Freedom

Intelligence is not given to everybody in the same way and at the same time. The Church has fixed the age of reason at six years of age, because that is the age when even a backward child can tell good from evil, at least in basically important matters. But there are children who long before that age are capable of discerning and understanding and wanting with sufficiently developed discretion. Little Imelde Lambertini, Rosa da Viterbo, Nellie Organ, Nennolina may give you confirmation (...) to believe that My Mother was able to think and speak like that. I have quoted four names at random amongst the thousands of holy children who populate My Paradise, after reasoning on earth as adults for possibly more or less years.

7.8. What is reason? A gift of God. God can therefore give it as He wishes, to whom He wishes and when He wishes. Reason in fact is one of the things that makes you more like God, the Intelligent and Reasoning Spirit. Reason and intelligence were graces given by God to Man in the Earthly Paradise. How full of life they were, when Grace was alive, still intact and active in the spirit of the first two Parents!

The Book of Jesus Ben Sirach states: “All wisdom is from the Lord, and it is His own forever”.hat wisdom, therefore, would men have had, had they remained children of God?

The gaps in your intelligence are the natural fruits of your fall from Grace and honesty. By losing Grace you banished Wisdom for centuries. As a meteor, which is hidden behind masses of clouds, Wisdom no longer reached you with its bright flashes, but through mist which your prevarications have rendered thicker and thicker.

Then Christ came and He restored Grace, the supreme gift of the love of God. But do you know how to keep this gem clear and pure? No, you do not. When you do not crush it with your individual will in sinning, you soil it with your continuous minor faults, your weaknesses, your attachment to vice. Such attempts, even if they are not a proper marriage with the septiform vice, are a weakening of the light of Grace and of its activity. And then, to weaken the magnificent light of intelligence that God had given the First Parents, you have centuries and centuries of corruption, which exert a harmful influence on the body and on the mind.

• Discernment
• Free will
• Freedom
• Intelligence

Jesus has climbed on top of a pile of baskets and ropes at the entrance to the kitchen garden of the house of Peter’s mother-in-law. The kitchen garden is crowded with people, and other people are on the lake shore, some sitting on the shore, some on the beached boats. It looks as if He has been speaking for some time, because the sermon has started.

I hear: «… Certainly many times you have thought so in your hearts. But it is not so. The Lord has not lacked in kindness of heart towards His people. Notwithstanding His people lacked in loyalty to Him thousands of times.

Listen to this parable. It will help you to understand.

A king had many wonderful horses in his stables. But he was particularly fond of one of them. He gazed fondly at it, even before he had it. Afterwards, when he got it, he put it in a delightful place and he often went to admire his favourite horse, both with his eyes and with his heart, dreaming it would become the wonder of his kingdom. And when the horse rebelled against commands, disobeyed and ran away under another master, the king, in his sorrow and his severity, promised he would forgive the rebel after it had been punished. And loyal as he was, although far away, he watched over his favourite and sent gifts and guardians to it, hoping they would keep his remembrance in the horse’s heart.

But the horse, although suffering from the exile from the kingdom, was not steady, as the king was, in loving and wishing complete forgiveness. At times it was good, at times bad; neither was its goodness greater than its badness. In fact, it was the other way round. And yet the king was patient and, with reproaches and caresses, he endeavoured to turn his horse into a dearer and more docile friend. As time went by, the horse became more and more loath. It invoked its king, it cried under the whip of other masters, but it did not really want to belong to the king. It simply did not want to. Oppressed, exhausted, moaning, it did not say: “I am such through my own fault”. Instead; it accused its king for it.

The king, after trying everything, decided to make one last effort. “So far” he said, “I have sent messengers and friends. Now I will send my own son. His heart is like my own and will speak the same love as I would, and will make use of the same caresses and gifts as I used, indeed, he will be even kinder, because my son is like myself, but made more sublime by love”. And he sent his son.

That is the parable.

61.2

Now tell Me: do you think that king loved his favourite horse?»

The crowd together reply: «He loved it with infinite love.»

«Could the animal complain of its king about all the ill it had suffered after leaving him?»

«No, it could not» reply the people.

«Answer also this question: how do you think that horse will have received the king’s son who went to rescue and cure it and take it back once again to the delightful land?»

«With great joy, of course, with gratitude and love.»

«Now, if the king’s son said to the horse: “I have come for this reason, to do such and such a thing for you, but now you must be good, obedient, willing and loyal to me”, what do you think the horse replied?»

«Oh! There is no need to ask! Now that it was aware of how much it cost to be expelled from the kingdom, it will have said that it wanted to be as the king’s son suggested.»

«Well, then, what was the duty of that horse, according to you?»

«To be even better than it was requested, more affectionate, more docile, to be forgiven for past faults, and out of gratitude for all the good received.»

«And if it did not do that?»

«It would deserve death, because it was worse than a wild beast.»

«My friends, you have judged correctly. But do exactly yourselves as you would have liked that horse to do. I beseech you, men, the favourite creatures of the King of Heaven, of God, My Father and yours, to be at least as you judge that horse to be. Because after the Prophets, God sends you His own Son and I implore you, for your good, and because I love you as only God can love, the God Who is in Me to work the miracle of Redemption. Woe to those men who lower themselves to a lower degree than animals! But if it was possible to excuse those who committed sin up to the present time — because too long a time has elapsed since the Law was given and too much worldly dust has settled on the Law — now it is no longer so. I have come to bring the word of God once again. The Son of man is amongst men to lead them back to God. Follow Me. I am the Way, the Truth, the Life.»

