I see, early in the morning, Jesus, Who at the same Gate meets His disciples
Simon and Judas. John is already with Jesus. And I hear Him say: « My friends,
I ask you to come with Me through Judaea. If it is not too much for you,
particularly for you, Simon. »
« Why, Master? »
« It is hard to walk on the Judaean mountains… and perhaps it will be even
more painful for you to meet someone who harmed you. »
« As far as the road is concerned, I wish to assure You, once again, that after
You cured me, I feel stronger than a young man and no work is heavy for me,
also because it is done for You, and now, with You. With regard to meeting
people who harmed me, there is no harsh resentment or feeling in Simon's heart,
since he became Yours. Hatred has gone together with the scales of the disease.
And believe me, I cannot tell You whether You worked a greater miracle in
curing my corroded flesh or my soul consumed by hatred. I do not think I am
wrong in saying the latter miracle was the greater. A wound of the soul heals less easily… and You cured me in one instant. That is a miracle. Because one
does not recover all of a sudden, even if one wants to with all one's strength and
a man does not get rid of a bad moral habit, if You do not destroy that habit with
Your sanctifying will power. »
« Your judgement is correct. »
« Why do You not do that with everyone? » asks Judas, somewhat resentful.
« But He does, Judas. Why do you speak like that to the Master? Do you not feel
you have changed since you have been in contact with Him? Previously, I was a
disciple of John the Baptist. But I have found myself completely changed since
He said to me: “Come”. » John, who in general very seldom interferes, and
never does in the presence of the Master, this time cannot keep quiet. Kind and
loving, he lays one hand on Judas' arm as if to calm him down and he speaks to
him anxiously and persuasively. He then realises he has spoken before Jesus, he
blushes and says: « Forgive me, Master, I spoke in Your stead, but I wanted… I
did not want Judas to grieve You. »
« Yes, John. But he did not grieve Me as My disciple. When he is My disciple,
then, if he persists in his way of thinking, he will grieve Me. It grieves Me only
to notice how much man has been corrupted by Satan who perverts his thoughts.
All men, you know! The thoughts of all of you have been misled by him! But
the day will come, when you will have the Strength and the Grace of God, you
will have Wisdom with His Spirit… you will then have everything to enable you
to judge rightly. »
« And will we all judge rightly. »
« No, Judas. »
« But are You referring to us, disciples, or to all men? »
« I refer firstly to you, and to all the others. When the time comes, the Master
will nominate His workers and send them all over the world… »
« Are You not doing that already? »
« For the time being, I use you only to say: “The Messiah is here. Come to
Him.” Later I will make you capable of preaching in My name, of working
miracles in My name… »
« Oh! Also miracles? »
« Yes, on bodies and on souls. »
« Oh! How they will admire us, then! » Judas is overjoyed at the thought.
« But, then, we shall not be with the Master… and I will always be afraid to do
with my human capacity what comes only from God » says John, and he looks
thoughtfully and somewhat sadly at Jesus.
« John, if the Master will allow me, I would like to tell you what I think » says
Simon.
« Yes, tell John. I want you to advise one another. »
« Do You already know it is advice? »
Jesus smiles and is quiet.
« Well, I tell you, John, that you must not, we must not be afraid. Let us found
upon His wisdom of a holy Master and upon His promise. If He says: “I will
send you”, it means that He knows that He can send us without any fear that we
may do harm to Him or to ourselves, that is to the cause of God, that is so dear
to each of us, like a newly-wed bride. If He promises to clothe our intellectual
and spiritual misery with the brightness of the power His Father gives Him for
us, we must be certain that He will do so and that we will be successful, not by
ourselves, but through His mercy. All this will most certainly happen, providing
our deeds are free from pride and human ambitions. I think that if we contami-
nate our mission, which is entirely a spiritual one, with earthly ingredients, then
also Christ's promise will no longer stand. Not because of any inability on His
part, but because we will strangle such ability with the rope of pride. I do not
know whether I have made myself understood. »
« You have spoken very clearly. I am wrong. But you know… I think that after
all, to wish to be admired as the Messiah's disciples, so close to Him as to
deserve to do what He does, is the same as wishing to increase even more the
powerful figure of Christ among people. Praise to the Master, Who has such
disciples, that is what I mean » answers Judas.
