December 26, 1945prev home next
Jesus says:
“It is a time of graces! It is a time of Grace! I came to bring ‘peace’ to men of good will. Write, then, and hand over to Maria Raffaelli127 what I tell you, for the sake of her peace.”
Jesus says to M.R.:
“My peace be with you, and may what I say to you be a river of peaceful waiting and peaceful suffering rendered bearable by my promise, which never lies. My daughter, you know a great deal about what men teach concerning Me. But you know little about what I really am and do. Listen. It is the Lord who speaks; it is Wisdom; it is Truth.
“One thing is to be tormented, and another is to want to be tormented. The former is a misfortune which does not go beyond the earthly day and often ceases before. The latter is a sin because it is ‘connivance with the will of Satan.’ This sin is not in your son. When he becomes delirious, it is not he who speaks. Is a phonograph responsible for what comes out of its speaker? It’s not, is it? Well then, in the same way your son is not responsible for what the ‘other’ makes him say. I do not even hear those words, for, with the Accursed One, I use the silence of lips and ears. I do not listen to his words, the words not his booming in the air; I look at this poor son of mine and yours, o mother of sorrow, and it is entirely mercy which is poured out by Me upon him.
“I said, while thinking of you, ‘In illnesses Satan often hides to torture and bring people to curse the Lord.’ I said, ‘The pain of mothers is salvation for their children.’ And so it is, Maria. Heaven is populated with children saved by their mothers. Go, go with your cross. You are carrying it for yourself and for him. His even more than yours. Oh, good mother, aren’t you happy to be the Cyrenean for your son? My Mother murmurs, ‘If only I had been able to carry your cross, my Son!’
“Don’t be in a hurry. These are long matters. You could even not see their completion during your mortal day. You could rise to Heaven with this faith (faith - do you understand? - not hope), with this faith in what I say, and there, with more power, help your child.... Oh, do not sigh out your grief! Waiting becomes an instant up above. And then comes the joy of seeing him handsome, healthy, good, and happy forever. Forever. Forever. What looks like a punishment is just a means. What may appear to be damnation is instead salvation. His cross is his expiation on earth of his sins as a man. I do not make people pay twice. I am just.
“Have faith. Support him with your prayers. Give him to Me. Offer him to Me. Say, ‘I trust in You.’ The balm descending from my wounds is never inactive.
“My daughter, peace be in you and upon those like you.... My mercy upon your son.”
“And now,” Jesus continues with me, “say this to Father Romualdo.”
Jesus says:
“You are free to go. Act. Try. But the objections made to the ‘Dora’ case,128 so tumultuous and interspersed with lights and shadows, and the objections made to the ‘Maria’ case, so calm, orderly, and peaceful, like everything coming directly from Me, against Whom the devil cannot strike and must work lying in ambush and with difficulty, serve to justify a point in the Gospel which is not valid for Me alone, but for all the cases where I am, even if hidden in a creature-instrument. ‘We played the pipes for you, and you would not dance; we sang dirges, and you would not be mourners.’ And at another point: ‘For John the Baptist has come, not eating bread, not drinking wine, and you say,
“He is possessed.” The Son of man has come, eating and drinking, and you say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.’129
“Yes, human wisdom, proud and incredulous, seeking to show off its learning on everything, having lost the spirit of events and going by appearances it wishes to justify in a way it cannot - because the supernatural eludes natural methods of research and judgment - wants to justify - and does not realize it is contradicting itself - the two different cases with the same mistaken reasons. Just to be able to absolve itself from its incredulity, its inability to perceive and recognize the supernatural - that is, the divine - where it is present.
“The last time will be that of the spirit. But, in truth, in truth, I tell you that only those who are voluntary victims of the Spirit, and quarries accepted by the Spirit, will still be able to admit the supernatural. The others... dregs that He will deposit at the bottom of the infernal pools and for which the Word will no longer exist, for it does not give itself to pigs because it is respected by Itself and protected by Itself.
“And may this be light for you, Romualdo Maria. My peace be in you.”
127 Maria Raffaelli, of Castelnuovo of Garfagnama (Lucca), had a disabled son, Antonio, who posed serious problems for his mother and two sisters (Rosa and Dina). As a historical reference, it is interesting to add that Maria Raffaelli had involuntarily provided the occasion for the first meeting between Maria Valtorta and Father Romualdo M. Migliorini (see The Notebooks. 1943, note 5, for general information on the life of Father Migliorini). Having learned that the infirm woman lacked spiritual care, she went to tell a priest she knew, Father Pietro M. Pennoni, at St. Andrew’s Convent of the Servants of Mary. This priest had to ask his own superior for permission to attend to Maria Valtorta. But the superior, who was precisely Father Migliorini, was waiting for an occasion to go to the sick woman, about whom someone had already spoken to him, and he replied, “I’ll go.”
128 See note 121.
129 Matthew 11:16-19; Luke 7:31-35.