Skip to content

Notes for this theme

Christian Life

Page 66 of 267

Reading comfort

Aa

GRM 76

The Gospel as revealed to me

Detail

Elijah, Levi, Joseph, Jesus, John, Simon the Zealot and Judas approach Yutta. Christ intends to go to Hebron, to pray over the bones of Samuel and Zechariah, but he gives priority to Isaac first, because we must always take care of those who suffer. Praying for our deceased is also important, but they are already at peace if they have been righteous.

After talking about the difference between man and animal, the communion of saints, and the link between the dead and the living, Jesus and his friends arrive at Yutta. Elijah goes ahead to see Isaac, telling him that Jesus wants to see him and tells him to come. The shepherd, who is crippled and paralyzed, is immediately healed and goes to see the Savior as quickly as possible.

There, he adores him, and takes him to a family in Yutta who have taken good care of him. They are a couple with four children: their names are Mary, Joseph, Emmanuel and the last has yet to be named. The little family believes in the Messiah and invites him to circumcise their newborn son. Jesus decides to name him Jesai. The priest who comes to perform the ceremony pays little attention to the Lord, and their guests are mortified, but he reassures and consoles them. He invites John to show the sheep to Joseph and Emmanuel. Little Mary stays close to Jesus, and he invites her to be as good as her Mother. The child immediately agrees and speaks to him with familiarity. Taken in by Judas, Jesus tells her to let it go, for the innocent are his joy, and only they can speak his name as purely as his Mother.

GRM 76.2

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

Bones? What are they? A proof of the power of God Who made man with dust. But nothing else. Also animals have bones. But the skeletons of all animals are not so perfect as a man’s skeleton. Only man, the king of creation, has an upright position, as a king over his subjects, and his face looks forwards and upwards without having to twist his neck; man looks upwards, towards the Abode of the Father. But they are still bones. Dust that will return to dust. The eternal Bounty has decided to assemble them again on the eternal Day to give even a greater joy to the blessed souls. Just imagine: not only will the souls be reunited and will love one another as and even more than they did on the earth, but they will rejoice also seeing one another with the same features they had on the earth: dear curly-haired children, like yours, Elias, fathers and mothers with loving hearts and faces like yours Levi and Joseph. Indeed, in your case Joseph, it will be the day when at last you will see the faces for which you feel nostalgia. There are no more orphans, no widows among the just, up there…

GRM 76.2

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

The dead do not suffer any longer when they have been just people. (...) And if the dead need our prayers, it is not necessary to be near their bones to pray for them.

Bones? What are they? A proof of the power of God Who made man with dust. But nothing else. Also animals have bones. But the skeletons of all animals are not so perfect as a man’s skeleton. Only man, the king of creation, has an upright position, as a king over his subjects, and his face looks forwards and upwards without having to twist his neck; man looks upwards, towards the Abode of the Father. But they are still bones. Dust that will return to dust. The eternal Bounty has decided to assemble them again on the eternal Day to give even a greater joy to the blessed souls. Just imagine: not only will the souls be reunited and will love one another as and even more than they did on the earth, but they will rejoice also seeing one another with the same features they had on the earth: dear curly-haired children, like yours, Elias, fathers and mothers with loving hearts and faces like yours Levi and Joseph. Indeed, in your case Joseph, it will be the day when at last you will see the faces for which you feel nostalgia. There are no more orphans, no widows among the just, up there…

Prayers for the dead can be said anywhere. It is the prayer of a soul for the soul of a relative to the Perfect Spirit, Who is God, Who is everywhere. Oh! holy freedom of what is spiritual! There are no distances, no exile, no prisons, no tombs… There is nothing that can divide or restrict in painful impotence what is outside and above the chains of the flesh. You will go, with your better part, towards your beloved ones. And they will come to you with their better part. And the whole effusion of loving souls will rotate around the Eternal Fulcrum, around God: the Most Perfect Spirit, the Creator of everything that was, is and will be, Love that loves you and teaches you how to love…

GRM 76.5

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

76.5 «There is Jesus, over there» says Elias, pointing at Him. «The tall, handsome one, with fair hair, with a white tunic and red mantle…»

Isaac runs, he cuts through the grazing sheep, and with a cry of triumph, joy and adoration he prostrates himself at Jesus’ feet.

