Notes for this theme
Reading comfort
GRM 174.19 · Volume 3
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.
GRM 174.21 · Volume 3
I have told you much, My children. Listen to My words; he who listens to them and puts them into practice, can be compared to a thoughtful man, who wishing to build a house, choses a rocky place. He certainly worked hard to lay the foundations. He had to work with pick and stone chisel, he got callous hands and broke his back. But he was able to put lime in the fissures of the rock and lay bricks one close to the other, like the wall of a fortress, and the house was as solid as a mountain. The house was exposed to the inclemency of the weather and to downpours, the rain caused the rivers to overflow their banks, the winds whistled, the waves beat it, but the house resisted everything. Such is he who has a sound faith. Instead he who listens superficially and does not strive to engrave My words in his heart, because he is aware that to do so he would have to work hard, suffer and extirpate too many things, is like a man who out of indolence and foolishness builds his house on sand. As soon as the inclement weather comes, the house quickly built, quickly collapses and the forlorn fool contemplates the rubble of the house and the ruin of his capital. And in that case the ruin can be repaired with expenses and work. But if the edifice of the spirit crashes, because it was badly built, there is no way to rebuild it. One cannot build in future life. Woe to those who present themselves there with rubble!
GRM 176.4 · Volume 3
God is the Father, men are the sons. God points out the good and says: “Behold, I put you in this situation for your own good”. Also when the Evil One and the men who serve him bring misfortunes to men, God says: “Behold, this is how you must behave in this painful hour; by doing so, this misfortune will serve for an eternal good”. He advises you, but does not force you. So if a man, knowing what the will of God is, prefers to do the very opposite, can we say that this very opposite is the will of God? We cannot.
Love God’s will. Love it more than your own and follow it against the enticements and power of the world, of the flesh, of the demon. Also those things have a will. But I solemnly tell you that he who submits to such wills is most unhappy.
GRM 176.5 · Volume 3
Proceed along the safe, although painful way of obedience, towards the glory of the Kingdom of Heaven.
GRM 177.2 · Volume 3
«I have a servant who is ill, Lord. He is lying in my house, in his bed, paralyzed by a disease of the bones and he suffers dreadfully. Our doctors cannot cure him. Your doctors refuse to come. I invited them to come because it is a disease caused by the corrupt air of this area and they know how to cure it with the herbs of the feversome soil of the shore where the water stagnates before being absorbed by the sand of the sea. I am very sorry because he is a faithful servant.»
«I will come and cure him.»
«No, my Lord. I am not asking You to go to all that trouble. I am a heathen, filth, as far as you are concerned. If the Jewish doctors are afraid of becoming contaminated by coming to my house, all the more reason it would contaminate You, Who are divine. I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof, but if You say only one word here, my servant will be cured because You rule over everything. Now if I, who am subject to my authorities, the first being Caesar, for whom I must act, think and behave as I am told, can in turn order soldiers under me, and if I say to one: “Go” to another: “Come” and to a servant: “Do that”, the first one will go where I send him, the other will come because I call him, and the third will do what I tell him, You, as You are Who You are, will be immediately obeyed by the disease, which will vanish.»
«But the disease is not a man…» objects Jesus.
«Neither are You a man, You are the Man. You can therefore give orders to elements and fevers, because everything is subject to Your power.»
These diseases come from the corrupted air of these regions: Swamp fevers (yellow fever or malaria) caused serious epidemics in ancient times. They are mentioned several times in the work. For centuries, these fevers were attributed to unhealthy air (aria cattiva, from which the Italian word mala aria = bad air), without ever making the connection with mosquitoes. Here, Maria Valtorta reports an opinion perfectly in line with Roman belief, and not related to her knowledge as a nurse.
You know how to cure them with herbs from the feverish soil of the shore where the waters stagnate before being absorbed by the sand of the sea. We're probably talking about agrimony (agrimonia eupatoria), which grows in marshes. Pliny mentions it. When infused, it is used to combat malaria (from palus = marsh, in Latin). The seaside marsh mentioned by the centurion may well be Dor (now Al Tantura), south of Mount Carmel. It was not drained until 1892. Malaria was rife.
