The Earth of God

 

In today's mass there was this gospel reading. I've found a really nice interpretation on the Internet concerning this reading,  Gospel Commentary .  He speaks about how it was commonly accepted that the vineyard represents Gods people and how as they have killed his prophets in the past they will also kill his son, Jesus.  From working on the previous post, however, one of the passages in the Volumes reminded me of this gospel verse so I will take a little detour from the line I was following to explore this one today as it seems God is prodding me to do so. 

 

³³ “Hear another parable. There was a householder who planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country. ³⁴ When the season of fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants, to get his fruit; ³⁵ and the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. ³⁶ Again he sent other servants, more than the first; and they did the same to them. ³⁷ Afterward 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 have his inheritance.’ ³⁹ And they took him and cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ⁴⁰ When therefore 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 let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

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

‘The very stone which the builders rejected
has become the head of the corner;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?

⁴³ Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it.

⁴⁵ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. ⁴⁶ But when they tried to arrest him, they feared the multitudes, because they held him to be a prophet. 

Matthew 21: 33-43, 45-46

 

 

This passage has also often been used to justify the opening of the works of God to the gentiles and Jesus himself, in Volume 4, speaks on how the Jewish Nation had received the most grace and yet was the most sterile whereas other nations produced greater fruit.

 

 

 

“My daughter, how terrible it can be for those souls who have been much fecundated by my grace, but have not corresponded to it.  The Jewish nation was the favorite one, the most fecundated, and yet, the most sterile; and the whole of my Person could not obtain that fruit which Paul obtained in other nations, less fecundated, but more corresponding.  In fact, lack of correspondence to grace blinds the soul, it makes her deceive herself, and disposes her to obstinacy, even in the face of any miracle.”

Vol. 4, March 9, 1903

 

 

There was a previous post, The Fruitful Land, where I explored the marriage covenant between the creature and God and how the land and earth are common images of the creature.  I won't recover that material but it's there for those who are interested.  In the above gospel I'd never seen the interpretation which Jesus expounds in this passage.  Here 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 wills 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

I had never thought of this gospel before where we are both the vineyard and the murderous tenets.  But with this in mind when Jesus says: "Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it..." it does  give me pause especially in light of the gospel on the talents.

¹⁴ “For it will be as when a man going on a journey called his servants and entrusted to them his property; ¹⁵ to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. ¹⁶ He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them; and he made five talents more. ¹⁷ So also, he who had the two talents made two talents more. ¹⁸ But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. ¹⁹ Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. ²⁰ And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ ²¹ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.’ ²² And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ ²³ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.’ ²⁴ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not winnow; ²⁵ so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ ²⁶ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sowed, and gather where I have not winnowed? ²⁷ Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. ²⁸ So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has the ten talents. ²⁹ For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.³⁰ And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.’
 Matthew 25:14-30

We are to be held responsible for corresponding with God.  He is the true and rightful owner of us and we are the earth were he wants to develop his acts.  Even with corresponding to grace we will not produce complete acts.  We have to live in his Will so that he can achieve his complete designs we can't do it.  If we hold something back from him and live under our own will we will always be to one degree or another the ungrateful servant who cheats God from his due.

The Circumcision

Just eight days after being born is when a baby in Jesus' day was circumcised.  It has many levels of meaning.  From the bonding and pledging of the Israel people to God, to the first wounding of humanity in the original sin, and transformed by Jesus into making the Divine Will re-enter into the human generations.  Here are the accounts I found in the writings.

Firstly by Mary,

"Now, dear child, you must know that the eighth day arrived after the Celestial Baby had been born to the light of the day, and the Divine Fiat sounded the hour of sorrow, commanding us to circumcise the charming little Baby.  It was a most painful cut which little Jesus was to undergo.  It was the law of those times that all the firstborn had to undergo this painful cut.  It can be called the law of sin, but my Son was innocent and His law was the law of love; but in spite of this, because He came to find, not the man-king, but the man degraded, in order to make Himself his brother and to elevate him, He wanted to lower Himself, and He submitted Himself to the law.

My child, Saint Joseph and I felt a shiver of pain, but intrepid and without hesitating, we called the minister and we had Him circumcised with a most painful cut.  At the bitter pain, Baby Jesus cried and flung Himself into my arms, asking for my help.  Saint Joseph and I mixed our tears with His; we gathered the first Blood shed by Jesus for love of creatures, and we gave Him the name of Jesus – powerful name, which was to make Heaven and earth tremble, and even hell; a name which was to be balm, defense, help for every heart.

Now, my child, this cut was the image of the cruel cut that man had done to his soul by doing his own will; and my dear Son allowed Himself to be given this cut in order to heal the harsh cut of the human wills, and, with His Blood, to heal the wounds of the many sins which the poison of the human will has produced in the creatures.  So, each act of human will is a cut that is given, and a wound that opens; and the Celestial Baby, with His painful cut, prepared the remedy for all the human wounds."

