Notes for this theme
Reading comfort
GRM 180.6 · Volume 3
You must watch yourselves all the time. Never say: “Oh! I am well formed, I have been sown, I can rest assured that I will bear seeds of eternal life”. Watch yourselves; the struggle between Good and Evil is still on.
GRM 180.8 · Volume 3
Nothing can make you weak, unless you want! And if that should happen, make sure you weep for it, and do not commit another crime (...). He becomes weak who cuts off his vital link with God.
GRM 181.3 · Volume 3
Consider now how often and how plentifully the Enemy sows in your hearts. And you must understand that it is necessary to watch patiently and constantly to ensure that little darnel is mixed with the chosen wheat. The fate of the darnel is to be burnt. Do you wish to be burnt or to become citizens of the Kingdom? You say that you want to become citizens of the Kingdom. Well, endeavour to be so. The good God gives you the Word. The enemy is vigilant to make it harmful, because the flour of wheat if mixed with the flour of darnel makes a bitter bread, which is harmful to the stomach. If there is darnel in your souls, pick it with goodwill and throw it away, so that you may not be unworthy of God.
Go, My children. Peace be with you.
GRM 181.5-7 · Volume 3
That is the universal sense. But there is another sense, which is the answer to the question which you have been asking yourselves many times and particularly since yesterday evening. Your question is: “Can there be traitors in the mass of disciples?” and your hearts tremble with horror and fear. Yes, there may be some. There are certainly some.
The Sower sows the good seed. In this case, instead of sowing, we could say that He “picks”. Because the master, whether it is I or the Baptist, choses his disciples. How were they, therefore, led astray? No, I did not use the right word saying that the disciples are the “seed”. You may misunderstand. I will call them “field”. As many disciples as fields, chosen by the master to form the area of the Kingdom of God, the wealth of God. The master tires himself cultivating them so that they may yield one hundred per cent. He takes care of everything with patience, love, wisdom, hard work and perseverance. He also sees their wicked inclinations, their barrenness and avidity, their stubbornness and weakness. But he hopes all the time, corroborating his hope through prayer and penance, because he wishes to lead them to perfection.
But the fields are open. They are not gardens enclosed in walls of protection, of which the only owner is the master, who is the only one who can go in. They are open. Placed as they are in the centre of the world, among the world, anyone can go near them and into them. Everybody and everything. Oh! darnel is not the only bad seed sown! Darnel could be the symbol of the bitter frivolity of the worldly spirit. But all the other seeds, scattered by the Enemy, come up in them. There are nettles, couch-grass, dodder, bearbines, and finally hemlock and poisonous herbs. Why? What are they?
Nettles: stinging untameable spirits which hurt through their excess of poison and cause so much trouble. Couch-grass: parasites who wear out the master as they can only creep and suck, taking advantage of his work and injuring the willing ones, who would make much more profit if the master were not upset and distracted by the cares required by the couch-grass. The sluggish bearbines rise from the ground only by making use of the efforts of other people. Dodders: they are a torture on the already painful road of the master and a torment to the faithful disciples who follow him. They twist, pierce, tear to pieces, scratch, cause mistrust and pain. The poisonous ones: the criminal disciples, who go as far as betraying and killing as hemlock and other poisonous plants do. Have you noticed how beautiful they are with their little flowers which later become white, red, blue-violet berries? Who would say that the white or pinkish star-shaped corolla, with its little gold heart, or the many-coloured corals, so much like other little fruits which are the delight of birds and children, can cause death, once they are ripe? No one. And the innocent ones fall into the trap. They believe that everybody is as good as they are… they pick and die.
They believe that everybody is as good as they are! Oh! The truth that makes the master sublime and condemns his traitor! How? Does goodness not disarm wickedness? Does it not make ill-will harmless? No, it does not, because the man who has fallen prey to the Enemy is indifferent to what is superior. And what is superior changes apperance, as far as he is concerned. Kindness becomes weakness on which it is lawful to tread and it stimulates his ill-will as the scent of blood stimulates a beast to slaughter.
Also the master is always innocent… and he lets his traitor poison him, because he cannot possibly believe that a human being can murder an innocent person.
181.6
The enemies come into the fields of the Master, that is to His disciples. They are many and Satan is the first one. The others are his servants, that is, men, passions, the world and the flesh. The disciple who is more easily struck by them is the one who is not entirely close to the Master, but is between the Master and the world. He is not capable and does not want to part completely with the world, the flesh, passions and demons, to belong entirely to Him Who wants to take him to God. And the world, flesh, passions and the demon scatter their seed in him: gold, power, women, pride, the fear of an unfavourable opinion of the world, the spirit of utilitarianism. “The great ones are the strongest. I will serve them so that they will be friendly to me”. And they become criminals and damned for such miserable things!…
Why does the Master, Who sees the imperfection of a disciple, not cast him away at once, even if He is not prepared to submit to the thought: “He will be My murderer”? That is what you are asking yourselves. Because it is useless to do so. If He did so he would not avoid having him as an enemy, a double and more dangerous enemy, because of his anger and his sorrow at being found out or at being found out or at being driven away. Yes, because of his sorrow. Because sometimes a bad disciple does not realise that he is such. The demon’s action is so subtle that he is not aware of it. He becomes wicked without even suspecting that he is subject to such action. And because of his anger, He is enraged at being known for what he is, when he is aware of Satan’s work and of his followers: the men who tempt weak people in their weak points, to remove from the world a saint who offends them, wicked as they are, when compared with his goodness. The saint then prays and trusts in God. “Let what You allow be done” he says. He adds only the clause: “providing it serves Your purpose”. The saint knows that the time will come when the wicked darnel will be rejected from the harvest. By God Himself Who does not allow more than what is useful to the triumph of His loving will.»
