When I hear that question I immediately think of St Michael and his war cry in heaven "Mikha'el!" It is this war cry which rallied the heavenly armies and cast the rebels angels out.
When I was a little girl and I learned the meaning of my name I was overjoyed. "Who is like God", and then my Mother told me, "No, it's a question." That was quite the deflation but I said, "Oh, ok," and time went on. But I've always had a nagging feeling that there is more to this than simply meets the eye and the intellect.
It is said that Lucifer, in his jealousy, would not serve. Proud of what he saw as his beauty, his power, his light - the very image of God. He saw himself as like unto God and could not accept the God Son becoming a mere human, a physical being. He could not accept the vision of the Virgin Mary, the Immaculate One, the Full of Grace one. In her could be seen the likeness of God. A mere creature, a woman. And so he cried out "Non serviam." And to this day, fallen, having lost all the beauty and light that was actually God's, in his pride he still tries to imitate God, but perpetually fixed in his fallen state he can only ape God perverting all that is good. He ends up trying to pervert everything into his own image. And the cry "Who is like God?" heaps coals on his head as his defeat and humiliation is assured and the answer to the question hounds him relentlessly.
While at mass I was listening to the gospel a new light seemed to lead me on this path to explore this question, "Who is like God?"
And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.
Luke 16:8
There is only one other place, in the Bible, where I found "the children of light" mentioned.
Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.” ... for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.”
John 12: 35-36, 49-50
Jesus says that by following Him and believing in Him one may become a child of light and that this directive is from the Father. Now in the Volumes there are many mentions of seas of light coming from Jesus and images of lights coming from the acts done in the Divine Will but there is one specific post that more specifically ties into this idea of children of light. Jesus states that when a creature is about to do her acts in the Divine Will, God makes a bath of divine light fore her that makes a rainbow of divine lights wash over her preparing her so that she might cross the veil that hides God from creatures. The soul becomes molded, sweetened, purified and made so very beautiful as to enrapture God Himself. And this bath of light prepares the creature to be able to cross the veil that hides God from creatures. By doing her acts in the Divine Will she is thereby made to resemble God.
“Therefore be content to die a thousand times, rather than not do our Will. You should know that He is all eyes over the happy creature that wants to live of Him; and as [the creature] does her acts, thus [the Divine Will] makes for her his bath of divine light. This bath refreshes and makes them feel the divine refreshments, and since as the light forms itself, thus it produces in its nature, hidden inside of its veils of light, fecundity, sweetness, tastes, colors so that while apparently it seems only light, inside (is) hidden so many beautiful riches and innumerable qualities that no other element can say it is similar to it. Rather it is from the light that [the elements] implore the fecundity and the good that every element must do in the order in which it has been put by God. One can call the soul the light of created things, symbol of our uncreated light of our Divine Fiat that animates everything. Where with this bath of divine light, while she is about to do her acts in Him, the soul feels itself sweetened, molded, embalmed, strengthened, purified and invested with the beautiful rainbow of the divine colors, that make the soul so very graceful, specious and beautiful, that God himself feels enraptured with a beauty so rare. This bath of light is as the preparation in order to be able to cross over the thresholds and to break the veil that hides our Divine Being from human creatures. More so that it is our interest that (for) one who lives in our Volition she resembles us and she might not do something that is unworthy of our Majesty three times Holy.
“Therefore think that a bath of light gives you my Will, every time that you dispose yourself to do your acts in his interminable light, so be attentive to receive it.”
Vol. 30, December 6, 1931
By crossing over the threshold and breaking the veil that hides God there is the inference that is then that we will finally be able to see Him. This idea is supported in the Bible in the first book of John where it states that although we are called children of God now there is more to come, more to be revealed and when it is revealed we will be like Him and see Him as He is.
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
1 John 3:1-3
When the Divine Will reigns in a soul He creates His Divine life in every act of this creature in order to extend His Kingdom. These acts present themselves before the Most Holy Trinity and within these acts God finds Himself reproduced within them. He sees there His life, His breath, heartbeat, thought and word. He sees the work of creation that He always wanted in this soul. He does all this in order to form another being similar to Himself.
