Friday, September 2, 2016

Fallen Adam

 






In the previous post we glimpsed the heights, the beauty, the seas of grace and divine fields of action with which Adam was endowed.  This initial period of his life can not be taken away despite his fall.



So, by virtue of the first period of his life, innocent and carried out all in the unity of Our Fiat, Adam possesses such glory and beauty that no one can equal him. At the mere sight of him, all of the Blessed recognize how beautiful and majestic the creation of the first man was, enriched with so much grace. In looking at him, they can see, in him, the incalculable good of the Divine Will in the creature, and the joy and happiness that the creature can possess. In him alone, as though within a mirror, the Blessed can see how man was created, the exuberant love that We had for him, the abundance with which We enriched him. We gave him everything, as much as a creature could contain, to the point of overflowing outside and being able to flood the whole earth.
Vol. 24, September 10, 1928




When we think of Adam after the fall we encounter images of him being cast out with Eve from a beautiful garden to sorrow and hardship in shame and confusion.  But this image is so lacking in the reality of the extreme change which happened within himself which he brought upon himself and the heights from which he fell which left him as crippled and blind.


"...Adam fell from a very high place; he had been placed by his Creator at such an elevated point, that it surpassed the limits of the sky, the stars, and the sun.  Living in My Will he lived above everything - in God Himself.  See from where he fell?  Falling from such heights, it is a miracle that he didn’t totally perish.  But if he didn’t die, the blow he received in falling was so strong that it was inevitable that he remain crippled, broken, and deformed in his rare beauty.  He was left with all his goods smashed; [he was] left indolent in his actions, dulled in his intellect, suffering from a fever which weakened him, withered in all the virtues, and he no longer felt the strength to dominate himself.  Man’s most beautiful asset, dominion of self, had vanished, and the passions had taken over to terrorize him, to render him restless and melancholy.  Because he was the father and head of the human generations, he produced a family of cripples.  Many think that not doing My Will is of little importance; instead it is the total ruin of the creature, and for as many acts (as the creature) commits of his own will, by so many times do his evils increase, along with his ruin, and he only continues to dig an abyss ever deeper for him to fall into.” 
So I thought to myself:  if Adam, withdrawing just one single time from the Divine Will, made him fall so low and change his fortune into misery, his happiness into bitterness - how will it be for us who so many, many times have withdrawn ourselves from this adorable Will?  But as I was thinking this, my loving and only Good added: 
 
“My daughter, Adam fell so low because he withdrew from an Expressed Will of his Creator, in which was enclosed the test to try his faithfulness towards He who had given him life and all the goods he possessed.  More so, because that which God had asked of him was that before so many goods that He had freely given Adam, of the so many (varieties of) fruit that He had given him, that he deprive himself of one single fruit out of love for He who had given him everything.  And in this small sacrifice that God wanted from him, He let Adam know that it was only because He wanted to be sure of his love and his fidelity.  Adam should have felt honored that his Creator wanted to be sure of the love of His creature.  Who would ever have believed that the one who brought him down and persuaded him to fall was not a being superior to him, but a vile serpent - his capital enemy.  His fall brought graver consequences; because he was the head of all the generations, so all the members would naturally eventually feel the effects of the evil of their head.  See, therefore, how when my Will is expressed, wanted, and commanded, the sin is greater and the consequences are irremediable.  Only My same Divine Will can make reparation to such a great evil as that which befell Adam.
“On the other hand, when It is not expressed, the creature still has the obligation to pray that I make known My Will in his actions, if inside his acts there is an interest for good and My pure glory.  But if this is not expressed the evil is not as grave, and it is easier to find a remedy.  I do this to each creature to test their faithfulness, and also to be assured of the love they say they have for Me.  Who is there who does not want to be sure of the authority that they have, such that they arrive at making a contract?  Who is there who doesn’t want to be sure of the faithfulness of a friend, or of the true loyalty of a servant?  So to be sure, I make known that I want small sacrifices which will bring all goods, along with holiness, and We will realize the purpose for which they were created.  Instead, if they are reluctant, everything will be upset in them, and all evils will fall upon them.  But not doing My Will is always an evil more or less evil according to the gratitude, for It that [they] possess.”
Vol. 21, April 8, 1927



So the fall of Adam from the expressed Will of God became the fall of us all.  The original pattern from which we all take our own pattern was damaged and we were all struck with original sin.  But what was it that caused Adam and Eve to turn from God in the first place and how is it that such a seemingly simple sin could be the origin of so many evils?

