Notes for this theme
Reading comfort
GRM 174.18 · Volume 3
An adulterer sins with regards to himself, he sins with regards to his accomplice, and sins causing the betrayed wife or husband to sin, they may in fact be led to despair or to commit a crime. That with regards to the accomplished sin. But I will say more. I say: “Not only the accomplished sin, but the desire to accomplish it is already a sin”.
GRM 174.18 · Volume 3
What is adultery? It is to crave for him, who is not ours, or for her, who is not ours. One begins to sin by wishing, continues by seduction, completes it by persuasion, crowns it by the deed.
How does one begin? Generally with an impure glance. And that is connected with what I said before. An impure eye sees what is concealed from a pure eye and through the eye thirst enters the throat, hunger enters the body and fever the blood. A carnal thirst, hunger, fever. Delirium begins. If the person looked at is honest, the delirious looker-on is left alone on tenterhooks, or will denigrate in revenge. If also the person looked at is dishonest, he will reply to the look and the descent into sin begins.
GRM 174.18 · Volume 3
(...) I therefore say to you: “If a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her because his thought has accomplished the deed of his desire”. If your right eye should cause you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to be without one eye than to be thrown into the infernal darkness forever. And if your right hand should cause you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, for it will do you less harm to lose one part, than you to have your whole body sent to hell.
GRM 174.19 · Volume 3
It has also been said to you: “Anyone who divorces his wife, must give her a writ of dismissal”. But that is to be condemned. for it does not come from God. God said to Adam: “This is the helpmate I made for you. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and conquer it”. And Adam, full of superior intelligence, because Sin had not yet dimmed his reason made perfect by God, exclaimed: “This at last is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh. This is to be called woman, that is: another I, because this was taken from man. This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife and the two become one body”. And in an increased splendour of light the Eternal Light approved smiling Adam’s word, which became the first indelible law. Now, if owing to the ever increasing hardness of man, the human lawgiver had to give a new law; if owing to the ever increasing inconstancy of man. the lawgiver had to put a restraint and say: “If you have dismissed her you cannot take her back”, that does not cancel the first genuine law, passed in the Earthly Paradise and approved by God.
We'll call her Virago. This Latin word comes from vir (man) and designates a woman who is like a man. It is not used here in the pejorative French sense of a shrill woman.
The human legislator here is Moses.
Deuteronomy 24, 1 and 24, 3-4
Dt 24, 1: When a man takes a wife and marries her, and she ceases to find favor in his eyes, because he discovers a blemish in her, he shall write her a letter of repudiation and give it to her, sending her away from his house.
Deut 24:3-4: But if the latter husband dislikes her, writes a letter of divorce for her and hands it over to him, sending her out of his house; or if the latter husband who took her as his wife dies, 4then the former husband who sent her away will not be able to divorce her.for it is an abomination before Yahweh, and you shall not sin in the land which Yahweh your God is giving you for an inheritance.
Book of Genesis 1, 28 and 2, 22-24
Gn 1, 28 : God blessed them and said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Be rulers over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every animal that comes and goes on the earth."
Gn 2, 22-24 : With the rib he had taken from the man, he fashioned a woman and brought her to the man. The man said: "This time, this is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh! She shall be called woman - Ishsha - who was taken from man - Ish." For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and the two will become one.
Gospel of Matthew 5, 31-32
Mt 5, 31-32 : It has also been said, "If anyone sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of repudiation. Well, I say to you, every man who sends away his wife, except in the case of an illegitimate union, leads her to adultery; and if anyone marries a woman who has been sent away, he is an adulterer.
GRM 174.19 · Volume 3
Before the original sin, Adam was "full of superior intelligence, because Sin had not yet dimmed his reason made perfect by God".
GRM 174.19 · Volume 3
I say to you: “Whoever divorces his wife, except for the case of fornication, exposes her to adultery”. Because what will the divorced woman do in ninety per cent of situations? She will get married again. With what consequences? Oh! How much there is to be said about that! Do you not know that you can cause involuntary incests by such system? How many tears are shed because of lust. Yes: lust. There is no other name for it. Be frank. Everything can be overcome when the spirit is righteous. But everything is an excuse to satisfy sensuality when the spirit is lustful. Woman’s frigidity, dullness, inability for housework, shrewish tongue, love for luxury, everything can be overcome, also diseases and irascibility, if one loves holily. But as after some time one does not love as on the first day, what is more than possible is considered impossible and a poor woman is thrown onto the road and to perdition.
He who rejects her commits adultery. He who marries her after divorce, commits adultery.
Death only dissolves a marriage. Remember that. And if your choice is an unhappy one bear the consequences as a cross, being both of you unhappy but holy, without making also the children unhappy, as they are innocent and suffer more because of such unfortunate situations. The love for your children should cause you to ponder one hundred times, also in the case of death of your partner. Oh! I wish you could be satisfied with what you already have had and to which God said: “Enough!” I wish you, widows and widowers, realised that death is not an attenuation but an elevation to the perfections of parents! To be a mother instead of a dead mother. To be a father instead of a deceased father. To be two souls in one and receive the love for the children from the cold lips of the dying partner and say: “Go in peace, without worrying for those who were born of you. I will continue to love them, on my own and on your behalf, I will love them twice and will be their father and mother and they will not suffer the unhappiness of orphans, neither will they feel the inborn jealousy that the children of a remarried consort experience with regards to him or her who takes the sacred place of mother or father called by God to a new abode”.
GRM 174.19 · Volume 3
Everything can be overcome when the spirit is righteous. But everything is an excuse to satisfy sensuality when the spirit is lustful. Woman’s frigidity, dullness, inability for housework, shrewish tongue, love for luxury, everything can be overcome, also diseases and irascibility, if one loves holily.
GRM 174.20 · Volume 3
As you avoid being uncharitable, avoid also being imprudent. I said to you: “Give a hand to those who are tired or unaware and to those who are easily disappointed”. But if it is charity to teach the ignorant, to encourage the tired, to give new wings to those whose old ones are broken, it is imprudence to reveal the eternal truths to those affected by satanism, who take possession of them to pretend they are prophets, to insinuate themselves among simple people, to corrupt, lead astray and sacrilegiously foul the things of God. Absolute respect, to be able to speak, to be silent, to ponder to act, are the virtues of the true disciple in order to make proselytes and serve God. You are gifted with the faculty of reason and, if you are just, God will grant you all the light to make a better use of your reason. You must consider that the eternal truths are like pearls, and no one has ever seen pearls thrown in front of pigs, who prefer acorns and rank broth to precious pearls, which they could crush under their feet and then, furious at being mocked at, they would turn against you to tear you to pieces. Do not give dogs what is holy. That is for the present and the future.
GRM 174.20 · Volume 3
Charity is an absolution. Be charitable to everybody and in everything. If God gives you much assistance to keep you good, do not be proud of it. But endeavour to climb the full length of the ladder of perfection and give a hand to those who are tired or unaware and to those who are easily disappointed. Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye so diligently if first you do not go to the trouble of taking the plank out of your own eye? How dare you say to your brother: “Let me take the splinter out of your eye” while the plank in your eye is blinding you? Son, do not be a hypocrite. Take the plank out of your own eye first and then you will be able to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye, without ruining him.
GRM 174.20 · Volume 3
Be good to those who are weak. Do not judge that you may not be judged. Remember that the moment might come when God could remind you: “That is how you judged. So you knew that that was bad. You therefore committed a sin, knowing what you were doing. You must now pay for it”.