Alone, in these early hours of the day, I have occasion to concentrate and reflect on many things. And, among them, I wonder why Jesus has waited so long to shed light on the PB. case.754 I am not referring to 1941 and 1942, when I still lacked the Word, but to these past eighteen months, in which It has been teaching me, and Father Migliorini, Giuseppe himself, and I were wishing for divine light on what, in different ways, but with the same anxiousness, we were concerned about knowing. And I also ask Jesus, “Why, in 1941, when the initial contact with that man took place, did You, Master, say to me, ‘Do not judge. Over the centuries there have been creatures described as obsessed who were holy, and vice versa. Do not judge, then. I speak where and with whom I want to, and I can speak even to those who seem less worthy’? You said this to me, more or less. I don’t have the words of your light here, which I then thought were only an inner inspiration, but I know these were approximately your words.”
And Jesus replies to me:
“You did not deserve more then. And it was not yet the time to give you more. You needed to come to forgive to deserve to have Me as a Teacher in the manner in which you have Me. From this consider what merit forgiveness possesses. In addition, reflect and comprehend by way of a parable. The present times can enable you to savor it better than the normal times, when you perceived only the taste of bread without experiencing the difficulty of producing it.
“A woman wants to make bread for her family. She has abundant and good wheat. She has the material suitable for kneading it and water and an oven - everything. But she doesn’t have yeast, or she has barely a crumb. She considers whether or not to make the bread and thinks about waiting until she has the yeast in a sufficient amount. But hunger and haste overcome her, and she says, ‘Oh, well! I’ll use a lot of good will and work the dough a lot, and it will turn out well even without yeast.’ And she kneads the wheat and works and sweats.... She really applies all her strength and will to succeed. She then makes the bread, covers it, places it in the heat, and takes a look from time to time. The mass does not rise. She says, ‘It’s harder than usual, but it will grow in the oven. I have worked so much! Everything was excellent! It must necessarily turn out well.’ She regulates the flame and warmth in the oven and bakes it. Then she takes it out of the oven. The bread is cooked. But it is not soft, fragrant, appetizing bread. It is an acid, heavy mass against which the strongest teeth grow weary without managing to turn it into a soft mouthful. Stomachs suffer. There is a bad mood in the house. The wheat has been wasted for nothing. The effort has been made for nothing. And all because of her impatience and lack of preparation.
“This is the parable. Now for its application.
“In 1941, you had a lot of wheat: your love for Truth and your faithfulness to it. You had a lot of good will for serving Me and taking the Light into hearts - even at the price of using a heavy hand and wounding to make way for the Light. You were in a great hurry to bring your conquests to my hunger for hearts. You had everything. But not enough yeast of Charity. It is a virtue lacking not only in neophytes, but also in many who are not only solid Catholics, but also ministers in the care of souls.
“Now, souls are the most delicate and sickest creatures in existence. More delicate than a baby a few days old. They are, indeed, infants that grow and form slowly. I am speaking about the souls of the majority. When a baby is born, he is in reality endowed with everything present in an adult. He already is. But, when observed carefully, what he possesses presents such delicateness that it is not mistaken to affirm that man goes on being formed, in an extramaternal gestation, until his development is complete. If one wanted to give adult food and habits to an infant, one would bring about his death. It is necessary to adapt food and life patterns to a person’s age and organic formation. Don’t you think so? Attentive, loving fathers and mothers do this.
“In the same way, souls are patients with one disease or another; they are wounded or convalescent - and these latter ones are indeed fortunate. But if a doctor were to act thoughtlessly upon broken members or exhausted organs, what would happen? And, if he were to say, ‘Fool! It’s your own fault that you’re this way! Accept it! It serves you right! You’re disgusting’? As a result, the poor patient or wounded person or convalescent would be demoralized and, in becoming depressed, would not react. Without help he could not consolidate improvement; the wounds would get more putrid or deeper because they had not been treated by an expert hand or had been poorly treated by an inexpert one.
“How much love! How much experience, patience, and gentleness! How much charity, in short, is needed to heal souls and change them from sick ones into healthy ones, from poisoned into free ones, from formless into well-formed ones! If one goes with harshness, intransigence, impatience, and a lack of charity, one causes a greater evil, provoking obstinacy, anger, and separation from the doctor and educator - indeed, from the one rearing souls and thus from Goodness.
