The Jewish people, throughout its history, as the Bible shows us, at different times, opened to faith in eternal Life. We arrive to this certain faith through the book of Maccabees, of which we read a little passage, today. Then Jesus, will do nothing  other than speak about eternal life and the value of life on earth with a view to the life after death. Jesus lived, died and rose again to save us, to make us children of God on this earth and forever, in order to merit eternal Life.

” I go to prepare a place for you, I will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also..” The full text of the Book of Maccabees, presents a touching exhortation to martyrdom by the mother to her youngest son.

The one who better than anyone is aware of the mystery of human life, of the miraculous formation of a new life in the womb, is best placed to understand holiness and therefore the eternity of this life. The two are not without connection. Today, even among Christians, the long journey of Israel has been, at times, forgotten and we risk coming back.

At least according to surveys, a significant percentage of people say they believe that life continues after death in a vague and indistinct manner. Some people even do not believe in a life after death, even though they call themselves Christians. And it is our not Christian society that began to no longer be surprised about the mystery of new life.

If we want to recover the true meaning of eternity and of our faith in life after death, it is right to come back to the words, full of emotion, of the mother of the Maccabees, “I do not know how your life began in my womb, I was not the one who gave you life and breath and put together each part of your body. It was God who did it, God who created the universe, the human race, and all that exists. He is merciful and he will give you back life and breath again, because you love his laws more than you love yourself”.

The gospel, through the question of the Sadducees, shows the difficulty of growing in faith in eternal life. In Jesus’ time this religious group within Judaism, that was more conservative than the Pharisees, did not believe in the resurrection, nor in a true life after death.

For this reason  they tried to oppose Jesus’ teaching on the resurrection and on  life after death using the weapon of the ridiculous. The example of women with seven ex-husbands appears as a well conceived trap to ridicule faith in eternal life and, however,  it works very well, as all the arguments that try to see the eternal life only as a continuation of this life.

Who thinks about eternal life becoming caught up in the logic, often twisted, of this our earthly life, marked by selfishness and sin, can’t understand its mystery.

The Sadducees, by their example, didn’t keep anything of the mystery of love that unites a man to a woman, a love that if it is sincere, manages to exceed the limits of death. For them the question was about property. As according to Jewish law the wife belonged to her husband, at the resurrection whose wife will the woman of the story be? Jesus overturned their twisted and worldly logic.

At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; as indeed, Jesus will say, this should not happen even in this life. among Christians Love  liberates and is a gift, like the one that joins the angels of heaven to God and to us.

Jesus’ answer does not discuss whether or not there are in the resurrection bonds of love or if the bonds of love that have joined us together in this life continue. Therefore, Jesus refuses that people can talk about resurrection in too worldly a manner, in terms of possession and conquest, of ownership and claim of their own  legal rights against the other.

The only possible language to speak of resurrection and eternal life, is the language of God and of the angels, the language of love, of the generous giving of  self- and especially of faith, which marvels at the greatness of God’s work: from birth to death and beyond death, for all eternity. We see, then, how from this text of the Gospel, which seems, at first glance, a bit difficult, we can draw a deep and fruitful teaching, for the true faith in eternity, the time of God’s infinite love which is given to our hearts .

In Luisa’s writings, Jesus speaks a lot about eternal life as life in the Divine “Fiat”. In a passage of April 12, 1928, Jesus compares the Calvary to the “new Eden”, in which mankind was given back that which it lost by withdrawing from the Divine Will.

In Eden, Heaven was closed to man, he lost his happiness and rendered himself the slave of the infernal enemy. In the new Eden, Heaven was opened once again to him, he reacquires the lost peace and happiness, the devil is chained, while man is freed from his slavery.

In Eden, the Sun of the Divine Fiat darkened and it became always nighttime for man – symbol of the Sun which withdrew from the face of the earth during the three hours of Jesus’ terrible agony on the Cross. Unable to sustain the torment of His Creator -caused by the human will which, with great perfidy, had reduced His Humanity to that state – horrified, the Sun withdrew, and as He breathed His last, it reappeared once again and continued its course of light.

In the same way, the Sun of the Divine Fiat, with, Jesus’ death, called back the Sun of the Divine Will to reign in the midst of creatures. It may be said that Calvary formed the dawn which called the Sun of the eternal Will to shine once again in the midst of creatures. Dawn means certainty that the Sun will come out; in the same way, the dawn which Jesus formed on Calvary assures, even though some two thousand years have passed, that it will call the Sun of the Divine Will to reign once again in the midst of creatures

In the first Eden man receives the condemnation to death of soul and body; while in the second Eden he is released from his condemnation, and the resurrection of the body is reconfirmed through the resurrection of Jesus’ Humanity. There are many relations between Eden and Calvary – that which man lost there, he reacquires here. In the kingdom of Jesus’pains everything is given back, and the honor and the glory of the poor creature is reconfirmed by means of His pains and of His  death.

