered quite useless, if compared with the other visions, as it does not reveal anything special. I know. But it is a real grace to me and I consider it such, because it makes my spirit placid, pure, loving, as if it were created again by Mother’s hands. I think that you will like it as well, in that sense. We are «little children». Better thus! Jesus likes us. Let the others, who are learned and complicated, think what they like and let them say that we are «childish». We do not mind, do we?

• Effects of reading the Work
• Modern self-righteousness (quibbling and bickering)

They had gone together to Jerusalem, because the Messiah was to be the King of Jerusalem, the King of the Jews. But over the sky of that city, the star had concealed itself and they felt their hearts breaking with pain and had examined themselves to understand whether they had failed to deserve God. But when their consciences reassured them, they had turned to king Herod and had asked him in which royal palace the King of the Jews was born because they had come to adore Him. And the king had gathered the chief priests and the scribes and had asked them where the Messiah might be born. And they had replied: «In Bethlehem, in Judah.»

• Scribes

35.7 Jesus says:

«And also this series of visions ends in this way. With the permission of “the exacting doctors” we have been showing you the scenes which preceded, accompanied and followed My coming. And we did so, not for their own sake, as they are well known, although they have been distorted by elements superimposed throughout the centuries, always as a consequence of the mentality of men, who in order to give greater praise to God — and are therefore forgiven — make unreal what would be so lovely to leave real. Such way of seeing things in their reality does not diminish My Humanity or Mary’s, neither does it offend My Divinity or the Majesty of the Father or the Love of the Most Holy Trinity. On the contrary, the merits of My Mother and My perfect humility shine brightly and so does the omnipotent kindness of the Eternal Lord. But we have shown you these scenes in order to be able to apply the supernatural meaning deriving from them to you and to other people and give it to you as a rule of life.

The Decalogue is the Law; and My Gospel is the Doctrine that makes the Law clearer for you and more loving to follow. The Law and My Doctrine would be sufficient to make saints of men.

But you are so hampered by your humanity — it really overwhelms your souls too much — that you cannot follow My ways and you fall; or you stop disheartened. You go on saying to yourselves and to those who would like to assist you, quoting the examples of the Gospel for you: ‘But Jesus, but Mary, but Joseph (and so on for all the saints) were not like us. They were strong, they were immediately comforted in their sorrow, also in the little sorrow which they experienced, they did not feel passion. They were already beings out of this world’.

35.8 That little sorrow! They did not feel passion!

Sorrow has been our faithful friend and it had all the most varied forms and names.

Passion… do not use a word wrongly, by calling passion the vices which mislead you. Be honest and call them ‘vices’, and capital ones in addition. It is not true that we did not know them. We had eyes to see and ears to hear, and Satan caused those vices to dance in front of us and around us, showing them to us with their heap of filth in action, or tempting us with his insinuations. But, since we firmly wanted to please God, his filth and insinuations, instead of achieving the purpose intended by Satan, obtained the very opposite. And the more he worked, the more we took shelter in the light of God, disgusted as we were with the muddy darkness he showed to the eyes of our bodies and of our souls.

But we did not ignore passions in our hearts, in their philosophical setting. We loved our country, and in our country we loved our little Nazareth above every other town in Palestine. We were fond of our house, of our relatives and friends. Why should we not? We did not become slaves to our feelings because nothing is to be our master except God. But our feelings were made good companions.

• Humanity of men
• Modern self-righteousness (quibbling and bickering)

I only wish to speak about the last vision, and omit the rest, because in any case, it is useless, as the world does not want to hear the truth concerning it. The last vision clarifies a detail quoted twice in the Gospel by Matthew, a sentence which is repeated twice: ‘Get up, take the Child and His Mother with you, and escape into Egypt’; ‘Get up, take the Child and His Mother with you and go back to the land of Israel’. And you saw that Mary was by Herself in Her room with the Child.

