Jesus says:
“Now then, doctors who did not measure the tremendous trial of my Maria with a proper measure, and her torture seemed small to you, not to be called a ‘hell,’ and you were scandalized to hear it described as a ‘curse’ - what do you think of this fast regarding my word? Do you understand why it was allotted to you? Do you want to continue to deserve it? Speak, then. And speak while considering that no one else has been stricken so much as she, my little voice.
“You are comparable to those rocks, far from the rustic basin of an Alpine source which are sprinkled and shine with the spray of the fount issuing forth from the mountainside, while she is the basin and receives that whole flow, resounds with it, and is filled with it, and she exists because she is this, and if deprived of this, she is a desolate thing without a purpose in existing.
“And yet she had her hour of torture, with the privation of the word, for my ends and for her training. So that you will know that the souls that give themselves to Me are like iron which fire renders supple, and they must let themselves be worked, bent, and thinned out in every sense, according to my will - docile in receiving in order to give, docile in remaining without their treasure: Me, docile in receiving for themselves alone and in receiving and not being able to retain for themselves even the echo of a word - that is, the sweetness my word leaves in its wake, similar to the sweetness remaining on the tongue after a honeycomb has been sucked on - docile in resuming their mission. Always docile, these dear, beloved souls that my love tortures to make them increasingly its own and that it tortures for you - to make you a little more my own.
“What do you think of this silence of mine? Haven’t you been recalcitrant, rearing up like capricious horses against it, finding this tight vise, set as a bridle on your desire to go on receiving, to be hard? Haven’t you sinned against charity and justice by giving this silence a meaning which it lacks: the punishment of the spokesman for some sin which has been assumed (by you)? Haven’t you sinned against humility and justice by not acknowledging that you have deserved it for different reasons and that it is proper for you to have had it in order to understand the torment which was given to this heart and that you will still be given silence if you so deserve - that is, if you do not use it as my gift should be used? If you want to turn it into a human study. If you proceed with scant respect for the mystery. If you disobey my wishes.
“Now, since I don’t want to have her languish further, though I have filled her with personal joy-but it is not enough for her because she has understood what Love is and wants to give love; that is, she wants to be full of joy for everyone, not for herself alone - I shall resume my evangelization. After forty days of silence. And let this also discredit the thought latent in some brains that the silence has come because of a lack of inspiration.
“Present, absent, distant, near - you are nothing, O mortals, for her. I alone am. I alone. Even if she were the only survivor of Adam’s race in the world, she would be my ‘spokesman,’ for the eternal books, if I so willed. Man is a phantom with no power or voice in this ministry. Only God exists. The Author of and Will behind the event.
“If only you were capable of understanding and believing! Meditate and improve. Go. And be grateful to Me for having had mercy on you and resumed the offering of the gift.” A very light, gentle, cheerful voice. Yes, just hearing it fills me with joy. The voice of the Holy Spirit. The most immaterial, most exuberant voice. Light and delight, along with peace and joy, enter one’s heart with it and flow through all of one’s being. Oh, the placid kiss of this Voice of Love...!
Since, when He calls me, I respond, “Here I am” and ask, “Why were You silent for so long? Why do You speak so rarely?” He says to me:
“No, I am not silent and do not speak rarely. I always speak to you. I am never silent. I speak for all. I speak to you alone. I speak on the lips of the Word and use the tongue of Mary, my Most Holy Spouse, to give you my teachings. I speak with the visions and harmonies which I send you from the Heavens. I speak with the comforts and the kisses of peace with which I uplift your heart to nonhuman heights. I speak by covering aspects and voices of the world with my being Love for you. There is not an instant in which I fail to provide for you. You believe the Others come. No. It is I who take you to the Others, I - Love. With the seven gifts I fortify and purify you, I make you pious and capable of seeing, humble and learned in a nonhuman science, I guide and counsel you, and I open your intellect and instill Wisdom into it - the queen whose reign is Heaven.
“Come. Enter. Dive into Love. You must be burned in order to be able to receive. You must be clear to make the Light shine through. The Prophet’s lip820 was cleansed by a seraph. Love carries out the purification of the ‘spokesman’ souls.
“I bless you to make you capable of being increasingly ‘strong.’ Strong against all the snares which the Tempter casts forth to harm God’s instruments and profane them by sullying them.
“Be as pure and inflamed as a star. Go in peace.”821
820 Isaiah 6:6-7.
821 This entry was followed, on December 19 and 20, by the episode involving “The Preparations and Departure from Nazareth for Jesus’ Coming-of-Age Ceremony.” On December 21, the episode involving “The Examination of Jesus at the Temple for His Coming of Age” was given. Both are included in the Preparation cycle.