Notes for this theme
Reading comfort
GRM 61.6
Do not be greedy. May your souls, not money, be your treasure. Do not be perjurers. Let your language be as sincere and honest as your actions. Life is not eternal and the hour of death will come. Live in such a way that at the hour of your death peace may be in your souls. The peace of those who lived an honest life.
GRM 63.3
«Listen, then. I heard that there was at Capernaum that Rabbi who is a holy man, and I went…»
«Stop, stop! I am infected.»
«Oh! It does not matter! I am no longer afraid of anything.» The man, who is indeed the cripple healed and helped by Jesus, with his fast step has almost reached the leper and is only a few steps from him. He spoke while walking and smiling happily.
But the leper says once again: «In the name of God, stop. If anyone should see you…»
«I will stop. Look: I am putting the provisions here. Eat, while I speak to you.» He puts a bundle on a large stone, and opens it up. He then withdraws a few steps, while the leper moves forward and throws himself on the rare food.
«Oh! How long it is since I had food like this! How good it is! And I was just thinking that I was going to rest with an empty stomach. Not one merciful soul today… and not even you… I had chewed some roots…»
«Poor Abel! I was afraid of that. But I said: “Well, he may be sad now, but he will be happy after!”»
«Happy, yes, because of this good food. But after…»
«No! You will be happy forever.»
The leper shakes his head.
«Listen, Abel. If you can have faith, you will be happy.»
«But faith in whom?»
«In the Rabbi. In the Rabbi Who healed me.»
«But I am a leper. And at the last stage! How can He heal me?»
«Oh! He can. He is holy.»
«Yes, also Elisha healed Naaman the leper… I know… But I… I cannot go to the Jordan.»
«You will be healed without the need of any water. Listen: this Rabbi is the Messiah, do you understand? The Messiah! He is the Son of God. And He heals everyone who has faith. He says: “I want” and the demons flee, limbs are straightened, and blind eyes see.»
«Oh! I would have faith, I would indeed! But how can I see the Messiah?»
«Exactly… I have come just for that. He is often over there, in that village. I know where He will be this evening. If you want… I said: “I will tell Abel, and if Abel feels he can have faith, I will take him to the Master”.»
«Are you mad, Samuel? If I go near houses, I will be stoned.»
«Not near the houses. It will be soon getting dark. I will take you to that thicket, and then I will go and call the Master. I will bring Him to you…»
«Go, go at once! I will go by myself to that place. I will walk in the ditch, behind the hedge, but go, go… Oh! go, my good friend! If you only knew what it is to suffer from this disease. And what it means to hope to be healed!…» The leper no longer is interested in the food. He cries and gesticulates imploring his friend.
«I am going, and you will come.» The healed cripple runs away.
Second Book of Kings 5, 1-14
2 R 5, 1-14 :
Naaman, general of the army of the king of Aram, was a man of great valor and highly esteemed by his master, for it was through him that the Lord had given victory to the kingdom of Aram. But this valiant warrior was a leper. During an expedition to the land of Israel, the Arameans had taken captive a little girl who was put in the service of Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress: "Ah, if my master would speak to the prophet who is in Samaria, he would deliver him from his leprosy." Naaman went to the king and said, "This is what the maiden of Israel has declared." The king of Aram replied, "Go, set out. I'm sending a letter to the king of Israel." So Naaman set off; he took with him ten ingots of silver, six thousand gold coins and ten festive garments. He delivered the letter to the king of Israel. The letter read: "At the same time as this letter reaches you, I am sending you Naaman my servant, so that you may deliver him from his leprosy." When the king of Israel read this message, he tore his clothes and cried out: "Am I God, master of life and death? This king has sent me a man to deliver him from his leprosy! As you can see, this is a provocation!" When Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he had him say, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let this man come to me, and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel." Naaman arrived with his horses and chariot, and stopped at the gate of Elisha's house. Elisha sent a messenger to tell him, "Go and bathe in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will become clean again; you will be purified." Naaman became angry and went away, saying, "I said to myself, 'Surely he will come out and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God; then he will wave his hand over the diseased spot and heal my leprosy. Are not the rivers of Damascus, the Abana and the Parpar, better than all the waters of Israel? If I bathed in them, would I not be purified?" He turned and left in anger. But his servants came up to him and said: "Father! If the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, you would have done it, wouldn't you? How much more so, when he said to you, 'Bathe, and you will be cleansed.'" He went down to the Jordan and immersed himself in it seven times, to obey the word of the man of God; then his flesh became like that of a little child again: he was purified
GRM 64.2
I know you have worked and in vain. But if there is no food, your charity remains: alive, active and holy in the eyes of God.
Jesus said to Peter, who had labored in vain:
GRM 64.3-4
64.3 Some children have rushed around them shouting: «The Master! The Master is here! Here is Jesus, here is Jesus!» and they draw close to Him, Who caresses them while speaking to His disciples.