Mary’s virginity after Her delivery and Joseph’s chastity have been strongly denied by those who being putrid mud themselves, are not prepared to admit that one like them can be as pure and clear as light. They are wretched people whose souls are so corrupted and their minds so prostituted to the flesh, that they are incapable of thinking that one like them can respect a woman seeing in her not her flesh but her soul, neither can they elevate themselves to live in a supernatural atmosphere, craving not for what is flesh, but only for what is God.

Well, I wish to tell those deniers of the most beautiful things, those worms incapable of becoming butterflies, those reptiles covered with the slavery of their own lewdness, incapable of understanding the beauty of a lily, I wish to tell them that Mary was and remained a virgin, and that only Her soul was married to Joseph, exactly as Her spirit was united only to the Spirit of God by Whose deed She conceived Her Only Son: I, Jesus Christ, the Only Begotton Son of the Father and of Mary.

This is not a tradition embellished afterwards, out of loving respect for the Blessed Virgin Who was My Mother. It is the truth and has been known since early times.

Matthew was not born after centuries. He was a contemporary of Mary. Matthew was not a poor ignorant man brought up in a forest and likely to believe any idle story. He was a clerk in the taxation office, as you would say nowadays, he was an excise man, as we said then. He could see, hear, understand, and distinguish truth from lies. Matthew did not hear things reported by third parties. He heard them directly from Mary’s lips to Whom he turned for information, prompted by his love for his Master and for the truth.

I do not believe that those repudiators of Mary’s inviolability will dare think that She may have lied. My own relatives could have given Her the lie, had there been other children: James, Judas, Simon and Joseph were disciples together with Matthew. Therefore Matthew could have easily compared their versions, had there been more than one. But Matthew does not say: ‘Get up and take your wife’. He says: ‘Take His Mother’. Before he says: ‘A virgin betrothed to Joseph’; ‘Joseph Her spouse’.

35.11 Neither those repudiators of Purity should tell Me that it was a way of speaking particular to the Jews, as if to say ‘wife’ was a disgrace. No, deniers of Purity. At the very beginning of the Bible we read: ‘And he will join himself to his wife’. She is called ‘companion’ up to the moment of the sensual consummation of the marriage, and afterwards she is called ‘wife’ in various circumstances and in different chapters. And these are the expressions referred to the wives of the sons of Adam. And so Sarah is called the ‘wife’ of Abraham: ‘Sarah your wife’. And: ‘Take your wife and your two daughters’ is said of Lot. And in the book of Ruth states: ‘The Moabitess, the wife of Mahalon’. And the first book of the Kings says: ‘Elkanah had two wives’. And further on: ‘Elkanah then had intercourse with his wife Hannah’; and again: ‘Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife’. And again the Book of the Kings says: ‘Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, became the wife of David and bore him a son’. And what do you read in the blue book of Tobias, what the Church sings to you at your wedding, to advise you to be holy in your marriage? You read: ‘Now when Tobias arrived with his wife and his son…’; and again: ‘Tobias succeeded in escaping with his son and with his wife’.

And in the Gospels, that is in times contemporary with Christ, when therefore they wrote in a modern style of language, as compared to the ancient kind, and therefore no error of transcription could be suspected, Matthew wrote in Chapter 22: ‘… and the first, after marrying his wife died and left his wife to his brother’. And Mark in Chapter 10: ‘The man who divorces his wife…’. And Luke called Elizabeth the wife of Zacharias for four times running, and in the eighth Chapter of his Gospel he says: ‘Johanna, the wife of Chuza’.

As you can see, this name was not a word banished by those who walked in the ways of the Lord, it was not an impure word not worthy of being uttered and least of all written when there was a mention of God and of His wonderful work. And the angel, saying: ‘The Child and His Mother’, proves to you that Mary was His real Mother. But She was not a wife of Joseph. She remained forever: ‘The virgin betrothed to Joseph’.

And this is the last teaching of the vision. And it is a halo which shines on the heads of Mary and Joseph. The Inviolate Virgin. The just and chaste man. The two lilies amongst whom I grew up, receiving only the perfume of purity.