181.7
«If You maintain that Satan and his followers are always to be blamed… it seems to me that the responsibility of the disciple diminishes» says Matthew.
«Do not believe that. If there is Good there is also Evil and man is gifted with discernment and freedom.»
«You say that God does not allow more than what is useful to the triumph of His loving will. Therefore such an error is useful too, if He allows it, and it serves the triumph of the divine will» says the Iscariot.
«And you infer, as Matthew does, that that justifies the disciple’s crime. God created the lion without ferocity and the snake without poison, now one is ferocious and the other poisonous. That is why God separated them from man. Ponder over that and draw conclusions.»
Jesus has just given the parable of the good grain and the tares, and its universal meaning. He then returns to the story of John the Baptist's betrayal by one of his disciples.
You ask: "But can there be traitors in the mass of disciples? "See the previous chapter, in EMV 180.8. The betrayal of a disciple of John the Baptist, the cause of the prophet's arrest, causes a great stir.
The good believe others to be as good as themselves! Ah, what a truth that elevates the master and condemns his betrayer! During Father Migliorini's rereading of the typescript, Maria Valtorta notes at this point: "To work to redeem with goodness, to work without hopes or illusions, out of pure desire to do one's duty to the extreme, to work so that others don't realize that this one is a bad one, so that they don't hate him ... What a divine lesson the Divine Master gives to spiritual guides and to all Christians!"
"God does not allow us to oppose the triumph of his loving will any more than is useful". On a leaf inserted in the typed copy, Maria Valtorta wrote:
"God has given man the intellect to understand, the reason to guide himself as a reasonable creature, the conscience to advise, the law to know how to regulate himself, the freedom to deserve what he wants to deserve: God and glory, or Hell and damnation.
Moreover, He has given him grace, or predestination to grace, so that it may be a stimulus, or a means, of raising the things listed below to a level capable of giving him a holy taste for the supernatural and for God.
Now, in the man who is intelligent, reasonable, conscious, free, and above all instructed in the Faith, knowing his final end and the divine Law, there should be only such actions as the Law prescribes and the knowledge of the end incites us to practice, even as reason and conscience indicate them as good to all, even to those who do not know revealed religion, in order toto obtain the eternal reward that the human intellect, all the more so when enlightened by Grace, is infinitely superior to all conceptions a believer can imagine.
But it sometimes happens that man, acting against reason, turns his freedom into a yoke of the cruellest of slaveries: that of the devil and sin, preferring Evil to Good.
Even if God allows man to do what he chooses of his own free will, in order to judge and confirm him in grace, or to judge that he deserves punishment, nothing lessens man's guilt. For while it is true that man, at God's prompting or Satan's instigation, can do good or evil, it is no less true that man should follow God alone and his loving invitations, for it is from him that he has received all those natural, moral and supernatural gifts capable of making him a child of God, heir to the Kingdom."
GRM 182.4 · Volume 3
Your flock teaches you a great virtue, or rather, many great virtues. It is meek and obedient. It is satisfied with little and grateful for what it has. It loves and knows those who take care of it and love it. Do likewise saying: “God is our Shepherd and we are His sheep. He watches us. He protects us and grants us not what is the source of vice, but what is necessary to live”. And keep wolves away from your hearts. Wicked men are wolves: they seduce you and incite you to evil actions by Satan’s order and it is Satan himself who induces you to sin so that he may tear you to pieces.
Jesus speaks of a flock of sheep.
GRM 182.4 · Volume 3
Keep wolves away from your hearts. Wicked men are wolves: they seduce you and incite you to evil actions by Satan’s order and it is Satan himself who induces you to sin so that he may tear you to pieces. Be watchful.
GRM 182.4 · Volume 3
That is how Satan behaves. He watches you to find out your weak points, he roams about you, he seems harmless and absent, concerned with something else whereas he is watching you, and then he suddenly leaps to induce you to sin, and sometimes he is successful.
But close to you there is a doctor and a compassionate spirit. God and your angel. If you are wounded, if you have been taken ill, do not go away from them, as a dog which has become rabid does. On the contrary, while weeping shout to them: “Help!”. God forgives those who repent and your angel is ready to implore God with you and for you.
GRM 182.5 · Volume 3
Remember that God sees the deeds and tears of every man and takes everything into account, in order to reward or punish.
GRM 182.5 · Volume 3
My boy, remember that you are never alone. God sees you and so does the spirit of your father. When something upsets you and induces you to do wrong, say: “No, I do not want to be an orphan forever and ever”. You would be, if you damned your soul by sinning.
GRM 183.1 · Volume 3
As long as one does not want, no harm is done. But one must not want resolutely and perseveringly. You will obtain will-power and perseverance from the Father, by praying with sincere intentions.