I think most people have run up on this passage in the Bible and scratched their heads as I have. Just as Pharaoh's heart was hardened how is it that God allows some to believe while others are blinded from the truth?
When Jesus had said this, he departed and hid himself from them. 37 Though he had done so many signs before them, yet they did not believe in him; 38 it was that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
“Lord, who has believed our report,
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
39 Therefore they could not believe. For Isaiah again said,
40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart,
lest they should see with their eyes and perceive with their heart,
and turn for me to heal them.”
lest they should see with their eyes and perceive with their heart,
and turn for me to heal them.”
41 Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke of him.
John 12:36-41So why do some people seem to understand and know God while others do not. The Gospel is known by all to exist but so many don't recognize it as being from God. How is it that people seem to not have the ability to see clearly with their intellect to know that God exists and understand His truths. Ultimately it is always Will of God and perhaps not given to us to understand. "God saves whom He will and reprobates likewise; hence no one merits election; election is not because of antecedent merits or foreseen deeds." http://www.romancatholicism.org/jansenism/augustine-194.htm
However here in the Volumes Jesus does speak of belief being the first step to understanding. Belief appears to be a choice.
“My daughter, in order to comprehend a
subject well it takes belief, because without belief everything is dark in the
human intellect. On the other hand, the mere believing turns on a light
in the mind, and by means of this light one can recognize with clarity truth
and falsehood, when it is grace that operates, when it is nature, and when the
devil. See, the Gospel is known to all, but who comprehends the meaning
of my words, and the truths contained in It? Who keeps them in his heart
and makes of them a treasure with which to purchase the eternal kingdom?
One who believes. As for all others, not only do they not understand a
thing, but they use my words to mock them and to make fun of the holiest
things. So, it can be said that everything is written in the hearts of
those who believe, hope and love, while nothing is written for everyone
else. The same with you: one who has a little bit of belief sees
things with clarity and finds the truth; one who does not, sees things as all
confused.”
Vol. 4, Jan. 9, 1903So belief first is necessary in order to understand a subject. This is referring to the gift of faith and where faith is found so is found hope and charity. The three are as tightly bound as the memory, intellect and the will but it is faith which acts as the light to the eyes of the intellect.
“In order to obtain, one must believe. Just as for the head without the sight of the eyes, everything is darkness, everything is confusion, so much so, that if one wanted to walk, he would stumble now at one point, now at another, and would end up falling completely, the same for the soul without Faith – she does nothing but go from precipice to precipice. But Faith serves as the sight of the soul, and as the light which guides her to eternal life.
Vol. 1, Jesus prepares Luisa for the renewal in heaven of the Mystical Marriage, with the approval of the Blessed Trinity; so he speaks to her of the three theological virtues.
The intellect of man is endowed by the Son to communicate wisdom and knowledge so that man might come to know and understand God more and thereby come to love Him more. But with original sin man now uses his intellect to turn away from God to deny God himself.
“Now, as second act, I, Son of God, concurred by endowing man with intellect, communicating to him my wisdom and the knowledge of all things, so that by knowing them, he might enjoy them and delight in what is good. But, alas, what a bilge of vices is the intelligence of the creature! He has used knowledge to deny his Creator.
Vol. 14, April 8, 1922
Vol. 14, April 8, 1922
So it seems to me that man without faith turns his intellect in on himself instead of out towards God. It is this choice that we make. It is what enchants our eye the most the image of our self or the image of God in whom we were created. So even further perhaps it is the intrinsic nature within each of us. But when God finds this character within the creature he then delights in teaching her and drawing her closer to him through his truths.
“My daughter, when I see the character of the purpose of Creation impressed in the soul, feeling satisfied with her because I see so well accomplished the work created by Me, I feel a duty - or rather, not a duty”, He immediately added, “because in Me there are no duties, but my duty is a more intense love to repay her, advancing for her part of the celestial happiness - that is, manifesting to her intellect the knowledge of the Divinity; attracting her with the food of eternal truths; amusing her sight with my beauty, making the sweetness of my voice resound to her hearing; to her mouth, my kisses; to her heart, my embraces and all my tendernesses. And this corresponds to the purpose for which I created her, which is: to know Me, to love Me, to serve Me.”
Vol. 5, Oct. 29, 1903And here we have an insight into this passage in the Bible.
29 For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
Matthew 25:29
It is in having this character that they then are able to receive and thereby correspond and then receive more. Where by one who does not even have this character within themselves does not possess the ability to receive.