• Chastity of Saint Joseph
• Modern self-righteousness (quibbling and bickering)
• Virginity of the Virgin Mary

40.4 They give Jesus three different rolls saying: «Read the one closed with the golden ribbon.»

Jesus opens the roll and reads. It is the Decalogue. But after the first few words, one of the judges takes the roll from Him saying: «Go on by heart.» Jesus continues so sure of Himself, that He seems to be reading. Every time He mentions the Lord, He bows down deeply.

«Who taught You that? Why do You do that?»

«Because that Name is holy and it is to be pronounced with a sign of internal and external respect. Subjects bow down to their king, who is king only for a short time and he is dust. To the King of kings, the Most High Lord of Israel, Who is present even if He is only visible to the spirit, shall not every creature bow down since every creature depends on Him with eternal subjection?»

«Very clever! Man: we advise you to have your Son educated either by Hillel or Gamaliel. He is a Nazarene… but His answers give us hope that He will become a new great doctor.»

«My Son is of age. He will decide according to His own will. If His decision is an honest one, I will not oppose it.»

• Gamaliel
• Hillel
• Joseph of Jacob (Saint Joseph)

• Gamaliel
• Hillel
• Jesus Christ
• Jesus as a child
• Locations - Jerusalem
• Places - Jerusalem Temple
• Schiammaï - Chammaï (great doctor of Israel)
• Summary of EMV

41.2 … When I awake with its memory in my heart, after I have recovered some of my strength and my mind is at peace, because they are all asleep, I find myself in a place which I have never seen before. There are yards and fountains and porches and houses, or rather pavilions, because they look more like pavilions than houses. There is a large crowd of people dressed in the ancient style of the Jews, and there is a lot of bawling. When I look around I realise I am inside the large building which Jesus was looking at, because I see the embattled wall surrounding it, the tower watching over it and the imposing building that rises in the centre, and around which there are beautiful and large porches, where many people are intent on activities.

I understand that I am in the enclosure of the Temple in Jerusalem. I see Pharisees in long flowing dresses, priests dressed in linen and wearing precious plates at the top of their chests and on their foreheads and with other sparkling points here and there on their varied robes, which are very wide and white, tied to their waists by precious belts. There are also others with fewer decorations, but they must still belong to the sacerdotal caste and are surrounded by younger disciples. I realise that they are the doctors of the Law.

41.3 Among all these people I am lost, because I do not know why or what I am doing there. I go near a group of doctors where they have just started a theological dispute. Many people do the same.

Amongst the «doctors» there is a group headed by one whose name is Gamaliel and by another old and almost blind man who is supporting Gamaliel in the dispute. This man, whose name I hear is Hillel (I am writing it with an «h» because I hear an aspiration at the beginning of the name) seems to be a teacher or relative of Gamaliel, because the latter treats him with familiarity and respect at the same time. Gamaliel’s group is more broad-minded, whereas another group, and it is more numerous, is led by one whose name is Shammai, and is noticeable for its conservative, resentful intolerance the Gospel has clarified so well.

Gamaliel, surrounded by a compact group of disciples, is speaking of the coming of the Messiah, and founding his observations on Daniel’s prophecy, he states that the Messiah must have already been born, because the seventy prophesied weeks, from the time the decree of the reconstruction of the Temple was issued, expired some ten years before. Shammai opposes him stating that, if it is true that the Temple has been rebuilt, it is also true that the slavery of Israel has increased and the peace, which He Whom the prophets called «Prince of Peace» was to bring, is quite far from being in the world and in particular is far from Jerusalem. The town is in fact oppressed by an enemy who is so bold as to exert his domination inside the enclosure of the Temple, dominated by the Antonia Tower, full of Roman legionaries, ready to put down with their swords any riot that may break out for the independence of the country.

The dispute, full of captious objections, is dragged on endlessly. All the doctors show off their learning, not so much to beat their opponents as to display themselves to the admiration of the listeners. Their aims are quite obvious.