« What you say is not entirely wrong. But… see, Judas. I come from a caste
which is persecuted because… because it misunderstood what and how the
Messiah should be. Yes. If we had waited for Him with the correct vision of His being, we would not have fallen into errors, which are blasphemy against the
Truth and a rebellion against the Law of Rome, so that we have been punished
both by God and by Rome. We fancied Christ as a conqueror who would free
Israel, as a new Maccabaeus, greater than the great Judas… Only that. And
why? Because rather than have regard to the interest of God we took care of our
own interests: of the fatherland and of the people. Oh! The interests of the
fatherland are most certainly sacred.
But what are they when compared to the
eternal Heavens? In the long hours of persecution, first, and then of isolation,
when as a fugitive, I was compelled to hide in the dens of wild beasts, sharing
food and bed with them, to escape Roman power and above all the impeach-
ments of false friends; or when, waiting for death I was already foretasting the
savour of the sepulchre, in the cave of a leper, how much did I meditate, and
how much did I see: I saw the figure of the Messiah… Yours, my humble and
good Master, Yours, Master and King of the Spirit, Yours, O Christ, Son of the
Father, leading to the Father, and not to the royal palaces of dust, nor to the
deities of mud. You… Oh! It is easy for me to follow You… Because, forgive
my daring which avows itself to be correct, because I see You as I thought of
You, I recognise You, I recognised You at once. No, it was not a question of
meeting You, but of recognising One whom my soul had already met… »
« That is why I called you… and that is why I am taking you with Me, now, in
this first journey of Mine in Judaea. I want you to complete your recognition…
and I want also these, whom age makes less capable of reaching the Truth by
means of deep meditation, I want them to know how their Master has come to
this hour… You will understand later. There is David's Tower. The Eastern Gate
is near. »
« Are we going out by it? »
« Yes, Judas. We are going to Bethlehem first. Where I was born… You ought
to know… to tell the others. Also that is part of the knowledge of the Messiah
and of the Scriptures. You will find prophecies written in things not as
prophecies but as history. Let us go round Herod's houses… »
« The old, wicked, lustful fox. »
« Do not judge. There is God, Who judges. Let us go along the path through
these vegetable gardens. We will stop under the shade of a tree, near some
hospitable house, until it cools down. We will then go on our way. »
The vision ends.
A stony, dusty, flat road, dried up by the summer sun. It runs alongside huge
olive-trees, all laden with small newly formed olives. The ground, where it has
not been trodden, is strewn with a layer of minute little olive flowers, which
have fallen off after pollination.
Jesus, with the three disciples, proceeds in single file along the edge of the road,
where the grass is still green, protected by the shade of the olive-trees and
consequently there is less dust.
The road turns at a right angle, after which it climbs easily towards a large
valley shaped like a horseshoe, on which numerous houses are strewn forming a
small town. At the right angle turn of the road, there is a square building
surmounted by a little low dome. It is all closed up, as if it were abandoned.
« That is Rachel's sepulchre » says Simon.
« In that case, we have almost arrived. Are we going into town at once? »
« No, Judas, I want to show you a place first… Then we will go into town, and
since there is still clear daylight and it will be an evening of moonlight, we will
be able to speak to the people. If they will listen to us. »
« Do You think they will not listen to You? »
They have reached the sepulchre, an ancient but well preserved monument, well
whitewashed.
Jesus stops to drink at a rustic well nearby. A woman who has come to draw
water offers Him some. Jesus asks her: « Are you from Bethlehem? »
« I am. But now at harvest time, I live in the country here with my husband, to
look after the vegetable gardens and the orchards. Are You a Galilean? »