The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of the Divine Will, Day 23


As Jesus states in Vol. 3 it is also a lesson in humility and how in humbling ourselves we draw closer to the truth and therefore closer to Jesus who is the truth.

 

Being very afflicted because of the privation of my highest and only Good, after much waiting and waiting, finally I saw Him come out from within my heart, crying, and making me understand with His eyes that He was hurting from the wound received in the Circumcision.  So He cried and expected me to dry the blood that was pouring from that wound, and to sweeten the pain of the cut.  I felt all compassion and confusion together, so much so that I did not dare to do it; however, drawn by love, I don’t know how I found a little cloth in my hand, and I tried as much as I could to dry the blood of Baby Jesus.  While doing this, I felt I was all full of sin, and I thought that I was the cause of that pain of Jesus.  Oh, how sorry I felt for Him!  I felt absorbed in that bitterness; and the blessed little Baby, compassionating my miserable state, told me:
“The more the soul humiliates herself and knows herself, the closer she draws to the truth; and being in the truth, she tries to push herself along the path of virtues, from which she sees herself very far away.  And if she sees herself on the path of virtues, immediately she realizes how much there is left for her to do, because virtues have no end – they are infinite, as I am.  So, being in the truth, the soul always tries to perfect herself, but she will never arrive at seeing herself perfect.  And this serves her, and it will make her work continuously, striving to perfect herself more, without wasting time in idleness.  And I, pleased with this work, keep retouching her little by little, in order to portray my likeness in her. 

"This is why I wanted to be circumcised – to give an example of highest humility, which rendered the very Angels of Heaven stunned.” 
Vol. 3, Jan. 1, 1900


Jesus also states how this is an example of how the creature must chose to put an end to the human so that the Divine might have life.  It is not an end to the human will however but a new beginning.  When transformed by Jesus in his Divinity a wounds brings healing not injury just as his death brings life.

"Now, you must know that one who puts an end to her will, returns into the origin from which she came, and the new life, the life of light, the perennial life of my Will, begins in her.  See, when I came upon earth, I wanted to give many examples and similes of how I wanted the human will to end.  I wanted to be born at midnight, so as to break the night of the human will with the refulgent day of Mine.  And even though at midnight the night continues, it does not finish, it is yet the beginning of a new day; and my Angels, to give honor to my birth and to point out to everyone the day of my Will, from midnight on, gladdened the vault of the heavens with new stars and new suns, such as to turn the night into more than daylight.  This was the homage that the Angels gave to my little Humanity, in which resided the full day of the Sun of my Divine Will, and the calling of the creature into the full day of It.  Still little, I submitted Myself to the so very cruel cut of circumcision, which made Me shed bitter tears for the pain – and not only Me, but with Me cried my Mama and dear St. Joseph.  It was the cut of the human will that I wanted to make, so that creatures might let the Divine Will flow within that cut, and so that a broken will might have life no more - but only Mine, which had run within that cut in order to begin Its life again." 

Vol. 20, Jan. 1, 1927


After this, I was thinking about the bitter pain which little Baby Jesus suffered in the circumcision. It is only eight days since He was born, and He submits Himself to a cut so painful. And Jesus, moving in my interior, added:

“My daughter, in the first epoch of his life, by sinning, Adam made a wound to his soul, through which the Divine Will went out and, in Its place, darkness, miseries, weaknesses entered, which formed the wood worm to all the goods of man. So, if he has any good without my Divine Will - if he has any at all, they are worm-eaten, moldy, without substance, therefore without strength and without value. And I, who love him so much, in the first days of my life down here, wanted to submit Myself to the circumcision, suffering a most cruel cut, to the point of snatching my baby tears. And by this wound I opened the door to the human will, to let it enter again into Mine, so that this wound of mine might heal the wound of the human will and might enclose man once again in my Divine Fiat, which would remove from him the wood worm, the miseries, the weaknesses, the darkness; and by virtue of my omnipotent Fiat, all of his goods would be redone and restored. Daughter, from the moment I was conceived and from the very first days of my being born, I occupied Myself with the Kingdom of my Divine Will and with how to place It in safety in the midst of creatures. These were my sighs, my tears, my repeated sobs, my pains, all directed toward reestablishing the Kingdom of my Fiat upon earth. In fact, I knew that no matter how many goods I might give him, man would never be happy, nor would he possess the fullness of goods and of sanctity, or have the insignia of his creation which constitute him king and dominator; he is always the man-servant, weak, miserable. But with my Will, and by making It reign in their midst, I would give him, in one single stroke of fortune, all goods, his royal palace and his lost dominion.
Vol. 25, Jan. 1, 1929

Jesus himself states that without his Will reigning within the creature despite any gifts God could give him otherwise man will always be an unhappy servant and not the king he was created to be.