41.4 From the close group of the believers the clear voice of a boy is heard: «Gamaliel is right.»

There is a stir in the crowd and in the group of doctors. They look for the interrupter. But it is not necessary to search for him, because he does not hide. He makes his way through the crowd and goes near the group of the «rabbis». I recognise my Jesus adolescent. He is sure of Himself and open-hearted, His eyes are sparkling with intelligence.

«Who are You?», they ask Him.

«I am a son of Israel, who has come to fulfil what the Law prescribes .»

His bold and frank reply is appreciated and it gains Him smiles of approval and favour. They take an interest in the young Israelite.

«What is Your name?»

«Jesus of Nazareth.»

The feeling of benevolence fades away in Shammai’s group. But Gamaliel, more benignly, continues his conversation with Hillel. It is indeed Gamaliel who with respect suggests to the old man: «Ask the boy something.»

«On what do You base Your certainty?» asks Hillel.

(I will now put the names in front of the replies for the sake of brevity and clarity.)

Jesus: «On the prophecy which cannot be wrong about the time and the signs which took place at the time it came true. It is true that Caesar dominates us, but the world and Palestine were in such peace when the seventy weeks expired, that it was possible for Caesar to order the census in his dominions. Had there been wars in the Empire and riots in Palestine, he would not have been able to do so. Just as that time was completed, so the other period of sixty-two weeks plus one from the completion of the Temple is also being completed, so that the Messiah may be anointed and the remainder of the prophecy may come true for the people who did not want Him. Can you doubt that? Do you not remember the star that was seen by the Wise Men from the East, which stopped over the sky in Bethlehem of Judah and that the prophecies and the visions, from Jacob onwards, indicate that place as the one destined as the birthplace of the Messiah, son of the son of Jacob’s son, through David who was from Bethlehem? Do you not remember Balaam? ‘A Star will be born of Jacob’. The Wise Men from the East, whose purity and faith opened their eyes and ears, saw the Star and understood its Name: ‘Messiah’, and they came to worship the Light that had descended into the world.»

41.5 Shammai, glaring at Him: «Do you mean that the Messiah was born in Bethlehem-Ephrathah at the time of the Star?»

Jesus: «I do.»

Shammai: «Then he no longer exists. Don’t you know, Child, that Herod had all the born of woman, from one day up to the age of two years, slaughtered in Bethlehem and surrondings? You, Who are so wise in the Scriptures, must also know this: ‘A voice is heard in Ramah… it is Rachel weeping for her children’. The valleys and the hills in Bethlehem, which gathered the tears of the dying Rachel, were left full of tears, and the mothers have wept again on their slaughtered children. Amongst them, there certainly was the Mother of the Messiah.»

Jesus: «You are wrong, old man. The weeping of Rachel turned into a hosanna, because there, where she gave birth to ‘the son of her sorrow’, the new Rachel has given the world the Benjamin of the Heavenly Father, the Son of His right hand, Him Who is destined to gather the people of God under His sceptre and free it from the most dreadful slavery.»

Shammai: «How can that be, if He was killed?»

Jesus: «Have you not read about Elijah? He was carried off by the chariot of fire. And could the Lord God not have saved his Emmanuel so that He might be the Messiah of his people? He, Who parted the sea in front of Moses, that Israel might walk on dry ground towards its land, could He not have sent His angels to save His Son, His Christ, from the ferocity of man? I solemnly tell you: the Christ is alive and is amongst you, and when His hour comes, He will show Himself in His power.» Jesus, in saying these words, which I have underlined, has a sharp sound in His voice which fills the air. His eyes are brighter than ever, and with the gesture of command and promise He stretches out His right arm and hand and lowers them as if He were swearing. He is a boy, but is as solemn as a man.

41.6 Hillel: «Child, who taught you these words?»

Jesus: «The Spirit of God. I have no human teacher. This is the Word of the Lord Who speaks to you through My lips.»

Hillel: «Come near us that I may see You, Child, and my hope may be revived by Your faith and my soul enlightened by the brightness of Yours.»

And they make Jesus sit on a high stool between Gamaliel and Hillel and they give Him some rolls to read and explain. It is a proper examination. The people throng and listen.