In fact, do you want to know why Adam sinned? Because he forgot that I loved him, and he forgot to love Me. This was the first seed of his fall. Had he thought that I loved him very much and that he was obliged to love Me, he would never have decided to disobey Me. So, love ceased first, and then sin began; and as he ceased to love his God, true love toward himself also ceased. His members and powers rebelled against him; he lost dominion, order, and became fearful. Not only this, but true love toward other creatures ceased, while I had created him with the same love which reigned among the Divine Persons, by which one was to be the image of the other, the happiness, the joy and life of the other. This is why, in coming upon earth, the thing on which I placed greatest importance was that they love one another as they were loved by Me, in order to give them my first love, to let the love of the Most Holy Trinity hover over the earth.
Vol. 16, September 6, 1923

Again in another discussion on this topic Jesus continues to explain how in removing his gaze from God, which should have always been the focus of his love, and instead focusing on the fruit given to him by Eve he did not just commit a simple sin but in doing so partook in all the seven deadly sins giving birth to them all.



Why did Adam sin? Because he removed his gaze from the divine attraction, and as Eve presented to him the fruit to let him eat of it, he looked at the fruit, and his sight took pleasure in looking at it, his hearing took delight in hearing the words of Eve - that if he ate the fruit he would become like God; and His palate took pleasure in eating it. So, taste was the first act of his ruin. On the other hand, had he felt displeasure in looking at it, tedium and bother in hearing the words of Eve, disgust in eating it, Adam would not have sinned. On the contrary, he would have done the first heroic act of his life, by resisting and correcting Eve for having done that; and he would have remained with the everlasting crown of faithfulness toward the One to whom he owed so much, and who had all the rights for his subjection. Oh! how careful one must be with the different tastes that arise in the soul. If they are purely divine tastes, one must give them life; but if they are human tastes, or of passions, one must give them death; otherwise there is the danger of falling into the current of evil.”
Vol. 15, June 6, 1923


This extrapolation of the seven deadly sins hidden in original sin was explained by Fr. Robert and I will try to recall it.  When Adam turned his gaze from God to the apple he sinned in pride by trying to see and understand with his own powers without the humble disposition of seeing in and by the light of God.  He contemplated it and took pleasure in it, thus sinning with lust.  Greedily wanting it for his own when he heard Eve tell him he would become like God if he ate it.  He envied God and wanted to become like Him without going through God thereby sinning with sloth.  And he distrusted the love of God believing God was holding out on him or lying to him and sinned with anger.  And in taking pleasure in eating something which he should not eat he sinned with gluttony.  So indeed all seven sins were given birth in original sin



So (Adam) remained as a darkened city; his relations, his electric lines of communication no longer functioned.  The source of light had retreated from him, because he himself had broken off communications, and was left as a rejected king, dethroned and without dominion.  Every light of his city was turned off, and he was wrapped in the darkness of his own will.
Vol. 21, April 12, 1927



Adam was left blinded.  He had rejected the source of light and his understanding and intellect could no longer see without it.  His dominion as King was overthrown because He who kept order and kept him enthroned was ousted and now Adam was ruled by passions and became a slave.  He was left fearful and unhappy with no peace because he was now in contrast with He who is peace and had done all good for him.  Indeed he put himself in contrast with the order of the universe and could rightly be afraid of all creation.




I was thinking to myself:  ‘Before sinning, my first father Adam possessed all these bonds and relations of communication with all Creation, because by possessing the Supreme Will as whole, it was as though natural for him to feel within himself all the communications, wherever It operated.  Now, in withdrawing from this Will so holy, did he not feel the tearing he made from all Creation? - the snapping of all communications and of all bonds, broken from It as though in one single breath?  If by just thinking of whether I must do an act or not, and by just hesitating, I feel that the heavens tremble, the sun withdraws, and all Creation is shaken and is in the act of leaving me alone, so much so that I myself tremble together with them, and, frightened, immediately, without hesitating, I do what I must do - how could he do that?  Did he not feel this tearing, so harrowing and cruel?’
And Jesus, moving in my interior, told me:  “My daughter, Adam felt this tearing so harrowing, but in spite of this he fell into the maze of his will, which gave him no more peace, either to him or to his posterity.  All Creation withdrew from him as though in one single breath, and happiness, peace, strength, sovereignty - everything withdrew.  He remained alone with himself.  Poor Adam, how much it cost him to withdraw from my Will.  Just by feeling isolated, no longer surrounded by the cortege of the whole Creation, he felt such fright and horror, that he became the fearful man.  He was afraid of everything – even of my very works; and with reason, because it is said:  ‘One who is not with Me is against Me’.  Since he was no longer linked with them, by justice they were to put themselves against him.  Poor Adam, there is much reason to have compassion for him.  He had no example of anyone else who had fallen, and of the great evil that had occurred to him, so that he might be watchful in order not to fall.  He had no idea of evil.  In fact, my daughter, the evil, the sin, the fall of someone else has two effects:  for one who is evil and wants to fall, it serves as example, as a spur, as an incentive to fall into the abyss of evil; for one who is good and does not want to fall, it serves as antidote, as deterrent, as help and defense so as not to fall.  In fact, seeing the great evil, the misfortune of someone else, serves as an example in order not to fall and not to follow that same path, so as not to find oneself in that same misfortune.  So, the evil of someone else causes one to be watchful and on guard.  Therefore, the fall of Adam is for you a great help, a lesson and a call, while he had no lesson from evil, because, then, evil did not exist.”
Vol. 20, November 10, 1926



