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Notes for this theme

Disciples

Page 35 of 47

Reading comfort

Aa

GRM 167

The Gospel as revealed to me

Detail

Jesus arrives at Jeanne de Kouza's house. She comes running when she hears that the Master is there. There are her Roman friends: Lydia, Valeria and Plautina. The latter seems to be the most respected; Valeria is the one whose child Jesus saved in Caesarea. In any case, they all want to listen to him, to make up their own minds about this philosopher. Jeanne fears that Jesus won't get on with his guests, but Christ reassures her, and when they meet up again with the Romans, he starts from the subject of flowers - which these three women love very much - and begins to talk about immortality and the eternal life of the soul.

After Jesus takes care of little Fausta himself, the conversation continues on the philosophers currently living in Rome, who don't follow their teachings. Jesus then declares that they are not pagans, they are atheists, for they no longer even have gods in their hearts. However, other pagan philosophers had a great elevation of life, and always sought the Good at all costs.

When the Roman ladies ask Jesus if he is God, Christ replies that he is the Son of the true God, and the Savior criticizes Olympus, created by man's imagination, at length. He also speaks of the altar dedicated to the unknown god, which the wise and true philosophers have intuited. Jesus goes on to talk about Creation and the soul in particular, and encourages Lydia, Valeria and Plautina to ask questions. They do so - the subject remains fairly focused on the theme of immortality, the soul and the Master's divinity - and then, when they fear reprisals from their gods, Jesus reassures them that they don't exist.

Finally, he leaves, and Jeanne accompanies him home. She confides in him that Kouza wants her to return to Jerusalem, and the Messiah encourages her to obey, as this will make it easier for her to follow him.

GRM 167.1-2.15

The Gospel as revealed to me

Translation in progress

GRM 167.6

The Gospel as revealed to me

Translation in progress

GRM 168.10

The Gospel as revealed to me

Translation in progress

GRM 173.1 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

The Sermon of the Mount continues.

The crowd is growing larger and larger as the days go by. There are men, women, old people, children, rich and poor alike. The couple, Stephen and Hermas, is always present, although not yet associated with the old disciples led by Isaac. And there is also the new couple formed yesterday: the old man and the woman. They are at the very front, near their Comforter and they look much more cheerful than yesterday. The old man, to make up for the many months or years during which he was neglected by his daughter, has laid his wrinkled hand on the knees of the woman and she is caressing it out of the inborn instinct of a morally sound woman to be maternal.

Jesus passes near them to climb up to His rustic pulpit, and while passing He caresses the head of the old man who looks at Him as if he already saw Him as God.

GRM 173.5 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

«Master, You lie with Your own words!»

The sudden resentful remark comes from the centre of the crowd. They all turn around in the direction of the voice. There is some confusion.

Peter says: «I told You! Eh! When there is one of those over there… everything goes wrong!» Many people in the crowd hiss and grumble against the reviler.

Jesus is the only one who remains calm. He has folded His arms and is standing, tall as He is, on His rock, with the sun in front of Him, in His dark blue tunic.

The reviler, heedless of the reaction of the crowd, goes on: «You are a bad Master because You teach what You do not do and…»

«Be quiet! Go away! Shame!» shout the crowd. And again: «Go back to your Scribes! The Master is quite enough for us! Let the hypocrites go with the hypocrites! You false masters! Usurers!…» and they continue but Jesus thunders out: «Silence! Let him speak» and the crowds no longer shout but they whisper their insults glaring at him at the same time.

«Yes. You teach what You do not do. You told us that we should give alms without being seen, and yesterday in the presence of a whole crowd You said to two poor people: “Stay and I will appease your hunger”.»

«I said: “Let the two poor people stay here. They will be the blessed guests who will give flavour to our bread”. Nothing else. I did not say I wanted to satisfy their hunger. Which poor man has not at least some bread? It was My joy to extend our good friendship to them.»

«Of course! You are cunning and You can play the part of the lamb!…»

The old man stands up, turns around and raising his walking stick he shouts: «Infernal tongue who are accusing the Holy One, do you think that you know everything and that you can accuse Him of what you know? As you do not know who God is and who He is Whom you are insulting, so you do not know His deeds. Only the angels and my overjoyed heart know. Listen, men, listen everybody and see whether Jesus is the liar and the proud man as this traitor to the Temple is saying. He…»

«Be quiet, Ishmael! Be quiet for My sake! If I made you happy, please make Me happy by being silent» Jesus begs him.

«I obey You, Holy Son. But let me say only this: the blessing of an old faithful Israelite is on Him Who assisted me in the name of God and God put that blessing on my lips for me and for Sarah, my new daughter. But there will be no blessing on your head. I will not curse you. I will not foul, with a curse, my mouth which must say to God: “Receive me”. I did not do it to her who disowned me, and I have already received a divine reward for it. But there is One who will take the place of the Innocent you are accusing and of Ishmael, the friend of God, Who assists Him.»

A chorus of shouts closes the speech of the old man who sits down again, while a man sneaks away, followed by insults. The crowds then shout to Jesus: «Go on, go on, Holy Master! We will listen only to You. Listen to us, not to those cursed birds of evil omen! They are jealous, because we love You more than we love them! But You are holy, they are wicked. Go on, speak to us. You can see that we have no other wish but to hear You. Our homes, our business? They are nothing, we left them to hear You.»

«I will speak to you. But do not be upset by what happened. Pray for those poor people. Forgive them as I do. Because if you forgive men their faults, your Father Who is in Heaven will forgive you your sins as well. But if you bear men a grudge and do not forgive them, neither will your Father forgive you your shortcomings. And everybody needs to be forgiven.

Detail

Jesus is preaching. He is interrupted.

Annotation

Pierre grumbles: "I told you so! Hey, when there's one of those... nothing goes right!" He had in fact warned Jesus of the presence of this character in 173.1.

Jesus brings up this interruption the next day (in EMV 174).

"Be quiet, Ishmael! Be quiet for my sake" (...)

"This blessing God has put on my lips for me and for Sarah, my new daughter. "This is how we learn the names of the two unfortunates, Ishmael and Sarah, taken in the day before. See previous chapter.