Jesus reads in His clear voice: «Be consoled, my people. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call to her that her time of service is ended… A voice cries in the wilderness: ‘Prepare a way for the Lord… then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed…»’

Shammai: «See that, Nazarene. It refers here to an ended slavery, but never before have we been slaves as we are now. And there is the mention of a precursor. Where is he? You are talking nonsense.»

Jesus: «I tell you that the admonition of the Precursor should be addressed to you more than anyone else. To you and those like you. Otherwise you will not see the glory of the Lord, neither will you understand the word of God because meanness, pride and falsehood will prevent you from seeing and hearing.»

Shammai: «How dare You speak to a master like that?»

Jesus: «I speak thus. And thus I shall speak until My death, because above Me there are the interests of the Lord and the love for Truth of which I am the Son. And I add, rabbi, that the slavery of which the Prophet speaks, and of which I am speaking, is not the one you think, neither is the royalty the one you consider. On the contrary, by the merits of the Messiah, man will be made free from the slavery of Evil, which separates him from God, and the sign of Christ will be on the spirits, freed from every yoke and made subjects of the eternal kingdom. All the nations will bend their heads, o household of David, before the Shoot born of you and which will grow into a tree that covers the whole world and rises up to Heaven. And in Heaven and on the earth every mouth will praise His Name and bend its knee before the Anointed of God, the Prince of Peace, the Leader, before Him Who by giving Himself will fill with joy and nourishment every disheartened and famishing soul, before the Holy One Who will establish an alliance between Heaven and earth. Not like the Covenant made with the Elders of Israel when God led them out of Egypt, treating them still as servants, but infusing a heavenly paternity into the souls of men with the Grace instilled once again by the merits of the Redeemer, through Whom all good people will know the Lord and the Sanctuary of God will no longer be demolished and destroyed.»

Shammai: «Do not blaspheme, Child! Remember Daniel. He states that after the death of Christ, the Temple and the Town will be destroyed by a people and a leader who will come from afar. And You declare that the sanctuary of God will no longer be demolished! Respect the Prophets!»

Jesus: «I solemnly tell you that there is Someone Who is above the Prophets, and you do not know Him and you will not know Him because you do not want to. And I tell you that what I said is true. The true Sanctuary will not be subject to death. But like its Sanctifier it will rise to eternal life and at the end of the world it will live in Heaven.»

41.7 Hillel: «Listen to me, Child. Haggai says: ‘… The One Expected by the nations will come… great then shall be the glory of this house, and of this last one more than of the previous one’. Does he perhaps refer to the Sanctuary of which You are speaking?»

Jesus: «Yes, master. That is what he means. Your honesty leads you towards the Light and I tell you: when the sacrifice of Christ is accomplished, you shall have peace because you are an Israelite without wickedness.»

Gamaliel: «Tell me, Jesus. How can the peace of which the Prophets speak be hoped for, if destruction is going to come to these people by war? Speak and enlighten me as well.»

Jesus: «Do you not remember, master, what those said who were present on the night of Christ’s birth? That the angels sang: ‘Peace to men of goodwill’ but these people are not of goodwill and will not have peace. They will not acknowledge their King, the Just Man, the Saviour, because they expect Him to be a king with human power, whereas He is the King of the spirit. They will not love Him, because they will not like what Christ preaches. Christ will not defeat their enemies with their chariots and their horses, He will instead defeat the enemies of the soul, who endeavour to imprison in hell the heart of man which was created for the Lord. And this is not the victory Israel is expecting from Him. Your King will come, Jerusalem, riding a ‘donkey and a colt’, that is, the just people of Israel and the Gentiles. But I tell you, that the colt will be more faithful to Him and will follow Him preceding the donkey and will grow in the ways of Truth and Life. Because of its evil will, Israel will lose its peace and suffer for centuries and will cause its King to suffer and will make Him the King of sorrow of Whom Isaiah speaks.»

41.8 Shammai: «Your mouth tastes of milk and blasphemy at the same time, Nazarene. Tell me: where is the Precursor? When will we have him?»