“Blessed daughter of the Divine Volition, you must know that where my Will reigns, with his creative power, his motion and word, he speaks in the works, in the steps; he speaks in the mind, in the breath. As he wants to distend his Kingdom, thus he speaks, in order to create his divine life in every act of the creature. Therefore there is needed supreme attention, in order to sense where he wants to initiate his teachings. With the power of his word he invests the human act, the breath, the heartbeat, the thought, the human word, and there he forms his divine work, breath, heartbeat, thought, divine word. These acts elevate themselves to heaven, present themselves before the Most Holy Trinity; our divinity looks at these acts, and what does it find? It finds itself reproduced in these acts, its life; the Most Holy Trinity itself, it watches the prodigy of our Will, that with his power has overwhelmed the creature, making the repetition of our life, and oh, how we remain contented, enraptured, because we find in her the sanctity that resembles us, our love that loves us, the intelligence that understands us, our power and goodness that transports us with ties of our sweetness to love the human generation. We recognize in her and find the work of creation which we want in her.
“A single one of these acts contains such marvels, that they cannot find the place where they can put themselves; so much is their greatness. Only in our immensity do they find the place where they can remain; they remain fused with our acts, what glory won’t be ours, and also for the creature, because her acts, in virtue of our Fiat, hold their place in the acts of her Creator?
“Oh, if everyone might know what it means to live in the Divine Volition, to let him reign, they would compete to make themselves invested, in order to have him make divine life.”
...
“Now, our Will, with wanting the creature to live in him in order to form his Kingdom, loving himself he wants to give that which he possesses; and then he is content, when he forms the repetition of our life, when he works in the acts of the creature, and triumphant and victorious, with our highest glory and honor, he carries them into our divine bosom, in order to have us recognize our life in his work of one who lives in his Volition.
“It is proper this what it means to love oneself in that which one wants to do and to produce; giving himself, in order to be able to form another being similar to himself.
“Our Will is the fecundator and sower of our life, and where he finds souls disposed he loves himself, with his love he fecundates them and there he sows his divine acts, which, united together, forms the great prodigy of the divine life in the creature.
“Therefore leave yourself in the authority of my Will, and allow that he may do with you that which he wants to do, and you and we will be happy.”
Fiat!!!
Vol. 35, October 19, 1937
God is not alone in wanting to form these new children in His image and likeness. Heaven, being united to God in His Will also join in to help. The Holy Mother as well works to give of her Divine Maternity and all the angels and Saints surround her to guard her and defend her from any that might molest her.
“My daughter, you should know that one who lives in my Will gives work to everyone, my Celestial Father seeing the creature in his Divine Volition puts himself around in order to form the work of his image and likeness, more so that finding his Will in her he finds the adaptable material that lends itself to receive his work, in order to form the most beautiful image that resembles him. And oh, his contentment that with his work he can produce his images, give work to the Celestial Mother, because finding my Divine Will in the creature, She finds one who keeps her company, who receives her Maternity as daughter, She finds one to whom she can communicate her fecundity, her acts done in my Volition, She finds one in whom she can make her model and her faithful copy, and oh, the contentment of this Celestial Mother, her diligent work, her cares, her Maternal solicitudes, that She can do as true Mother and that She can give her inheritance, and the Will being one of the Mother and the daughter, She can make herself understood and put in common her graces, her love, her sanctity, in her work she feels happy because she finds one who courts her, who resembles her and lives with her same Divine Will. Who lives in Him they are her favorite daughters, her darlings, her secretaries, one can say that in virtue of my Divine Volition they possess a powerful magnet that so attracts this Celestial Mother that she can not remove her gaze from over them. And the great Lady in order to hold them secure, works with putting around them her virtues, her sorrows, her love and the life itself of her Son. But this is not everything, your Jesus(,) as I see that the soul has put her will aside in order to live of mine, I put Myself to work in order to form my members, my Head is Holy and I feel the need of holy members in order to lean my Head on and thus be able to communicate his virtue in them and who can ever form for me Holy members if not my Will? Hence my work is incessant for one who lives in Him, one can say that I put Myself to watch inside and outside of her, so that no one enters there in order to interrupt my work and in order form these members, I repeat the work of completing again, in order to regenerate them, I am reborn in order to make them be reborn, I cry, I suffer, I preach, I die, in order to communicate my vital and Divine humors in these members, so that they are strengthened and divinized worthy of my Most Holy Head. And oh, my contentment, that although I work, I repeat my life and form the repeaters of It, but what thing wouldn’t I do and wouldn’t I give in one who lives in my Will? He encloses me in the creature in order to make me work and make me form worthy members with my creative hands and as the soul receives my work thus I feel happy and repaid for the work of the Creation and Redemption. Now the Angels, the Saints, seeing the Celestial Father, the Sovereign Queen and their King, all intent working in this creature, they also want to help us in the work and lining up around the fortunate creature, they work with defending her, they remove the enemies, they free her from the perils and form walls of fortitude, so that no one can molest her. You see therefore how one who lives in my Divine Volition gives work to everyone, and everyone occupies themselves with her.”