«Simon, I am going into your house. You will all go and tell the people that I am back and then bring Me the sick ones.»
The disciples go away quickly in different directions. But the whole of Capernaum knows that Jesus has come, thanks to the children who are like bees swarming from the beehive to the various flowers; in our case to the houses, the streets and the squares. They come and go rejoicing, informing their mothers, passers-by, old people sitting in the sun, and they run back to be caressed by Him Who loves them. One of them, a daring boy says: «Speak to us and for us, today, Jesus. You know we love You and we are better than men.»
Jesus smiles at the young psychologist and promises: «I will speak just for you.» And followed by the children, He goes into the house and enters pronouncing His usual greeting of peace: «Peace to this house.»
People crowd into the big room at the back of the house, which is used as a store for nets, ropes, baskets, oars, sails, and provisions. Peter must have put it at Jesus’ disposal, because everything has been piled up in one corner to make room. The lake cannot be seen from here. Only its gently lapping waves can be heard. Instead one can see the low greenish wall of the kitchen garden, with the old vine and the leafy fig-tree. There are people even on the road, as they pass from the room into the kitchen garden and hence onto the road.
64.4 Jesus begins to speak. In the front row, there are five… high-ranking people, who have elbowed their way through the crowd taking advantage of the fear they strike into poor people. Their sumptuous garments and their pride announce them as Pharisees and doctors. But Jesus wants His little friends around Him, a crown of innocent little faces, of bright eyes, of angelical smiles, all looking up at Him. Jesus speaks and while speaking, now and again He caresses the curly head of a child who is sitting at His feet, resting his head on his little arm bent on Jesus’ lap. Jesus is speaking, sitting on a huge pile of baskets and ropes.
«“My Beloved went down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flocks in the gardens, and gather lilies… He pastures his flock among the lilies”, says Solomon, the son of David, from whom I descend, I, the Messiah of Israel.
My garden! Which garden is more beautiful and worthy of God than Heaven, where the flowers are the angels created by the Father? And yet, it is not so. The Only Begotten Son of the Father, the Son of man wanted another garden, because it is for the sake of man that I took flesh, without which I would not be able to redeem the faults of the flesh of man. A garden which might have been but little inferior to the heavenly one, if from the earthly Paradise the children of Adam, the children of God, had spread about, like sweet bees from a beehive, to populate the earth with holiness destined entirely for Heaven. But the enemy sowed brambles and thorns in Adam’s heart, and brambles and thorns have overflown from his heart on to the earth. It is no longer a garden, but a wild cruel forest in which fever stagnates and snakes nestle.
And yet the Beloved of the Father still has a garden in this world which is domineered by Mammon. The garden in which He feeds on His celestial food: love and purity; the bed where He picks the flowers dear to Him, flowers not stained with sensuality, greed, pride. These ones. (Jesus caresses as many of the children as He can, patting with His hand the little attentive heads, one big caress that touches them lightly and makes them smile happily). Here are My lilies.
Solomon in all his wealth, did not have a robe more beautiful than the lily that scents the valley, neither did he possess a diadem of a more splendid gracefulness than the one in the pearl chalice of a lily. And yet, for My heart, there is no lily worth one of these. There is no flower-bed, no garden of wealthly people, all cultivated with lilies, that I consider worth only one of these pure, innocent, sincere, simple, little children.
Men and women of Israel! You, great and humble people according to your wealth and position, listen! You are here because you want to know Me and love Me. You must therefore know the first condition to become Mine. I will not speak difficult words. Neither will I give you more difficult examples. I say to you: “Take example from these children”.
Which of you has no children, nephews, or little brothers in their childhood, at home? Are they not a restful comfort, a bond for parents, relatives, friends? Their souls are as pure as a clear dawn, their faces scatter clouds and inspire hope, their caresses dry your tears and give you new strength! Why is there so much power in them, although they are weak, defenceless and still unlearned? Because they have God in themselves, they have strength and wisdom in God. The true wisdom: they know how to love and believe. They know how to believe and want. They know how to live in such love and such faith. Be like them: simple, pure, loving, sincere, faithful.
There is no wise man in Israel greater than the smallest of these children, whose souls belong to God and His Kingdom belongs to them. Blessed by the Father, loved by the Son of the Father, flowers of My garden, may My peace be with you and with whoever will imitate you for My sake.
Jesus meets some children in Capernaum, and promises them a sermon just for them (the sermon takes place in 64.4).
Song of Songs 6, 2-3
Ct 6, 2-3 : My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the herb beds, to lead his sheep to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies. I am my beloved's, my beloved is mine, he who leads his sheep to feed among the lilies.
GRM 64.4
“My Beloved went down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flocks in the gardens, and gather lilies… He pastures his flock among the lilies”, says Solomon, the son of David, from whom I descend, I, the Messiah of Israel.
