The Wicked Tenants

The parable of the wicked tenants is well known and I have listened to it in the past feeling it was an assurance that I was on the right side of things.  Certainly this parable is only about those people who do not recognize Jesus as the Christ, Savior and Redeemer, the Son of God.  A parable to the Chief Priests and Pharisees who connived to have Jesus killed or now for those who spitefully reject Him and His Church?  A light came to me while listening to this gospel reading during mass that this parable, like so many things that come from God, has another deeper meaning as well.

33 “Listen to another parable.  There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower.  Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.  34 When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. 35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.  36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 37  Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38  But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’  39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.  40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”  41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

‘The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

this was the Lord’s doing,

and it is amazing in our eyes’?

43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.  44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them.  46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

Matthew 21: 33-46

In fact we, ourselves, are the fields of God.  All of our acts/fruits are His by right and when we act of our own will instead of His we are denying Him His due.  

Further in the Bible from this Gospel St Paul writes to the Corinthians telling them that he and Apollos are merely servants of God doing His work, planting and watering.  But we are the fields of God where they work but all the growth is of and from God Himself. 

What then is Apollos?  What is Paul?  Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each.  I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.  The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each.  For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.

1 Corinthians 3:5-9

In the Volumes the land and earth are common images of the humanity of the creature, even the name Adam means red/fair earth.  An even clearer example is found in the book, The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will, where she speaks of her birth, the earth of her Humanity and all the flowerings  and prodigies that came from it, meaning her acts in the Divine Will.

'Child of my Heart, my birth was prodigious; no other birth can be said to be similar to mine.  I enclosed within Myself the Heaven, the Sun of the Divine Will, and also the earth of my humanity - but a blessed and holy earth, which enclosed the most beautiful flowerings.  And even though I was just newly born, I enclosed the prodigy of the greatest prodigies:  the Divine Will reigning in Me, which enclosed in Me a Heaven more beautiful, a Sun more refulgent than those of Creation, of which I was also Queen, as well as a sea of graces without boundaries, which constantly murmured:  “Love, love to my Creator.” '

The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will, Day 10

Now Mary was immaculate from the moment of her conception and all her acts came from the fount of the Divine Will.  She did not contain the stain of original sin or it's effects denying life to her human will from the moment of her conception.  And these divine acts formed fruit in the manner of suns.   Lights that give to all and give eternally.  These are the types of fruitful acts that we were originally created to do, that should come forth from humanity, that God is still owed, but because of original sin and it's effects we are then prevented from doing them as was intended by God.

"You must know that I knew my human will only to keep it sacrificed in homage to my Creator.  My life was all of Divine Will; from the first instant of my Conception, I was molded, warmed and placed into Its light, which purified my human seed with Its power, in such a way that I was conceived without original sin.   Therefore, if my Conception was spotless and so glorious as to form the honor of the Divine Family, it was only because the Omnipotent Fiat poured Itself upon my seed, and I was conceived pure and holy.   So, if the Divine Will had not poured Itself upon my seed more than a tender mother, in order to prevent the effects of original sin, I would have encountered the sad destiny of the other creatures, of being conceived with original sin.  Therefore, the primary cause was, entirely, the Divine Will; to It be honor, glory, thanksgiving, for my having been conceived without original sin. 

The Queen of Heaven in the Kingdom of the Divine Will, Day 1

Such is one who operates in my Will.  Her acts acquire the continuity - they are always repeated without ever ceasing.  They are the true Sun which, from the moment It was created by God, has given Its first act of light - but so great, as to fill Heaven and earth with one single act.  And It repeats this act always, without ever ceasing, in such a way that all can take Its act of light, though one was the act that constituted itself act of perennial light for all.  If the Sun could repeat Its act of light, one would see as many Suns for as many acts as It could repeat; but since the act of light that It did is one, one sees only one Sun and no more.  But what the Sun did not do the Sovereign Queen did, and one who operates in my Will does also:  as many Suns for as many acts, and these Suns are fused together, though distinct among them in beauty, in light, in the glory that they give to their Creator, and in the universal good that they make descend upon all creatures.  These acts have a divine power; by virtue of these acts the Most Holy Virgin could obtain the coming of the Word upon earth, and by virtue of these acts my Kingdom will come upon earth.  One act repeated incessantly in my Fiat has a conquering, enrapturing and enchanting virtue before Our Divinity.  That continuous repetition in the Divine Volition is the strength of the soul, the invincible weapon that debilitates her Creator and conquers Him with weapons of love, and He feels honored to let Himself be conquered by the creature.”