Vol. 33, May 14, 1935
Every act that a creature does in the Divine Will it is as so many steps that she makes toward God and God also makes toward her. And for every step the creature makes God makes five, or ten towards her due to His great love. He does this so that His beloved creature might resemble Him and to in order to make her happy. With each meeting the creature flings herself into the center of God and He unites her to Himself and pours more knowledges over her. So that each new knowledge is another degree of participation that she receives from God.
“My daughter, every act that you do in my Divine Will, so many steps do you make toward God, and God makes his steps toward you. The step of the creature is the call that moves the divine step to go to meet her; and since we do not ever let ourselves be conquered nor exceeded by her acts, if she makes a step, we make five, ten, because our love being greater than hers it expedites, multiplies the steps in order to hasten the meeting and to plunge the one into the other. Rather many times it is we who move the step in order to call the step of the creature in order to come to us; we want our creature, we want to give her something of ours, we want that she resembles us, we want to make her happy, and therefore we take the step in order to call her, and one who is in our Will, oh! how she hears the sweet stamping of our steps, and races in order to come to us in order to receive the fruits of our steps. But do you want to know what these fruits are? Our creative word, no sooner than the meeting occurs (and) the creature flings herself in the center of our Supreme Being, we receive her with so much love, that not being able to contain it we unite her [to us] and with our word we pour forth over her our knowledges, making her part of our Divine Being. So that every word of ours is an outlet that we make over the creature, and how many degrees of knowledge she acquires through means of our word, so many more degrees of participation does she receive from her Creator. You see therefore, every act done in my Divine Will is the way that you form in order to move the step in order to form you all of Divine Will, and my word will make use of you with formation, with light and with participation with our Divinity.”
Vol. 29, October 20, 1931
The more the creature lives in the Divine Will the more she resembles God delving deeper and deeper into the divine family and the two become inseparable.
“Even more so how much more the creature lives in our Will more so she penetrates into our divine family, she acquires more (of) our ways, becomes put to knowledge of our secrets, she resembles us more, we love her and she loves us more, and she puts us in (the) condition of always giving her new graces, new surprises of love, we hold her in our house belonging to our family; we can say: ‘She eats at our table, sleeps upon our knees.’ To live without her we can not do it; our Volition binds her in a way that renders her to us amiable, attractive, that we can not remain without her, nor her without us.”
Vol. 36, November 30, 1938
With each act done in the Divine Will the creature acquires a new and unique beatitude. These are held in reserve in her soul for when she enters the Celestial Realms. But it is not just beatitude that she takes she also takes, acts of sanctity, of divine science, of beauty, and of love. If she has always been in the Eternal Fiat then she will have within herself the sanctity which resembles her Creator. Such that as she has been the echo of God on Earth so she shall be His echo in Heaven.
“My daughter, among the many qualities and properties which my Will contains, It contains an act of beatitude which is never interrupted; and as many acts as the soul does in It, so many distinct acts of beatitude does she take into her soul. So, the more acts she does in this Fiat, the more she becomes the owner and forms a greater capital of these beatitudes within herself, which give her highest peace on earth, and, in Heaven, she will feel all the effects and the enjoyments of these beatitudes, which have formed within her. See, it is as though natural: while you are on earth, my Will in Heaven releases from Itself an act ever new of infinite beatitude. Now, who takes this new act that never ceases? The Saints, the Angels, who live of Divine Will in Heaven. However, it is not fair that one who is in the exile and lives in my Will lose all these acts of beatitude; rather, with justice they are placed as though in reserve within her soul, so that, when she departs for her Celestial Fatherland, she may enjoy them all together, to catch up with others in receiving that new act of beatitude which is never interrupted. Do you see, then, what it means to do one more act, or one act less, in my Will? It is to have as many more acts of beatitude, for as many more times as one has done my Will; and to lose them, for as many times as she has done her own. And she takes not only many acts of beatitude, but many acts of sanctity, of divine science, many distinct acts of beauty, of love, for as many times as she has done my Will. And if she has been always in my Eternal Fiat, she will have within herself the sanctity which resembles her Creator. Oh! how beautiful she will be. In Heaven, the echo of Our beatitudes, the echo of Our Sanctity, the echo of Our Love, will be heard in this fortunate creature. In sum, she has been Our echo on earth, and she will be Our echo in the Celestial Fatherland.”