Now, you must know that as I form my life in the thought of the creature that lives in my Volition, I feel the company of the human intelligence that courts me, and loves me, understands me and gives me its memory, the intellect, the will in my power and since in these three powers was created our image, I feel our eternal memory given to me for company that doesn’t forget anything, I feel the company of my wisdom that understands me, and then the company of the human will fused with mine, that loves me with my eternal love; how not to multiply in every thought of hers as many of our lives, when we find that she understands us and loves us more? We can say, we find our profit; because how much more life we form so much more we make ourselves understood, we give her double love and she loves us more; if we form our life in the word, we find the company of hers, and since our Fiat is hers, we find all the prodigies that he has worked when our Fiat was pronounced; if we form it in her breath, we find hers that breathes together and the company of our omnipotent breath, when creating we infused life (in) her; if we form it in her motion, we find her hands that embrace us squeezing us strongly, that don’t want to leave us anymore; if we form it in the steps they follow us anywhere. What beautiful company, one who lives in our Will, there is no peril that they ever leave us alone, we both are inseparable.
Vol. 36, August 21, 1938So Luisa wanted to know that if it is through these knowledges on the Divine Will that creatures will come to know God, desire his Will and long for his Kingdom why he didn't allow Adam to know them so that he might pass them on to all the generations to dispose mankind. Jesus in fact tells her that Adam did know them but in withdrawing from the Divine Will his intellect became obscured and he lacked the ability to pass them on to others.
On hearing this, I said: ‘My Love, Jesus,
if these knowledges on your adorable Will contain so much virtue, why did You
not manifest them to Adam, so that, by making them known to posterity, they
would have loved and appreciated more a good so great, and this would have
disposed the hearts for the time when You, Divine Repairer, would decree to
give us this great gift of the Kingdom of the Supreme Fiat?’ And Jesus,
resuming His speaking, added: “My daughter, as long as he remained in the
terrestrial Eden, living in the Kingdom of the Supreme Will, Adam knew all the
knowledges, as much as it is possible for a creature, of that which belonged to
the Kingdom he possessed. But as soon as he went out of It, his intellect
was obscured; he lost the light of his Kingdom, and could not find the fitting
words in order to manifest the knowledges he had acquired on the Supreme Will,
because that very Divine Volition which would hand to him the necessary terms
to manifest to others what he had known, was missing in him.
Vol. 20, Sept. 17, 1926
“My daughter, all things down here, both in the supernatural order and in the
natural order, are all veiled. Only in Heaven are they unveiled, because in the
Celestial Fatherland there are no veils, but things can be seen as they are in
themselves. So, up there the intellect does not need to work in order to
comprehend them, because of their own they show themselves for what they are;
and if there is any work to do in the blessed dwelling – if it can be called
work at all – it is that of enjoying and delighting in the things which,
unveiled, one sees. On the other hand, down here it is not so. Since the human
nature is spirit and body, the veil of the body prevents the soul from seeing
my truths; the Sacraments and all other things are veiled. I Myself, Word of
the Father, had the veil of my Humanity; all my words, my Gospel, in the form
of examples and of similes; and only those who drew near Me to listen to Me
with faith in their hearts, with humility and with the will to know the truths
that I manifested to them in order to put them into practice, could comprehend
Me. By doing this, they tore the veils that hid my truths, and found the good
that was in them. Through faith, through humility and by wanting to know my
truths, it was a work that they were doing; and with this work they would tear
the veil and find my truths as they are in themselves; and therefore they
remained bound to Me and to the good that my truths contained. Others, who
would not do this work, would touch the veil of my truths, not the fruit that
was inside; therefore they remained on an empty stomach, they could not
understand anything; and turning their back to Me, they departed from Me.
So are my truths which, with so much love, I have manifested to you about my Divine Will. So that they may shine like unveiled suns, as they are, creatures must do their work, walk the way in order to touch them – which is faith; they must desire to want to know them, and pray, and humble their intellect in order to open it, so as to let the good and the life of my truths enter into them. If they do this, they will tear the veil and will find them, more than refulgent sun; otherwise, they will remain blind, and I will repeat the saying of the Gospel: ‘You have eyes and do not see, ears and do not hear, tongue and are mute.’