Vol. 24, June 25, 1928

This manner of acting, of producing fruit, that is, Divine eternal suns is possible not just to the Immaculate Virgin Mary, but now in the fullness of time it is opened to all who would live of the Divine Will.  Meaning wanting Him to reign in us, act in us and never giving life to our own will again.  When the Divine Will sows He sows seeds of light, which germinate in the field of the soul to produce Divine suns.   We will only see the fullness of these fruits/suns in Heaven.

“Good daughter, the great good of living of a Divine Volition is surprising and almost incomprehensible to the human creature.   You should know that all that which one does of good, of sanctity in my Divine Will, they are none other than seeds that germinate in the field of the soul, putting forth as so many seeds of Divine light, that put forth a beginning that won’t have an end, because all that which one does in my Divine Will is sowed, germinates, grows in an admirable way, upon the earth while she lives, but the completion will be formed in Heaven, the ultimate development, the variety of beauties, the tones, the most beautiful and specious tints, will be given in the Celestial Country.

Vol. 21, June 8, 1931

While on earth we may never fully realize the beauty and delight of Jesus' work and harvest in our souls.  We may even feel the weight and the seeming abandonment of Jesus but these sufferings are akin to the field of our souls being worked and tilled to ready it for another sowing.

  “My daughter, why do you afflict yourself so much?  Abandon yourself in Me and let Me do; and when it seems to you that everything declines and dies, your Jesus will make everything rise again, but more beautiful and more fecund.  You must know that the soul is my field in which I work, sow and harvest; but my favorite field is the soul who lives in my Will.  In this field my work is delightful; I do not get muddy when I sow, because my Will has converted it into a field of light.  Its ground is virgin, pure and celestial, and I amuse Myself very much in sowing little lights into it, almost like dew which forms the Sun of my Will.

"Oh! how beautiful it is to see this field of the soul all covered with many drops of light, and as they gradually grow, many suns will form.  This sight is enchanting; all Heaven is enraptured at the sight of it, and they are all attentive on looking at the Celestial Farmer who cultivates this field with such great mastery, and who possesses a seed so noble as to convert it into sun.  Now, my daughter, this field is mine and I do with it whatever I want.  Once these suns have formed, I collect them and take them to Heaven, as the most beautiful conquest of my Will, and then I return to the work of my field.  So, I put everything upside down, and the little daughter of my Will feels everything ending, everything dying within her.  In the place of the suns, so refulgent with light, she sees the drops of light which I am sowing, and she thinks that everything is perishing.  How you deceive yourself - this is the new harvest that must be prepared; and since I want to make it more beautiful than the previous one, and make it larger so as to be able to double my harvest, at first sight the work seems to be more difficult, and the soul suffers more.  But those pains are like strokes of the hoe into the ground, which make the seed sink deeper down so as to make it germinate more safely, with greater fecundity and beauty.  Don’t you see, when a field is harvested, how squalid and poor it remains?  But wait until it is sown again, and you will see it more flowery than before.  Therefore, let me do; and you, by living in my Will, will always be at work with Me; we will sow the little drops of light together, and we will compete to see who sows more.  So, we will amuse ourselves, now in sowing, now in resting – but always together.  I know, I know what your strongest concern is – that I might leave you.  No, no, I do not leave you; one who lives in my Will is inseparable from Me.” 

Vol. 16, Oct. 20, 1923

The soul participates in the Divine work by lending her acts to Jesus as earth in which He can place His divine seed.  He will never leave such a precious soul alone but will keep producing more and more beautiful harvests and conquests in her.   Jesus says that in such a one He is able to germinate the Divine Being in them so that one who does and lives in the Divine Will reproduces her Creator and He resides within her.

“Blessed daughter, it is I who forms the celestial atmosphere inside and outside of the creature, because no sooner than she enters into my Divine Volition than I put myself to watch of the act that she goes doing, and she forms the ground with her acts, and I form the divine seed in order to cast in the act of the creature.  So that her acts serve as earth, and I, Celestial Farmer, by filling her with my seeds I make use of it to gather the harvest of the works that are done in my Will.   Do you see therefore what the continuations of the acts done in the Divine Will serve to?   They serve to give me the labor and the occasions to never leave the creature, because she always gives Me to do.   And I don’t want nor can I leave empty a ground so precious, formed in my Will and exposed to the vivifying rays of the Divine Sun.  Hence He calls you to the work in my Volition and you call me, and oh, how very sweet it is to work together in my Fiat!  It is a labor that doesn’t tire; rather it is bearer of rest and of the most beautiful conquests.”