Jesus: «He is. Does not Malachi say: ‘Here I am going to send My messenger to prepare the way before Me; and the Lord you are seeking will suddenly enter His Temple, and the angel of the Covenant Whom you are longing for’? Therefore the Precursor immediately precedes Christ. He already is, as Christ is. If years should elapse between him who prepares the ways for the Lord and Christ, all the ways would become obstructed and twisted again. God knows and arranges beforehand that the Precursor should precede the Master by one hour only. When you see this Precursor, you will be able to say: ‘The mission of Christ is beginning’. And I say to you: Christ will open many eyes and many ears when He comes this way. But He will not open yours or those of people like you, because you will be putting to death Him Who is bringing you Life. But when the Redeemer sits on His throne and on His altar, higher up than this Temple, higher than the Tabernacle enclosed in the Holy of the Holies, higher up than the Glory supported by the Cherubim, maledictions for the deicides and life for the Gentiles will flow from His thousands and thousands of wounds, because He, o master who are unaware of it, is not, I repeat, is not the king of a human kingdom, but of a spiritual Kingdom and His subjects will be only those who for His sake will learn to regenerate in the spirit and, like Jonah, after being born, will learn to be born again, on other shores: ‘The shores of God’, by means of a spiritual regeneration which will take place through Christ, Who will give humanity true Life.»

41.9 Shammai and his followers: «This Nazarene is Satan!»

Hillel and his followers: «No. This child is a Prophet of God. Stay with me, Child. My old age will transfuse what I know into Your knowledge and You will be Master of the people of God.»

Jesus: «I solemnly tell you that if there were many like you, salvation would come to Israel. But My hour has not come. Voices from Heaven speak to Me and in solitude I must gather them until My hour comes. Then with My lips and My blood I will speak to Jerusalem, and the destiny of Prophets stoned and killed by her, will also be My destiny. But above My life there is the Lord God, to Whom I submit Myself as a faithful servant, to make of Myself a stool for His glory, waiting that He will make the world a stool at the feet of Christ. Wait for Me in My hour. These stones shall hear My voice again and vibrate hearing My last word. Blessed are those who in that voice will have heard God and believed in Him because of it. To them Christ will give that kingdom which your selfishness imagines to be a human one, whereas it is a heavenly one and therefore I say: ‘Here is Your servant, Lord, Who has come do to Your will. Let it be consummated, because I am eager to fulfil it’.»

And here, with the vision of Jesus with His face burning with spiritual ardour and raised to Heaven, His arms stretched out, standing upright in the midst of the astonished doctors, the vision ends.

• Bible - Gospel of Luke
• Gamaliel
• Hillel
• Jesus as a child
• Recovering Jesus in the Temple
• Schiammaï - Chammaï (great doctor of Israel)

• Defense of the Work
• Dictations of Jesus and the Virgin Mary in the EMV
• Excerpts from the 1985 edition
• Fight against the Work
• Health - Well-being - Comfort
• Modern self-righteousness (quibbling and bickering)
• Writing the Work

(...) Come, then, and see what there is in the House of God. You will see how even priests do not refuse to come to a compromise between the spirit and the flesh. After all, they are men and not angels. Work a spiritual miracle. I will take You up to the pinnacle of the Temple and You will undergo a transfiguration and become most handsome. You will then call the cohorts of angels and will tell them to form a footrest for Your feet with their interlaced wings, and to let You down, thus, into the main yard. So that people may see You, and remember that God exists. One must show oneself now and again, because man’s memory is so weak, especially with regard to spiritual matters. You can imagine how happy the angels will be in forming a protection for Your feet and a ladder for You to descend!»

«It is said: “You must not put the Lord your God to the test”.»

«You understand that Your apparition would not change anything and the Temple would continue to be a market full of corruption. Your divine wisdom is aware that the hearts of the ministers of the Temple are nests of vipers that tear and are torn to pieces for the sake of prevailing.

• Jerusalem Temple (spiritual state - teachings - various episodes)
• Pharisees
• Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God