GRM 177.3
Translation in progress
GRM 178.2 · Volume 3
«This is what is required here: sacrifice, obedience, charity for everybody, a mind adaptive for everything and with everybody. Because compliance is alluring. Because he who wishes to cure must bend over all sores. Afterwards there will be the purity of Heaven. But here we are in mud and we have to pull out of the mud, on which we walk, the victims already submerged in it. We cannot lift our clothes and move to one side because the mud is deeper there. Purity must be within us. We must be filled with it so that nothing else can enter. Can you do all that?»
GRM 178.3.5 · Volume 3
Jesus begins to walk again and His attention is drawn by two eyes staring at Him, the eyes of a tall strong young man who has stopped to let the train of followers pass, as he seems to be going in a different direction. Jesus says to him: «Follow Me.»
The young man starts, changes colour, blinks as if he were dazzled by light, then opens his mouth to speak but cannot find an immediate reply. At last he says: «I will follow You. But my father died at Korazim and I must bury him. Let me do that and then I will come.»
«Follow Me. Leave the dead to bury their dead. You have already been attracted by Life. On the other hand, you aspired that. Do not weep over the gap Life opened around you to make you a disciple. The maiming of affection is the root of the wings which are born of a man who has become a servant of the Truth. Leave corruption to its own fate. Rise towards the Kingdon of the incorrupt. You will also find the incorruptible pearl of your father there. God calls and passes by. Tomorrow you would no longer find your heart of today or God’s invitation. Come. Go and announce the Kingdom of God.»
The man is leaning against a low wall with his arms hanging by his sides: he is holding two bags, full of perfumes and bandages, his head is lowered in thought, wavering between two loves: for God and for his father.
Jesus waits and looks at him, he then gets hold of a little child clasps him to His heart saying: «Say with Me: “I bless You, o Father, and I invoke Your light for those who weep in the haze of life. I bless You, o Father, and I invoke Your strength for those who are like a child in need of support. I bless You, o Father, and I invoke Your love that it may cause men to forget everything which is not Yourself, as they can find all good in You, both here and in Heaven, although they cannot believe it”.» And the child, an innocent boy about four years old, repeats in his thin voice the holy words with his hands held in prayer by the right hand of Jesus, Who holds them by their plump, wrists as if they were two flower stems.
The man makes up his mind. He hands the two bundles to a companion and comes towards Jesus, Who puts down the child after blessing him, and embraces the young man, proceeding thus with him, to comfort him and support him in his effort.
(...) They reach the shore. Jesus goes on board Peter’s boat and whispers a few words to him. I see Jesus smile while Peter makes a gesture expressing amazement. But He does not say anything. Also the man who did not go to bury his father in order to follow Jesus, gets into the boat.
Gospel of Matthew 8, 21-22
Mt 8:21-22: Another of his disciples said to him, "Lord, allow me to go and bury my father first." Jesus said to him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead."
Gospel of Luke 9, 57-62
Lk 9, 57-62: Along the way, a man said to Jesus, "I'll follow you wherever you go." Jesus told him, "Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." He said to another, "Follow me." The man replied, "Lord, allow me to go and bury my father first." But Jesus replied, "Let the dead bury their dead. You, go and proclaim the kingdom of God."
GRM 178.3 · Volume 3
Do not weep over the gap Life opened around you to make you a disciple. The maiming of affection is the root of the wings which are born of a man who has become a servant of the Truth. Leave corruption to its own fate. Rise towards the Kingdon of the incorrupt. You will also find the incorruptible pearl of your father there.
There you'll find the incorruptible pearl of your father: or, more broadly, of every soul we love who has preceded us in true Life.
GRM 178.4 · Volume 3
One must come to God’s service with spiritual freedom. He who gives himself, must have no ties.