“If I had not halted you with my ‘Do not judge,’ making you reflect that even in someone apparently less suited to being an instrument of God, God might be present, you would have broken with your violence what I had knotted together: a silk thread destined to become a ship’s hawser with the cables of superhuman charity and human affection.
“You are a ‘little John’ in this, too, you know? ‘One day, when the disciples had been rejected by the Samaritans, John and James said, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to consume them?” But Jesus rebuked them, saying, “You don’t know the spirit you ought to have. The Son of Man has not come to destroy souls, but to save them,” ’755 and, to correct their vehement zeal, which tended to take on human manifestations, with a smile I called them, ‘the sons of thunder.’756
“Isn’t it sweeter to be children of peace rather than of the storm? God, as you know,757 it not in the impetuous wind, but in the light breeze. I want you gentle, gentle, extremely gentle, like a ewe lamb without defects or malice, in relation to your brothers and sisters. They should follow you on account of your soft fleece, entirely delicate and warm, the sweet sound of your loving voice, and your festive reception of them filled with affection. I have worked you with charity, the yeast which was insufficient in you, because you love Me with your whole self, but not your neighbors as I love them. I want you to love them as I do: with mercy, even if they are lepers; with tireless patience, even if they are stubborn.
“Now, now that the yeast is making your wheat good bread, now you have been able to deserve to repeat my words and to join your words to them. And now was the time to say them, for Me, and to receive them, for them. A few months ago I could have said them as well, but they would not have fallen upon well-prepared ground. ‘Their’ ground also had to be prepared to receive them.
“Go in peace. Your Jesus does nothing without a perfect purpose. And, as for everything else you want to know, I repeat,758 ‘Act as with Sister Benigna.’
“My blessing for the good. My blessing upon the nascent Work. It comes within the orbit of the preparation of spirits for the advent of my Kingdom, of unity to offer resistance to the Disintegrator of the world, who is speeding up his works and sharpening them in order to destroy promptly and completely. You can, then, give the Work itself what you possess: sufferings, prayers, and actions.
“Maria, do you remember your act of offering to Love and Justice?759 Robed in the merits of your Beloved, in that act you repeat my words: ‘Father, forgive men... and if, to placate your justice, expiatory hosts are needed, here I am, Father. Immolate me for the sake of peace between man and God, between man and man, for the coming of your Kingdom.’ And to Me, your Love, say, ‘You said that the greatest love is offered by the one who lays down his life for his friends.760 That’s it. I come and offer myself to You so that your Kingdom will be established on earth and in hearts.’ And you ask me to use you as an instrument, a blind instrument that thus does not ask the reason for anything.
“I use you. I use you for this. For my Kingdom in the hearts of the men who no longer know Me as I am. If they knew Me as I am, very many would come to Me. I want them to come. I take pity on these throngs. Many in them are corrupted because they do not know the Shepherd.
“Rally the flock together. The Shepherd is coming. Let the sheep and the lambs gather at the sound of my loving appeal. The goats will separate by themselves. Are there only a few of you? There were twelve, and eleven remained. Is the cradle obscure and base? In a manger, in the smallest of the cities in Judah, the Savior was born.761 I bless the ‘good wills’ which gather. Let Me have ‘my followers,’ as Satan has his.
“Come back to the Gospel, children. Come back. If there had been holier actions and words to bring spirits to Goodness, I, Wisdom, would have used them. There is nothing more suited to sanctifying than the Gospel.
“Come to the ‘Fount of the waters of the Savior.’762 Yes, they are truly waters issuing from my heart - these loving words which are my Gospel: the word of the Good News. The Good News which I repeat once more with an urgent invitation to the world, which is perishing in what is not good.
“Great and humble ones who want this Work - my blessing for you. And you, little John, are more of a martyr than ever for this reason. Go in peace.”
754 This must be a reference to Giuseppe Belfanti, cousin of the writer’s mother. He was known as “Peppino” in the family. Cf. the Autobiography, pp. 411-417.
755 Luke 9:51-55 (Matthew 9:13; Mark 2:17; Luke 19:10).
756 Mark 3:16-17.
757 See the dictation on August 3.
758 See September 24.
759 Cf. the Autobiography, pp. 250-259 and 279-300.
760 John 15:13.
761 Matthew 2:5-6.
762 Isaiah 12:3.