Adam, in sinning, was lost in the darkness of his own will but he could now see the difference of before and after and so he could truly understand the difference between good and evil, between living in the Will of God and living of his own will.  And he strove as best he could to do the little good he could for the rest of his life but always in the sorrow of knowing what he was before and all that he had lost.  It is from this great repentance that God pitied him and worked towards his redemption and the return of the Kingdom which he had so casually rejected.



From this you can comprehend how the good produced by the human will, though it cannot form the day, is always a good for man; and creatures receive the utility of light in the night of the human will. It serves them so as not to die in the thick darkness of sin. Those lights, though small, direct their steps, allow them to see the dangers, and draw my paternal goodness toward them, seeing that they make use of the night of their human will to form at least little lights, so as to direct their steps along the path of salvation.
It was precisely this that drew all Our tenderness and Our paternal goodness toward Adam. He had comprehended what living in Our Divine Will meant, and with his littlest acts, just as with the greatest, he ran inside Our creative virtue, and they were invested by the Sun of the eternal Fiat which, being Sun, had the virtue of being able to form as many suns as he wanted. And in seeing himself emptied of this creative strength, he could no longer form suns; and so - poor one - he tried as hard as he could to form little lights; and in seeing the great difference between his original act and that after sin, he felt such grief as to feel himself dying at each act of his. The Supreme Being felt touched, and admired the industriousness of poor Adam who, no longer able to form suns, did his best to form little lights with his acts; and because of this, He kept for him the promise of the future Messiah.” 
Vol. 23, November 2, 1927

 

It was in virtue of all the acts which Adam had done in the Divine Will in his state of innocence which enabled him to strive to do what little good he still could after the fall.  These acts originally done in the Divine Will continually draw the eye of God to the creature and the creature to God.



“My daughter, you should know that the acts done in my Divine Will are imperishable and inseparable from God, and they are the continuous memory that the soul has had the good to work together with a Divine Will, and that God has held together with Him(self) the creature in order to make her work with his same Divine Will.  This happy memory, operational and holy makes us always hold God and the soul in sight, in a way that the one and the other remain unforgettable, so much so that if the creature might have the misfortune to go out from our Will, to go roaming, she will turn distant, but she will feel the eye of her God over herself that sweetly calls her, and her eye toward He who looks at her continually.  And that although she goes roaming she feels the irresistible need, the strong chains that pull her between the arms of her Creator.  This happened to Adam, because the beginning of his life was done in my Divine Will, in spite that he sinned, he was chased from Eden, he went doing all his life, but perhaps he was lost?  Ah, no! because he felt over himself the power of our Will in which he had worked, he felt our eye that watched him and that pulled his eye to look at us, and the dear memory that his early acts had had life in our Will.  You can not understand all the good and what it means to work in our Will; with working in Him the soul acquires so many pledges of infinite value for how many acts she does in our Fiat, and these pledges remain in God himself, because the creature doesn’t hold the capacity nor post where to hold them, so much is the value that they contain, and can you ever believe that while we hold these pledges of infinite value of the creature, we should permit that she might become lost, she to whom these pledges so precious belong?  Ah, no, no!...  Therefore do not fear, the acts done in our Volition are eternal bonds, chains not subject to break.
Vol. 29, April 16, 1931



After sinning Adam, even though he did not sin again and sought always to do what little good he could by doing the Will of God, he could not reclaim the gift of living in the Divine Will on his own.  Redemption was needed first as preparation.  But now with the fullness of the Kingdom of Redemption it is possible for us to possess the gift of the Divine Will once again but always through the merits of Jesus.