Vol. 20, December 15, 1926
Each act in the Divine Will is a life and God longs for the day when all of His fields and seas are filled with the life of creatures giving Him life for life. This can only be done through those who will live on earth in the Divine Will, not by those that live in Heaven. It is only for the working, conquering acts of one who lives in the Divine Will. These acts are not just acts but life formed in God's same life. These seas and fields, in turn, will act as mother to these fortunate ones that want to live there so that they acquire the Divine ways so that everyone will see how they are similar to their Creator and God Himself will be enraptured and will exclaim, "Who is it that resembles me? ...Ah! It is (she) who lives in our divine fields. It is just that she resembles us in all, for how much it is possible to a creature. She is our daughter, and it is enough. We allow that she imitates us, that she resembles us. She will be our glory, our creative work, the longed for one of her celestial Father!"
“Behold therefore we can say [that] our fields are deserted, our seas are without fishes, because there lacks the life of creatures in order to fill them for us, in order to be able to give and to receive life for life; but the time will come when they will be full, and we will have the full contentment and the great glory that in the midst of our numerous joys [we will have] (a) multitude of life, that will live inside of these fields and they will give us life for life. Now you should know that these fields and seas of ours are at the disposition of those that live in earth and that want to have our Divine Will for life, not for those that live in Heaven, because those are not able to add on even one comma more to that which they have done. ... it is the working and conquering lives of earth that we long for, and that while they are in earth they enter in these fields of ours and work and do as conquerors in (a) divine way. Much more so that [when] man sinned, he went out from inside of our Will, and the doors were closed to him with justice from these fields of ours. Now we want to open these doors of ours after so many centuries to one who wants to enter, not to force her, but freely, in order to make these divine fields of ours populated, in order to give a new form, a way of life all new to the creature, and to be able to receive not works from her, but in her every act life formed in our same life.
“Behold therefore the reason for my speaking so much on my Will (with) the strength of my creative word. It will dispose them, it will give them the desire, it will change the human will, and knowing that I want to open the doors they will knock, and I will open them immediately, so that I myself remain satisfied and have my fortunate people in which I will give myself to, for the exchange of my life that I have given for them, their life in exchange for mine. I have never spoken without having something or in vain. I spoke in the Creation and my word served in order to form the admirable things of the whole universe; I spoke in the Redemption and my word, my Gospel serves as guide to my Church, as light, as support. One can say that my word is the substance and my palpating life in the womb of the Church. Now if I have spoken and still speak on my Divine Will, it won’t be in vain, no, but I will make the admirable effects and the life of my Will known, working and palpating in the midst of creatures. Hence leave me to do, and I will dispose things in a way that my word won’t be (a) dead word, but alive, that will give life with all its admirable effects.
“More so that these fields and celestial seas of ours will act as Mother to the fortunate souls that want to live in them, they will educate them in (the) divine way, they will feed them with dainty foods taken from the celestial table and they will raise them in a noble and holy way, that in all their acts, steps and words one will see written in clear notes, they are similar to their Creator. God will feel the melody of his voice in the word of them, his power in their works, his sweet motion of steps that race near everyone because he wants them to himself, in the steps of them, and as enraptured he will say: ‘Who is it that resembles me? Who knows how to imitate my sweet, harmonious and strong voice as to be able to shake Heaven and earth? Who holds so much strength as to enrapture me in her works, in order to make me work together with her? Who is it? Who is it? Ah! It is (she) who lives in our divine fields. It is just that she resembles us in all, for how much it is possible to a creature. She is our daughter, and it is enough. We allow that she imitates us, that she resembles us. She will be our glory, our creative work, the longed for one of her celestial Father!’ These souls will form the new hierarchy in their Celestial Country, where there is a post reserved for them, that to no one else is it given to occupy.”
