October 31, 1947prev home next
Jesus says:
“Write. It is my reply to that audacious and unjust letter and also to the letter in which there is something else that causes Me supreme indignation, which I will not say to you, a creature.
“I once said, ‘Satan has asked to sift you.’ What was said then and permitted then, regarding the disciples at that time, has also been asked for and permitted now, for you at present.
“Satan was forbidden by Me from directly torturing the little John, hated by him measurelessly. He was forbidden from torturing the little John as he is tormenting Dora della Pieve,331 in whom seven times seven times demons are raging, tormenting her so ferociously that what you saw, O Romualdo, was a child’s caress in comparison to the hellish violence at present. Satan has taken you, some of you, too many of you, to torture Maria, my little John, and at the same time examine you. And He and I have examined you. And you have destroyed my docile instrument, through whom so much Light and so many Words would have continued to pass to come to you.
“And you, Romualdo, have not been a Father or Director for my instrument, but a stepfather and tempter, to the point where I entrusted her to another Father, who is truly able to be a Father and Director,332 for if I console directly, I nonetheless want Maria’s consolations always to be examined and recognized as true and divine by a Priest in whom the Holy Spirit dwells with the fullness of his gifts. And this Priest judges, knows, and counsels. He judges Maria, knows Maria, and counsels Maria. But he also judges all of you - you more than all others, O Romualdo. He knows you and all the rest. And he will one day testify so that these matters will be known with real sincerity and justice.
“Doesn’t the fact that I took an unknown holy Priest - unknown to you and one who did not know you or the spokesman or the Work - from a remote corner of Italy and led him to Maria, saying to her, ‘Here is your Father,’ and saying to him, ‘Here is your daughter,’ mean anything to you, O Romualdo? Doesn’t it bring contrition to your heart, in humble recognition of your offense?
“You - a Father for Maria? No. You were. Soon after, very soon, Satan ensnared your paternity and altered it. He changed it from spiritual into material - you became good only at earthly things. Then, with Satan tightening his cords around you, you also stopped being paternal even to the creature’s flesh and managed to become just sour, harsh, and biting.
“You - a Director? No. I had to rectify the rudder and sail of this poor soul because your conduct was a north wind changing its course and causing it to crash into the rocks of certain forms of knowledge and disappointments which I wanted to spare her so as not to occasion scandal for this child who is the little John, this child who had a steadfast faith that every Priest was another Christ.
“Another Christ! If I had been like that, I truly would not have attracted to Myself even the meek Andrew and the loving John! If I had been as you are, I truly would not have attracted to Myself children or sinners or Gentiles. And doesn’t it scald you like a burn to tell yourself, ‘I destroyed the work of my Lord, which had brought the Belfantis back to the Church and the Priesthood?’ Peter at least wept over the scandal he had caused the night I was captured, to the point of wearing crevices into his cheeks. But you!
“Oh, you really took souls far away from Me, the souls I had conquered with the help of the little John! Oh, you really led the little John to resist me and not to recognize my voice any more, to fear it was Satan who was ordering her to give you what for fifteen months I had commanded should not be given to you any longer, what not for your sake I allowed to be given, but to bring peace to the little John, who is dying. And she is dying before the appointed time because you have consumed her.
“Bildad, Zophar, and Eliphaz are embodied in you.333 But I don’t like them. I prefer the little Job. And because I love him, I say, ‘O my servant Job, O my little John, O my Maria, pray for him, for them, and offer and suffer so that their conduct towards you will not be held against him or them, their speaking about Me and to their neighbors without the rectitude which is charity towards God and souls.’ I, the Eternal Lord, say this, who defend the humble and the small and in my fury trample on the proud and hard-hearted. I say this.... And ask your Lord that through Maria’s sacrifice your debt may be diminished.
“Poor Maria, whom no one has understood and helped, and you less than anyone else - no one, except for the far-off Father and the one you, in your blindness, deem a reprobate: Giuseppe Belfanti. No one. And in no matter whatsoever. Neither for help in her work nor for comfort in her calvary. I at least found the Cyrenean. But she! She has found the indifferent and the thrashers who struck her big wounds. But she’s still got my love. And that’s everything.”
...I was left in bad shape by this dictation.... And very unsure about conveying it. I asked Jesus. He replied:
“When someone is obstinate in offending charity, Charity tells him what until then its Mercy had spared the blameworthy one.
But you be the judge about whether or not to pass it on to Romualdo. I demand, though, that you never destroy these words and submit them to the just Isaac of this time, Isaac for Me and you, so much like the one in my time, who did not have the severe harshness of a furious Jeremiah, but the sweetness of a lamb worthy of following the Divine Lamb and guiding people to the Divine Lamb.”
Jesus called Father Berti “Isaac.” In dictating or showing Gospel episodes He has often said to me, “Such-and-such a person, or Father A or Father Z, are like this man or woman,” pointing out characters who have appeared and are described in the work.... This has given me good knowledge of them, completing my knowledge with the visual illustration (if this is the right expression) of their souls, of their real conscience and spirituality.... And I have quite often received no pleasure from knowing them so well. I preferred to deceive myself....
I also asked my Master if I should tell Father Berti about Father Pennoni’s behavior. He told me I should. I will do so. The face of my Lord is serious as on few occasions, very severe. Only on resting his hand on my head to bless me did his face brighten up with a smile of mercy for me.
331 See note 121
232 See note 201
333 Job 2:11-13 and elsewhere in this book.