My garden! Which garden is more beautiful and worthy of God than Heaven, where the flowers are the angels created by the Father? And yet, it is not so. The Only Begotten Son of the Father, the Son of man wanted another garden, because it is for the sake of man that I took flesh, without which I would not be able to redeem the faults of the flesh of man. A garden which might have been but little inferior to the heavenly one, if from the earthly Paradise the children of Adam, the children of God, had spread about, like sweet bees from a beehive, to populate the earth with holiness destined entirely for Heaven. But the enemy sowed brambles and thorns in Adam’s heart, and brambles and thorns have overflown from his heart on to the earth. It is no longer a garden, but a wild cruel forest in which fever stagnates and snakes nestle.
And yet the Beloved of the Father still has a garden in this world which is domineered by Mammon. The garden in which He feeds on His celestial food: love and purity; the bed where He picks the flowers dear to Him, flowers not stained with sensuality, greed, pride. These ones. (Jesus caresses as many of the children as He can, patting with His hand the little attentive heads, one big caress that touches them lightly and makes them smile happily). Here are My lilies.
Solomon in all his wealth, did not have a robe more beautiful than the lily that scents the valley, neither did he possess a diadem of a more splendid gracefulness than the one in the pearl chalice of a lily. And yet, for My heart, there is no lily worth one of these. There is no flower-bed, no garden of wealthly people, all cultivated with lilies, that I consider worth only one of these pure, innocent, sincere, simple, little children.
GRM 64.4
(...) The Beloved of the Father still has a garden in this world which is domineered by Mammon. The garden in which He feeds on His celestial food: love and purity; the bed where He picks the flowers dear to Him, flowers not stained with sensuality, greed, pride. These ones. (Jesus caresses as many of the children as He can, patting with His hand the little attentive heads, one big caress that touches them lightly and makes them smile happily). Here are My lilies.
Solomon in all his wealth, did not have a robe more beautiful than the lily that scents the valley, neither did he possess a diadem of a more splendid gracefulness than the one in the pearl chalice of a lily. And yet, for My heart, there is no lily worth one of these. There is no flower-bed, no garden of wealthly people, all cultivated with lilies, that I consider worth only one of these pure, innocent, sincere, simple, little children.
GRM 65.1
Do not allow Satan to laugh at the destruction of My work, of My sacrifice and of your souls. Seek light. Seek sunshine. Seek strength. Seek life. I am the Life, Strength, Sunshine and Light of those who love Me. I have come to take you whence I came. I am speaking to you here, to call you all and point out to you the ten commandments that give eternal life. And with loving advice I say to you: “Love God and your neighbour”. It is the first condition to fulfil everything else well. It is the most holy of the holy commandments. Love. Those who love God, in God and for the Lord God, will have peace both on the earth and in Heaven, for their abode and their crown.
GRM 66.3
Little will be debited to him who is a murderer, but believes he is doing justice, and he believes it because he does not know the Truth; but a great deal will be debited to him, who knowing the Truth, not only does not follow it, but becomes its enemy.
GRM 67.3
Listen, people of Israel, and you, soldiers of Rome. The Word of God speaks to all the sons of man, and the Son of man will not reject the Gentiles.
The second commandment of the Lord is a commandment of love for our neighbours. God is good and wants goodwill in His children. He who is not kindly disposed towards his neighbour cannot consider himself a son of God neither can he have God in himself. Man is not an animal without reason, that attacks and its prey. Man has reason and a soul. With his reason he must behave as a man. With his soul he must behave as a saint. He who behaves differently, lowers himself below animals; he stoops down to embrace demons because a soul becomes wicked with the sin of wrath.
Love. I say nothing else. Love your neighbour as the Lord God of Israel prescribes. Do not always be of Cain’s blood. And why are you so? For the sake of a few coins, you who might have become murderers. For a few palms of land. For a better position. For a woman. What are such things? Are they eternal? No. They last less than a lifetime, which lasts an instant of eternity. And what do you lose if you follow them? The eternal peace promised to the just, and which the Messiah will bring you together with His Kingdom. Come on to the way of Truth. Follow the Voice of God. Love one another. Be honest. Be moderate. Be humble and fair. Go and meditate.
Jesus speaks to the people of Jerusalem and to Roman soldiers, after interrupting a quarrel between two men whose blades he has broken (thanks to a miracle).
GRM 67.3
Love. I say nothing else. Love your neighbour as the Lord God of Israel prescribes. Do not always be of Cain’s blood. And why are you so? For the sake of a few coins, you who might have become murderers. For a few palms of land. For a better position. For a woman. What are such things? Are they eternal? No. They last less than a lifetime, which lasts an instant of eternity. And what do you lose if you follow them? The eternal peace promised to the just, and which the Messiah will bring you together with His Kingdom. Come on to the way of Truth. Follow the Voice of God. Love one another. Be honest. Be moderate. Be humble and fair. Go and meditate.