Vol. 30, December 21, 1931
This does not mean that any of this will be visible on the earth, in fact all will be quite ordinary. But when the human will is united with the Divine it holds human legs and feet but divine motion, human arms that embrace eternity, a human mouth that speaks the divine word, and human eyes that see the divine in all things. And she, although she appears ordinary sees the Divine in everything. All becomes ordered with her Creator. She becomes the conqueror of the divine life and His acts. And these conquests shorten the time for God's Kingdom to be established.
The human will united with mine, will hold human legs and divine feet that will make it race in the way of good without ever tiring; it will hold human arms and divine motion that will hold (the) virtue of doing the greatest works, that resembles her Creator; with our divine motion she will embrace eternity, she will hold us always courted and pressed to her heart; united with our Will, she will hold the human mouth, but the word, the voice will be divine. And oh, how well we will speak of our supreme being! In short, she will hold our eye, through which, looking at all created things she will recognize in them our life, our love, and how she must love us; united to ours she will hold divine reason, she will feel a species of infused science, which will form an ordered man, all in order with her Creator; everything will convert into good, rather, there is no good that she won’t possess if she lives in our Will. She is the true failure of all the evils, of all the misfortunes, and recalls to life all the goods, because she possesses the source of it.
“And our love, that never lets itself be conquered by anyone, cedes/surrenders in every breath of hers, to her little motion, if she thinks, if she looks, if she speaks, the conquering and divine act. The conquests are innumerable; we feel that it is not the creature that breathes, that moves, but us, and we give it the value that our breath and motion contains, that all the possible and imaginable values contains. So that she is the conqueror of our life and acts. This happy creature, with her conquering act, becomes our outlet of continuous love, our own happiness, our rest; and her conquests are continuous signatures on our decree of the coming of the Kingdom of our Volition upon the earth; these conquests shorten the time; more so that our working life is no longer estranged upon the earth, but already exists and has formed his Kingdom in this fortunate creature. Hence be attentive; never stop yourself, and I will keep count of everything, even of (your) breath, in order to love you more and in order to have you make so many conquests, one more beautiful than the other.”
Vol. 36, June 26, 1938So the answer to Michael's battle cry, "Who is like God?" The cry that rallied all of Heaven and drove the devil out, the answer is "The children of Light." Those fortunate few creatures that truly know how of themselves they are nothing, they can do nothing and it is only in knowing this and emptying themselves completely in order to enter into the Divine, the Divine then using His creative power acts in the creature where one single point in His Will contains everything, embraces everything and does everything and the will of the creature acts in the Divine wanting to give everything and repay God for everything and everyone. God sees this soul everywhere, even in the first instant of the Creation. There is no division of wills anymore between the creature and God and the order of Creation is restored as it should have been. The creature then resembles her Creator with this difference God is one single point and the creature retraces all little by little. This is the true conquering act which triumphs over all, even over God Himself.
“My daughter, the daughter of my Will, how dear you are to Me. Listen: as your will enters into Mine, it empties itself of you, and Mine enters, acting in you; and as Mine acts, yours receives the strength of the creative power and remains acting in Me. And since I am one single point, containing everything, embracing everything, doing everything, I see your will acting in Me with my own creative power, wanting to give Me everything and to repay Me for all. And to my highest contentment I see it before Me from the very first instant in which I issued the whole Creation. Leaving all behind, it comes forward, as if you were the first one to be created by Me, in whom no split of wills exists between you and Me - just as I would have wanted the first man to be - and it gives Me honor, glory, love, as if Creation had not gone out of my Will. What taste, what contentment I feel! You cannot understand it. The order of Creation is given back to Me; the harmonies, the joys, alternate together. I see this human will acting in Me in the light of the sun, upon the waves of the sea, in the flickering of the stars - on everything; and it gives Me the glory of all the goods which these created things give to man. What happiness! It resembles Me in everything, with this difference: I am one single point; and you, little by little, as you keep operating, thinking, speaking, loving in my Will, take more space and form divine births in it.”
Vol. 14, October 9, 1922
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