See, also in the natural order all things are veiled. Fruits have the veil of the skin. Who enjoys the good of eating them? One who does the work of drawing near the tree, of picking it, of removing the skin that hides the fruit. This one enjoys and makes the desired fruit his food. The fields are veiled by straws. Who takes the good that those straws hide? One who uncovers them of those straws has the good of taking the grain in order to form the bread to make of it his daily food. In sum, all things down here have the veil that covers them, to give to man the work and the will, the love to possess them and enjoy them. Now, my truths surpass natural things by far, and they present themselves to the creature like noble queens, veiled, in the act of giving themselves to them. But they want their work; they want them to draw near them by the steps of their will, in order to know them, possess them and love them – necessary conditions in order to tear the veil that hides them. Once the veil is torn, with their light, of their own they make their way, giving themselves in possession to those who have searched for them.
This is the reason for those who read the truths on my Divine Will and show that they do not comprehend what they read - even more, they are confused: because the true will of wanting to know them is lacking. It can be said that the work in order to know them is lacking; and without work nothing can be acquired, nor do they deserve such a great good. And I, with justice, deny to them that which I abundantly give to the humble and those who yearn for the great good of the light of my truths. My daughter, how many truths of mine, suffocated by those who do not love to know them and do not want to do their little work in order to possess them. I feel that they want to suffocate my very Self, if they could. And I, in my sorrow, am forced to repeat what I said in the Gospel, and I do it in deed: I take away from those who do not have, or who might have a little something of my goods, and I leave them in squalid misery, because, not wanting them and not loving them, these would hold them without esteeming them and without fruit; and I will give more abundantly to those who have, because these will hold them as precious treasures which will bear fruit more and more.”
Fiat!!!
Vol. 28, Aug. 2, 1930
So are my truths which, with so much love, I have manifested to you about my Divine Will. So that they may shine like unveiled suns, as they are, creatures must do their work, walk the way in order to touch them – which is faith; they must desire to want to know them, and pray, and humble their intellect in order to open it, so as to let the good and the life of my truths enter into them. If they do this, they will tear the veil and will find them, more than refulgent sun; otherwise, they will remain blind, and I will repeat the saying of the Gospel: ‘You have eyes and do not see, ears and do not hear, tongue and are mute.’
See, also in the natural order all things are veiled. Fruits have the veil of the skin. Who enjoys the good of eating them? One who does the work of drawing near the tree, of picking it, of removing the skin that hides the fruit. This one enjoys and makes the desired fruit his food. The fields are veiled by straws. Who takes the good that those straws hide? One who uncovers them of those straws has the good of taking the grain in order to form the bread to make of it his daily food. In sum, all things down here have the veil that covers them, to give to man the work and the will, the love to possess them and enjoy them. Now, my truths surpass natural things by far, and they present themselves to the creature like noble queens, veiled, in the act of giving themselves to them. But they want their work; they want them to draw near them by the steps of their will, in order to know them, possess them and love them – necessary conditions in order to tear the veil that hides them. Once the veil is torn, with their light, of their own they make their way, giving themselves in possession to those who have searched for them.
This is the reason for those who read the truths on my Divine Will and show that they do not comprehend what they read - even more, they are confused: because the true will of wanting to know them is lacking. It can be said that the work in order to know them is lacking; and without work nothing can be acquired, nor do they deserve such a great good. And I, with justice, deny to them that which I abundantly give to the humble and those who yearn for the great good of the light of my truths. My daughter, how many truths of mine, suffocated by those who do not love to know them and do not want to do their little work in order to possess them. I feel that they want to suffocate my very Self, if they could. And I, in my sorrow, am forced to repeat what I said in the Gospel, and I do it in deed: I take away from those who do not have, or who might have a little something of my goods, and I leave them in squalid misery, because, not wanting them and not loving them, these would hold them without esteeming them and without fruit; and I will give more abundantly to those who have, because these will hold them as precious treasures which will bear fruit more and more.”
Fiat!!!
Vol. 28, Aug. 2, 1930
The little work we must do to understand God's truths is spelled out above: one must have "faith; they must desire to want to know them, and pray, and humble their intellect in order to open it, so as to let the good and the life of my truths enter into them." Here we see Faith, Hope and Charity in act. The belief of Faith, the Hope beyond our limited intellect, and the active Love of wanting the good of these truths in act. But in order for us to possess we must want with the Will of God, in order to want we must hope in God beyond our own limitations and it all begins with the simple but huge leap of faith or the belief in the absence of firm knowledge. In this way the intellect will understand when it first has the light of faith.
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