Vol. 30, July 14, 1932

"More so that every act done by the Divine Will in the act of the creature is a divine seed that germinates in it.  The act prepares the earth where my Will casts his seed in order to make it germinate into (a) divine plant, because according to the seed that is cast in the bosom of the earth, that plant is born.  If the seed is of flowers, the flower is born; if the seed is of fruit, the fruit is born.  Now my Divine Will in every act of the creature casts a distinct seed:  there he casts the seed of sanctity, there the seed of love, in others the seed of goodness, and so on.  How many more acts [the creature] does in Him, so much more earth is prepared where my Volition prepares his distinct seed in order to fill the earth of these human acts.  Whence one who lets herself be dominated by my Divine Will, is beautiful, is specious; every act of hers, containing the variety of divine seeds, is a note of her Creator:  one act says sanctity, another mercy, others justice, wisdom, beauty, love; in short one sees a divine harmony, with such order, that shows the finger of God working in her.  Do you see therefore the necessity of the act of the creature, in order to be able to try the earth where to enclose our divine seed?  Otherwise where do we cast it?  We don’t hold any earth.  Therefore there is [earth] formed with her acts, in order to be able to germinate with our seeds our Divine Being in the creature.  Therefore one who does and lives in our Divine Volition can be called She who reproduces her Creator and lodges in herself He who has created her.”

Vol. 30, Nov. 16, 1931

Jesus tells Luisa that it is God's aim to form, grow and mature completed acts in the creature but this can only occur in a creature living in the Divine Will.  When we don't live in the Divine Will we break his acts and they remain incomplete and as handicapped.  When we operate with our own will we frustrate the plans of the owner of vineyard from his designs on it.  Jesus clearly states that the earth represents his creatures and the ungrateful servants are our own human volitions which frustrate his works and kill his designs.

 

“My good daughter, only my Volition maintains and conserves intact, with a continuous act, the beginning of the Creation of the creature.  Our Supreme Being gave the beginning and animated her life with the power of our divine breath; this breath should not ever be broken, more so that when we give and we do an act we never withdraw it, and this serves in order to form the completed work of the being that we put forth to the light.  This first act of ours, while it serves to give beginning and to form the life, the continuation, it serves in order to make of the creature a completed act of ours, and as we breathe (in) her thus we form in her our continuous acts in order to complete our divine life.  Our breath, as we give it, forms sip by sip the growth of this life of ours in the creature.  Our breath, as it gives itself, thus it forms our completed act of sanctity, of beauty, of love, of goodness and so on, and when we have filled her so much, in a way that we don’t have anywhere more to put our act in the creature, because she is limited, our breath ceases and her life finishes in earth, and in order to immortalize our breath in Heaven, we transport our fully grown life in her, our completed act, into our Celestial Country as triumph of our Creation.  There is no more beautiful rarity than these lives and completed acts of ours in the Celestial sojourn, they are the narrators of our power, of the enthusiasm of our love, they are speaking voices of our omnipotent breath, that alone could form the divine life, our completed act in the creature.  But do you know where we can form this life and this completed act of ours, for how much it is possible and imaginable for a creature to receive from her Creator?  [In] the soul that lives in our Divine Will and lets herself be dominated by Him.  Ah! only in her can we form the divine life and develop our completed act; our Volition disposes the creature to receive all the qualities and divine colors, and our breath not ever interrupted, as expert brush/(artist), paints with admirable and inimitable mastery the most beautiful tones and forms there the images of our Supreme Being; if it might not be for these images there would not have been that great work of the Creation, nor great work of the power of our creative hands, creating the Sun, the Sky, the stars and all the universe would have been a beautiful nothing for our power.  But instead all our power, the art of our divine arts, the indescribable excess of our intense love, it is to do our completed act in the creature with forming our life in her and so much is our gratification, that we ourselves remain enraptured in our act that we develop. For us to do a completed act it is the greatest glory that glorifies us most, it is the most intense love that praises us most, it is the power that praises us continually.  But alas! for one who doesn’t live in our Volition, how many broken acts of ours, without conclusion, how many divine lives of ours hardly conceived or at the most born without growing.  [Creatures] break the continuation of our work and bind our arms without being able to go ahead; they put us in the impotence of a master who holds his earth and is prevented by his ungrateful servants from doing the work that he wants to in his earth, to sow it, to plant the plants that he wants; poor proprietor, to hold sterile earth, without the fruit that he could receive, for reason of his iniquitous servants.  Our earths are creatures and the ungrateful servant is the human volition, which opposing ours with hers puts us in impotence from forming our divine life in them.  Now you should know that in Heaven one doesn’t enter if one doesn’t possess our divine life, or at least conceived or born, and such will be the glory, the beatitude of the blessed, for how much growth has been formed of our life in them.  Now what will be the difference for one who has hardly let him be conceived, be born or grown with little proportions, from one who has let us form complete life?  So much will be the difference, that it is incomprehensible to the human creature.  Those will be as the people of the Celestial kingdom, instead our images will be as princes, ministers, the noble court, the regal army of the great King.  Therefore one who does my Divine Will and lives in Him can say:  ‘I do all and I also belong from this earth to the family of my Celestial Father.’”