I said to Him: ‘My Love, Jesus, so, your eyes have shed also my tears, as well as those of our first father Adam. And I want You to pour them upon my soul, to give me the grace not only to do your Most Holy Will, but to possess It as my own thing and my own will.’ At that moment, Jesus shook His head, and from His face tears flowed onto my poor soul; and He added: “Daughter of my Will, indeed I shed your tears, so that, as they would pass through my eyes, I might give you the great gift of my Will. That which Adam could not receive with his tears, even though they too passed through my eyes, you can receive. In fact, before sinning, Adam possessed my Will, and with the possession of my Will he grew in the likeness of his Creator; and he grew so much as to form the enchantment of all Heaven, and all felt honored in serving him. After sin, he lost the possession of my Will, and even though he wept over his fault and he sinned no more, he was able to do my Will, but not to possess It, because the Divine Offended One was missing, who was to form the new divine graft between the creature and the Creator, in order to let him cross again the thresholds of the possessions of the Eternal Volition.
Vol. 18, December 20, 1925



Only universal acts can recall a universal good such as the Kingdom of the Divine Will.  Acts which flow everywhere, everywhen and in everyone.  Adam's first acts were such echoing the love of God in all things, and in all the Creation.



“When a good is universal, universal acts are needed to obtain it; and only in My Will are there these acts.  As you love in It, you love everywhere It is found; and My Will feels your love everywhere.  In every place It feels your love following It.  Therefore, It feels in you the prime love as had been established for the creature to love It in the beginning of creation.  It feels in your love Its echo, which does not know how to love with little and finite love, but with infinite and universal love.  It feels the first love of Adam who, before sinning, did nothing other than repeat the echo of his Creator.  And by these universal acts which follow It everywhere, it feels drawn to come and reign once again in the midst of creatures.
Vol. 21, March 16, 1927





That which Adam lost for all generations can be reclaimed.  As a king is dethroned it is possible for his posterity to reclaim the kingdom of their father.  So too is it now given to us to reclaim the lost Kingdom of the Divine Will.  All of Creation stands ready as a mighty army to guard, restore, and maintain the order, decorum and glory of the Kingdom of God, that is the Kingdom of the Divine Will.



“My daughter, you must know that before he sinned Adam did his acts in the Divine Fiat.  This means that the Trinity had given him the possession of this Kingdom, because to be able to possess a kingdom there must be one who forms it, one who gives it, and one who receives it.  The Divinity formed It and gave It to man, and he received It.  Adam, in the first period of creation, possessed this Kingdom together with the Supreme Fiat, and because he was the head of all human generations, all creatures received this right of possession.  And Adam, withdrawing from Our Will, lost the possession of this Kingdom, because by doing his own will he placed himself in a state of war with the Eternal Fiat.
“Poor thing, not having enough strength to do combat, and not having an army capable enough to battle with such a Holy Will - a Will which has invincible strength and a formidable army - he lost the battle and the Kingdom which We had given him.  What a great loss, because the strength which he possessed before [the fall] was Our own, and with [this] strength he also had our own army at his disposition.  As he sinned [that] strength returned to Us, its source, and the army retired from him, placing itself at Our disposition.  All of that did not take away the rights of his descendants to possibly once again take over the Kingdom of My Will.
“It is similar to that which happens to a king who, because of war, lost his kingdom - but is there not the possibility that one of his children could win back with another war, his father’s kingdom which is already his?  It is [even] more likely [for the Kingdom of My Will] because I, as the Divine Winner, came to earth to recover man’s losses; and, having found one who would want to receive this Kingdom, I restored these forces to him by once again putting My army at his disposition to maintain the order, the decorum, and the glory of [My Kingdom].
“And. what is this army?  It is all of creation, more than a wondrous and formidable army; it is the life of My Will which is bilocated within each created thing, [put] there to maintain the Life of this Kingdom.  How could man lose hope of again possessing this Kingdom?  If he had seen this invincible army of creation totally disappear, then he could have said that God had withdrawn from the face of the earth His Will which vivifies, beautifies, and enriches this Kingdom, [and] there is no longer any hope that It may return into [man’s] possession.  But as long as this [army] exists, We must wait until the times are right to find those who will want to receive It.
Vol. 21, March 19, 1927


So it is up to us to rally this army, the army of the Divine Will.  An army of all the acts of the Father in the Creation from its first moments and which he continues to conserve to this day.  It is an army of all the acts of the Son that he accomplished in the Redemption from the moment of his incarnation and which he continues in all the sacraments and his bride, the church.  It is an army of all the acts of the Holy Spirit who sanctifies and restores with an ardent and tender love his beloved creature to return the beauty and majesty and sanctity that was mans before the fall.  As we open ourselves up to the works of the living Love of God through living in his Divine Will we restore the perfect echo of his love and all the loving communications are renewed.  As we go doing our acts and recalling His acts done in Creation, Redemption and Sanctification we echo his love throughout all of them and rally this mighty army to storm the gates and reclaim this Kingdom.