«Stand up, Isaac. I have come. To bring you peace and blessings. Stand up, that I may see your face.»

But Isaac cannot stand up. Too much excitement at once and he remains prostrated, with his face on the ground, crying! happily.

«You came at once. You did not worry whether you could…»

«You told me to come… and I came.»

«He did not even close the door or pick up the alms, Master.»

«It does not matter. The angels will watch his house.»

Detail

Jesus has just healed Isaac from a distance, and Isaac runs to meet him.

Keywords

GRM 76.6

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

76.6 Do you want to be My disciple, Isaac?»

«Oh! But I am not capable!»

«Can you avow Who I am? Avow it against jeers and threats? And tell people that I called you and you came?»

«Even if You did not want, I would avow all that. I would disobey You in that, Master. Forgive me for saying so.»

Jesus smiles. «You can see then that you are capable of becoming a disciple!»

«Oh! If that’s all one has to do! I thought it was more difficult, that we had to go to school with the rabbis to learn how to serve You, the Rabbi of rabbis… and to go to school at my age…» The man in fact must be at least fifty years old.

«You have done your schooling already, Isaac.»

«Me? No.»

«Yes, you have. Have you not continued to believe and love, to respect and bless God and your neighbour, not to be envious, not to wish what belongs to other people, and even what was your own and you no longer possessed, to speak only the truth, even if it should be harmful to you, not to associate with Satan committing sins? Have you not done all these things, in the last thirty years of misfortunes?»

«Yes, Master.»

«So you see, you have done your schooling. Go on doing so and reveal, in addition, to the world, that I am in the world. There is nothing else to be done.»

Detail

Jesus asks Isaac to follow him and be a disciple, but Isaac thinks he won't know how to act well.

GRM 76.11

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

«And you, Mary, come closer to Me and tell Me: Who am I?»

«You are Jesus, the Son of Mary of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem. Isaac saw You and he gave me the name of Your Mother, that I may be good.»

«To imitate Her, you must be as good as an angel of God, purer than a lily that blooms on top of a mountain, as pious as the holiest Levite. Will you be like that?»

«Yes, Jesus, I will.»

GRM 77.2-3

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

[Judas is talking about the shepherds at the Nativity.]

77.2 «By the way. For some days I have been anxious to ask You a question. These people are Your friends and the friends of God, are they not? The angels blessed them with the peace of Heaven, did they not? They have been faithful against all temptations, have they not? Would You explain to me, then, why are they unhappy? And what about Anne? She was killed because she loved You…»

«Are you therefore deducing that to be loved by Me and to love Me brings bad luck?»

«No… but…»

«But you are. (...) Come here, Judas, listen.

You have an opinion which is common to many people of our times and will be common to man in future. I said: an opinion. I should say: an error. But since you do not do so out of malice, but out of ignorance of the truth, it is not an error, it is only an incorrect opinion, like a child’s. And you are like children, My poor men. And I am here, as a Master, to make adults of you, capable of distinguishing truth from lies, good from bad and what is better from what is good. Listen to Me, therefore.

What is life? It is a period of pause, I would say the limbo of Limbo, that the God Father grants you as trial to establish whether you are good or bad children, after which He will allocate, according to your deeds, a future life without pauses or trials. Now tell Me: would it be fair if a man, simply because he has been granted the rare gift of being in the position of serving God in a special way, also had an everlasting wealth throughout his life? Do you not think that he has already been granted a great deal and may therefore consider himself happy, even if human things are against him? Would it not be unfair if he, who already has the light of divine revelation in his heart and the smile of a clear conscience, should also have worldly honours and wealth? And would it not also be unwise?»

77.3 «Master, I would also say that he would be a desecrator. Why put human joys where You already are? When one has You — and they had You, they are the only rich people in Israel because they have had You for thirty years — one should have nothing else. We do not put human things on the Propitiatory… and the consecrated vase is used only for sacred uses. And these people are consecrated since the day they saw Your smile… and nothing but You is to enter their hearts, which possess You. I wish I was like them!» says Simon.

Detail

Judas recalls the shepherds of the Nativity and the death of Anne of Bethlehem. He says that love for Jesus is bad luck, and Christ responds.