Skip to content

Notes for this theme

Reprobates and slaves welcomed by Jesus

Page 22 of 34

Reading comfort

Aa

GRM 168.1-10

The Gospel as revealed to me

Detail

Mary is alone in Nazareth. A knock at the door. It's Aglaia asking for mercy in Jesus' name. Mary immediately welcomes her, but the young woman is in tears. She considers herself a nobody, but the Virgin gives her confidence and invites her to speak.

Aglaé confessed her whole life. She talks about her youth, her parents, her attraction to the shows in Syracuse. She tells of a Roman patrician in front of whom she danced almost naked. She confesses to having followed him to Rome, where she led a life of debauchery. The patrician having grown weary, she survived by exploiting her dancing talents. A dancing master took her in, perfected her art, then threw her into the corrupt patriarchy of Rome. Eventually, she was brought to Palestine, and her new master led her to Hebron, where she discovered who Jesus was.

She fled a little later and found Jesus at Belle-Eau. She is the veiled woman. But soon the Master is attacked. He has to leave, and Aglaé waits for him, only to be spotted by the Pharisees. So she went to Nazareth, but the Virgin was nowhere to be seen. So she goes to Capernaum, where she is offered to be Christ's lover, but she doesn't dare present herself to the Lord in this way. The young woman goes to Nazareth and confesses everything to him.

Mary is shocked by her story, but assures her that everything begins for this repentant soul, and welcomes her into her home. The Virgin also assures her of Christ's forgiveness and says she will entrust her to a friendly family. In the meantime, Aglaé will stay in Nazareth.

GRM 171

The Gospel as revealed to me

Detail

Jesus is still on the Horns of Hattin, continuing the Sermon on the Mount. First of all, the Lord reminds us that He does not change the Law one iota, because it was He Himself who gave it together with the Most Holy Trinity. However, Christ completes it, without overloading it as men do.

After defining the holy man, Christ goes on to say that he who follows one of the least commandments will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven, and he who violates one of the Commandments will be one of the least in the Celestial Kingdom. The Master warns against the righteousness of the Pharisees and scribes, and also warns people to beware of false prophets.

Jesus then returns to the subject of neighborly love, and outlines a number of features that we find in the Gospel: loving and forgiving, turning the other cheek, thinking that it is better for him to hit us than to hit someone who cannot bear it, and so on. He invites us to be generous, to give our tunic so that our brother doesn't commit a double theft if someone tries to steal something from us. Finally, Christ goes back on the saying: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth", replacing it with love, and encourages us to be perfect like our heavenly Father, not to get angry or hold a grudge against our neighbor, but to be reconciled with him.

When the Master concludes his discourse, Jesus speaks of someone who hates him, and who dares not ask for the miracle. But when his apostles question him, he tells them that the scales had fallen from his eyes, not from his heart.

GRM 173.1.5 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

Peter says something to Jesus Who makes a gesture as if He wanted to say: «It does not matter.» But I do not understand what the apostle says. Peter remains near Jesus and Judas Thaddeus and Matthew join him. The other apostles are scattered among the crowd.

[Jesus teaches the crowd to act in secret, so as not to receive praise from men. He wants us to do our acts of charity and almsgiving, then forget that we did it so that we don't become puffed up with pride].

« Forget about it. Forget about the action itself. A light, a sweet voice will always be present with you and will make your day bright, sweet and happy. Because that light will be the smile of God, the honey will be the spiritual peace, which still comes from God, and the voice will be the voice of God, the Father Who will say to you: “Thank you”. He sees the hidden evil and the concealed good and will give you a reward for them. I can…»

«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!»

GRM 174.3 · Volume 3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

The severe looking Simon Zealot passes by; also Peter passes by; he is busy speaking to a dozen little children to whom he promises some olives if they keep quiet until the end of the sermon, and a thrashing if they disturb while the Master is speaking; the elderly serious Bartholomew passes by; Matthew and Philip pass carrying a cripple who would have to struggle too much to open his way through the crowd; also the cousins of the Lord pass by helping an almost blind beggar and a very old poor woman – I wonder how old she is – who weeps telling James all her troubles; James of Zebedee passes by holding in his arms a poor girl, who is certainly ill, and whom he has taken from her mother to ensure that she does not get hurt by the crowds, while the panting mother follows him; the last to pass by are Andrew and John, whom I would call the indivisible ones, because while John, in his serene simplicity of a holy child, is willing to go with his companions, Andrew, on account of his reservedness, prefers going with his old fishing companion and fellow disciple of the Baptist. They had stayed at the junction of the two main paths, to show people to their places, but there being no more pilgrims on the stony path of the mountain, the two have come together to go to the Master with the last offerings received.

Detail

Thomas and Judas are not named here, but they are looking after the pilgrims in EMV 174.2. They divide them into three groups: the sick, the poor and those awaiting teaching from Jesus.