• Free will
• Freedom
• Goodwill
• Jesus Christ - God-Man
• Jesus Christ preaches in Capernaum
• Man - God's creature
• Man's destiny
• Parables
• Preaching of Jesus Christ
• Will

We have everything in us: good and evil. We carry everything with us. And the breath of God blows on the good and vivifies it like a thurible of sweet-smelling holy incense. And Satan blows on evil, thus kindling a furious blazing fire. But diligent goodwill and constant prayer are like damp sand on the hellish fire: they suffocate it and put it out.

• Defense of the Work
• Fighting temptation
• Free will
• Freedom
• Good and evil
• Goodwill
• Prayer
• Temptation
• Words of wisdom

[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.

• Freedom
• God's love
• Lessons and Teachings for the Apostles
• Loving God
• Material wealth
• Misfortunes
• Pain and suffering
• Spiritual wealth

«And where would you have suggested I should have gone to prepare, Judas?»

Judas is puzzled and bewildered. Eventually he replies: «I would not know… I was thinking… to a rabbi… or with the Essenes… I do not know.»

«And was it possible for Me to find a rabbi who would tell Me more than the power and wisdom of God were telling Me? And could I — I the Eternal Word of the Father, Who was present when the Father created man and am aware of the immortal soul by which he is animated and of the power of free capable judgement with which he was endowed by the Creator — would I have gone to derive science and skill from those who deny the immortality of souls, final resurrection and also the freedom of man to act, attributing virtues and vices, holy and wicked deeds to a destiny, which they say is fatal and uncontrollable? Certainly not!

You have a destiny. Yes you do. In the mind of God Who creates you, there is a destiny for you. It is the wish of the Father. And it is a destiny of love, of peace, of glory: “the holiness of being His children”. That is the destiny that was present in the divine mind when

Adam was made from mud and will be present until the creation of the last soul of man.

But the Father does not denigrate you in your position of kings. If a king is a prisoner, he is no longer a king: he is an outcast. You are kings because you are free in your small individual kingdoms. In your “ego”. You can do what you like and how you like.

80.4 Before you and on the boundaries of your small kingdom you have a friendly King and two enemy powers. The Friend shows you the rules that He gives to make His followers happy. He shows them and says: “Here they are. With them, your eternal victory is certain”. He, The Wise and Holy One, shows them to you so that you may put them into practice, if you want to, and thus receive eternal glory.

The two enemy powers are Satan and the flesh. By flesh I mean your flesh and the world: they are the pomps and enticements of the world, that is, the riches, feasts, honours and powers which are obtained from the world and in the world, but are not always obtained honestly and they are used even less honestly when eventually a man reaches them. Satan, the master of the flesh and of the world, speaks also on behalf of the world and of the flesh. He, too, has his rules… Oh! He certainly has! And as your “ego” is enveloped in the flesh, and the flesh is attracted by the flesh, as metal chips are attracted by a magnet, and the singing of the Seducer is sweeter than the warble of a nightingale in love in the moonlight and among perfumed rose bushes, it is easier to follow those rules, and incline towards those powers and say to them: “I consider you my friends. Come in”. Come in… Have you ever seen an ally who remains honest forever, without asking a hundredfold return for the help he has given? That is what those powers do. They go in… And they become the masters: Masters? No: galley sergeants. They tie you, men, to the galley bench, they fasten you with chains, they do not allow you to raise your head from their yoke, and their lash leaves bleeding marks on your backs if you attempt to escape. You either must bear to be torn to pieces and become a heap of shattered flesh, so useless, as flesh, as to be rejected and kicked aside by their cruel feet, or you must die under their blows.

If you can bear that martyrdom, then Mercy will come, the Only One who can still have mercy on that revolting misery, which the world, one of the masters, now loathes and at which the other master, Satan, throws the arrows of his revenge. And Mercy, the Only One, passes by, bends down, picks it up, doctors it, cures it and says: “Come. Do not be afraid. Do not look at yourself. Your wounds are but scars, but they are so numerous that you would be horrified, as they disfigure you. But I do not look at them. I look at your goodwill. Because of your good- will, you are marked. Therefore I say to you: I love you. Come with Me”. And He takes it to His Country. You then understand that Mercy and the friendly King are the same person. You find the rules He had shown you and you did not want to follow. Now you want them… and first you reach the peace of your conscience, then the peace of God.

Tell Me, now. Was that destiny imposed by the Only One on everybody, or did each choose it for himself?»

«It was chosen by each person.»

«You are right, Simon. Was it possible for Me to go to those who deny the blessed resurrection and the gift of God, to be taught?»

• Essenes
• Free will
• Freedom
• Man's destiny

• Free will
• Freedom
• Soul
• Words of wisdom

• Free will
• Freedom
• He who perseveres will be saved
• Perseverance
• Words of wisdom

• Free will
• Freedom
• Man's destiny

• Freedom
• Lucifer - Satan
• Mal
• Temptation
• Words of wisdom

• Anxiety - Fear - Fearfulness
• Bitter
• Concupiscence
• Despair
• Freedom
• Good News
• Peace
• Sin
• Slavery
• Slavery to Satan
• Who is Jesus? How Christ defines himself