April 7, 1946prev home
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Passion Sunday
I awoke from a calm sleep in which I had dreamt I was in a meadow with short, newlysprouted, emerald-green grass, encircled by a wall which was already high, but concerning which - I don’t know why - I was saying, “It ought to be raised higher,” and I further specified, “for defense”; and, indeed, the wall rose to a height of at least five meters. Really insurmountable, as it was so smooth and high.... I saw only this large meadow, untrodden by human feet, and this very high wall, and, above, a sky packed with little stars which the advancing dawn rendered ever smalier and paler. And the one who awakened me was my Lord, who called me and touched my head. I opened my eyes and said, “Here I am, Lord. I was sleeping....” And I felt a bit confused on considering that I had imitated Peter, James, and John, who slept rather too often in the most solemn hours of their Master: on Tabor and in Gethsemane.
But Jesus smiled and said:
“And I was awakening you, my sweet victim, who consume yourself out of love for Me. I have come to tell you that I am wherever creatures suffer their passion, and I speak to you, through the mouths of all the heavenly spirits, with the figures of the whole liturgy, and, in addition, with my love, increasingly forceful and present. For I know what the Passion is, in the elements preceding it and in its conclusion. And I feel infinite compassion for those suffering out of love for Me and souls. All of your moments of anguish, souls that are victims of the world and of love, have been experienced by Me. Day by day, the more I disclose to you my three-year Passion as the misunderstood Master, as the mocked Voice, and as the persecuted Savior, the more you see yourself, in your measure as a creature. And all those whom I have chosen for extraordinary service are like you. But as I fixed my gaze upon the ‘goal,’ the luminous, serene, glorious goal of my long and manifold sufferings, and said, ‘I must go through this, which is painful, to reach that, which is glorious,’ so all of you, to be able to proceed amidst the cruel brambles on your way, filled with snakes, thorns, and pitfalls, and proceed with your burden on your back to arrive at the goal - the immolation which is also the attainment of your purpose, or co-redemption - you must always keep your eyes fixed on this ‘goal,’ perfect charity towards souls, which is fulfilled by complete self-sacrifice. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s brothers and sisters and friends. I said so and I did so.
“Maria, my dear one, beloved Maria, my violet, you that consume yourself for Me, your Love, and for your brothers and sisters and whose love is truly returned only by Me, my Consumed One, come, proceed.... Let us go together. The world and Satan can hate you, but only as far as the limit I have set-high, insurmountable, like the wall seen by you in the dream. They are beyond, in their noisy, chaotic world, sullied by all the forms of concupiscence, sown with all the most poisonous heresies.... You are here, in the desert of this meadow, which has only serenity and simple poverty and blooms with grass free from corruption. You and I have made this meadow together. I, with my words, and you, with your acts of obedience. Do you see how big it is? What peace it gives forth...! And, above, the clear sky and the numberless stars gazing at you and awaiting you. They are your friends in Heaven, my beloved bride. My light makes them seem smaller and duller. But when I leave you, they flood in with their heavenly light and comfort you. In solitude - but never alone - proceed. Until the end. And then, in a beam of starlight, from your Morning Star, you shall be taken up, soul consecrated by pain, Maria consumed for the sake of your God and souls - and let this be the inscription on your burial niche, O little martyr, this and nothing else regarding all that will remind people of you - you shall be taken up into the Place of Eternal Peace and from there you shall beam light upon men; the light of love and the light of truth shall be the pages which you have obediently written to record my Words on paper, and good men shall remember you as a light. Good men...! In this, too, you are like Me, for my infinite Light was loved and received only by a few in my time. The others, darkness, did not want to receive Me and remained darkness.
“I bless you with all my loving predilection, for your comfort, for your comfort, for your comfort!”
I was left moved and joyful.... I remained like that until my Azariah began his explanation.224
My afflictions derive entirely from observing every day that the Words which God has spoken to me are in the hands of everyone, disseminated, altered, and used with no approval at all.... What great, great pain I am caused by this disobedience to the very clear orders of Jesus...! Only God can measure the breadth and depth of the torment occasioned me by the acts of disobedience by others. But it is the time of the Passion....225
224 We omit about twelve handwritten pages containing Azariah’s commentary on the Mass for Passion Sunday.
225 We omit almost fourteen handwritten pages, dated April 14, 1946, containing Azariah’s commentary on the Mass for Palm Sunday.