Vol. 29, October 12, 1931

So all of us are guilty in one way or another of being a wicked tenant.  Everyone except for the Virgin Mary, who has been born with original sin, have done acts that originated from our own wills thereby denying God his due.  But now we have been given, by the mercy of God, the chance to return to Him all the fruit that He is owed.  All the praise, honor, glory, adoration, love and thanksgiving that is His by right, not only for ourselves but for everyone else too.  We have been given the opportunity to live in His Will, just as Mary did by grace and Jesus did by nature.  His glory is our joy.  At best those of the past have only achieved hard won resignation to the Will of God in the practice of the virtues.  But God will never be satisfied with half measures and until He achieves His desired goal of children whole and legitimate living in His Will, complete and beautiful as He intended He will not quit His work.  If you are reading this and can understand this call it is to you.  How many will never listen to or understand the intimacies that God desires of them.

The Exultation of the Cross and the Value of Love

 

One morning – it was the day of the Exaltation of the Cross – my sweet Jesus transported me to the holy sites; and first, He told me many things about the virtue of the cross.  I don’t remember all, but just a few things:  “My beloved, do you want to be beautiful?  The cross will give you the most beautiful features that can possibly be found, both in Heaven and on earth; so much so, as to enamor God, who contains all beauties within Himself.” 

Jesus continued:  “Do you want to be filled with immense riches - not for a short time, but for all eternity?  Well then, the cross will administer to you all kinds of riches - from the tiniest cents, which are the little crosses, up to the greatest amounts, which are the heavier crosses.  Yet, men are so greedy to earn a temporal penny, which they soon will have to leave, but do not give a thought to earning one eternal cent.  And when I, having compassion for them, in seeing their carelessness for all that regards eternity, kindly offer them the opportunity - instead of cherishing it, they get angry and offend Me.  What human madness – it seems that they understand it upside down.  My beloved, in the cross are all the triumphs, all the victories, and the greatest gains.  You must have no aim other than the cross, and it will be enough for you, in everything. 

Vol. 1, September 14, 1899  The excellence of the cross.  In place of the cross she had till now, Luisa receives another much larger one.

In the first reading on the day of the Exultation of the Cross:

4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. 5 The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” 6 Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

Numbers 21: 4-9

When I hear this reading I think of how the people had prayed to have the serpents taken away but God does not do this.  The serpents were a just punishment for complaining.  A balanced counter reaction to their action.  God couldn't just undo it.  Instead he gives them a way out.  He takes the punishment and makes a remedy for it just as he does with Jesus in the crucifixion.  Adam and Eve's action of abandoning the Divine Will for their own was embracing death over life and doomed them and their posterity to die.  So God, instead of undoing the deed and removing the punishment, now gives them a way out of it with the death of his own son Jesus.  He gives them a way to find a remedy from the punishment by using the image of the punishment man still dies but now with looking with the eyes of faith at Jesus' death we find our way through to his life..

Today, however, it seemed that God wanted to go a little deeper with me with this reading.  The punishment with the serpents poisoning them for complaining.  It always seemed a bit harsh to me.  Quite honestly I think if I had gotten bitten by a snake for complaining my first reaction wouldn't be to repent, it would be to graduate to cussing.  But the effects of complaining, of doubting the goodness of God, is just like a poison which continues to encourage greater doubt even to doubting the love of God for us and leads us to spiritual death.  When we doubt God's love for us we fall.  The first step into sin is doubting the love of God, which is death, just as it was with Adam and Eve.

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

 

The Jews, bitten by the serpents, prayed for the punishment to be taken away but the punishment remained.  When bitten they still suffered the pain of the bite but God gave them a way through it so it would not lead to death.  When we sin we can't avoid or go around the punishment, but God is so good he gives us a way through to the other side.  Now what does this serve.  God is God and can do anything but will not go against Himself and will not do anything that is not useful.  When someone repents what then is the purpose of maintaining the punishment even when there is a way through it.

The true antidote to the poison of sin which causes man to doubt and disbelieve in the love of God is to teach man the true value and cost of love so that he would not cast it aside as flippantly as Adam and Eve did in the garden of Eden and so that in the future he will remember God's love for him in all instances.

Would you not condemn a man who, taken by a childish affection for a child, only to have him around a little bit, to amuse himself with him, would give him a banknote worth a thousand; and the little boy, not knowing the value of it, tears it to a thousand pieces after a few minutes? But if, on the other hand, first he makes the child desire it, then he makes him know its value, then the good which that banknote of a thousand can do for him, and then he gives it to him - that child will not tear it to pieces, but will go put it under lock and key, appreciating the gift and loving the giver more; and you would praise that man who had the ability to make known to the little child the value of money. If man does so, much more I do, who give my gifts with wisdom, with justice and with true love. Here is, therefore, the necessity of the dispositions, of the knowledge of the gift, of the esteem and appreciation, and of love for the gift itself. Therefore, knowledge of It is like the herald of the gift of my Will which I want to give to the creature. Knowledge prepares the way; knowledge is like the contract I want to make of the gift I want to give; and the more knowledge I send to the soul, the more she is spurred on to desire the gift and to solicit the Divine Writer to place the final signature – that the gift is hers and she possesses it. So, the sign that in these times I want to give this gift of my Will is the knowledge of It. Therefore, be attentive not to let anything escape you of what I manifest to you about my Will, if you want Me to place the final signature on the gift which I yearn to give to creatures.”

Vol. 18, December 25, 1925

When God's justice calls a punishment the remedy to the punishment is also a teaching to bring about a greater knowledge and esteem of God's love for us.  He uses everything to always draw us closer to himself.

In the gospel of the same day Jesus tells Nicodemus:   13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.  16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 

John 3: 13-17

and later in John,

31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people[a] to myself.” 33 He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

John 12:31-33

When we look at our Savior on the Cross we see the cost of love.  We see the just punishment which is our due for turning away from the Divine Will, the Divine Life and the Divine Love.  We have an advantage that Adam and Eve never had, an example to learn the price that one pays for sinning.  

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 and Eve had Divine Love and Life freely given to them with no cost.  They didn't know it's value.  They could not esteem it.  They threw it away because they were not able to know it rightly.  They did not know the cost of sin.  We only have to look at the crucifix and meditate on the Passion of our Lord to understand his incalculable love for us and to understand the horror of sin against God as well as the effects it has on us.  By not removing the punishment which we all have incurred from original sin but by giving us a way to go through it to the other side we now have the opportunity to know God better in his Love for us, to know ourselves better and our dependence on Him, to know the price that we pay when we turn away from His Divine Will and to know God himself and ourselves better.  God can not do useless things but always with highest wisdom, mercy and love to effect the greatest good for each and for all.  God can only Will good. 

He would say:  “My Spouse, virtues become weak if they are not strengthened and fortified by the grafting of the cross.  Before my coming upon earth, pains, confusions, disgraces, calumnies, sufferings, poverty, illnesses, and especially the cross, were considered dishonors; but from the moment they were borne by Me, they were all sanctified and divinized by my contact.  They all changed their appearance, becoming sweet, pleasant, and the soul who has the good of having some of them, receives honor - and this, because she has received the vestment of Me, Son of God.  Only those who look and stop at the cortex of the cross experience the contrary; finding it bitter, they are disgusted by it, they complain, as if someone had done wrong to them.  But those who penetrate into it, finding it enjoyable, form their happiness in it.  My beloved daughter, I yearn for nothing else but to crucify you, body and soul.” 

Vol. 1, Third marriage:  the Marriage of the Cross.

 “If you knew what good the cross contains within itself, how precious it renders the soul, and what a gem of inestimable value one acquires, who has the good of possessing sufferings…  It is enough to tell you only that, in coming upon earth, I did not choose riches or pleasures, but I cherished as dear and intimate sisters, the cross, poverty, sufferings and ignominies.”

Vol. 1, Preciousness of the cross.  Jesus renews Luisa’s crucifixion many times.

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.