By withdrawing from God’s Will, man formed the kingdom of his evils, of his weaknesses, passions and miseries; and the Son of God wanted to come upon earth, He wanted to suffer greatly, He  permitted that His Humanity be lacerated, Its flesh torn to pieces, all full of wounds. And He wanted even to die in order to form, by means of His many pains and of His death, the kingdom opposite to the many evils that the creature had formed for herself. A kingdom cannot be formed with one act alone, but with many upon many acts; and the more the acts, the greater and more glorious the kingdom becomes. Therefore, Jesus’ death was necessary to His Love; with His death He was to give the kiss of life to creatures, and from His many wounds He was to let all goods out, in order to form the kingdom of goods for creatures. So, His wounds are springs which gush with goods, and His death is spring from which life for all gushes forth.

And just as His death was necessary, so His Resurrection was necessary to His Love, because by doing his will, man lost the life of God’s Will, and Jesus wanted to rise again to form not only the resurrection of the body, but the resurrection of the life of the Divine Will in it.

If  Jesus had not risen again, the creature could not have risen once again in the Divine Fiat; she would have lacked the virtue – the bond of her resurrection in His, and Jesus’ love would have felt incomplete. It would have felt It could do something more but It was not doing it, and so He would have remained with the harsh martyrdom of a love that is not complete. 

don Marco

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Fiat

 “When the Lord invites us to become saints, he doesn’t call us to something heavy, sad… quite the contrary! It’s an invitation to share in his joy, to live and to offer with joy every moment of our life, by making it become at the same time a gift of love for the people around us”.(Pope Francis)

The Feast of All Saints that we are celebrating today reminds us that the goal of our existence is not death, it is Paradise! The Apostle John writes: “it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 Jn 3:2). The Saints — who are the friends of God — assure us of this promise which does not disappoint. During their earthly existence they lived in profound communion with God. In the faces of the humblest and least of our brothers, the smallest and most despised brothers, they saw the face of God, and now they contemplate him face to face in his glorious beauty.

The Saints are not supermen, nor were they born perfect. They are like us, like each one of us. They are people who, before reaching the glory of heaven, lived normal lives with joys and sorrows, struggles and hopes. What changed their lives? When they recognized God’s love, they followed it with all their heart without reserve or hypocrisy. They spent their lives serving others, they endured suffering and adversity without hatred and responded to evil with good, spreading joy and peace. This is the life of a Saint. The Saints never hated. The Saints are men and women who have joy in their hearts and they spread it to others. Never hate but serve others, the most needy; pray and live in joy. This is the way of holiness!

Being holy is not a privilege for the few, as if someone had a large inheritance; in Baptism we all have an inheritance to be able to become saints. Holiness is a vocation for everyone. Thus we are all called to walk on the path of holiness, and this path has a name and a face: the face of Jesus Christ. He teaches us to become saints. In the Gospel he shows us the way, the way of the Beatitudes (cf. Mt 5:1-12). The Kingdom of Heaven is for those who do not place their security in material things but in love for God, for those who have a simple, humble heart that does not presume to be just and does not judge others, for those who know how to suffer with those who suffer and how to rejoice when others rejoice. They are not violent but merciful and strive to be instruments for reconciliation and peace. Saints, whether men or women, are instruments for reconciliation and peace; they are always helping people to become reconciled and helping to bring about peace. Thus holiness is beautiful, it is a beautiful path! (Pope Francis)

Jesus said to Luisa that only His Will brings true happiness.  It alone encloses all goods within the soul, and making Itself crown around the soul, constitutes her queen of true happiness. Only these souls will be the queens of God’s  throne, because they are a birth from His Will.

Many met Jesus when He came to earth but did not know Him, because the Divine Will did not reside within them as center of life. Therefore, even if they saw Him, they remained unhappy. Only those who received the good of receiving the seed of the Divine  Will in their hearts disposed themselves to receive the good of seeing Jesus resurrected.

Now, the portent of His Redemption was the Resurrection, which, more than refulgent sun, crowned Jesus’ Humanity, making even His littlest acts shine, with such splendor and marvel as to astonish Heaven and earth. The Resurrection will be the beginning, the foundation and the fulfillment of all goods – crown and glory of all the Blessed.

Jesus’ Resurrection is the true sun which worthily glorifies His Humanity; It is the glory of every Christian. Without Resurrection, it would have been as though heavens without sun, without heat and without life. Now, His Resurrection is the symbol of the souls who will form their sanctity in the Divine Will.

The Saints of the past centuries symbolize His Humanity. Although resigned, they did not have continuous act in His Will; therefore, they did not receive the mark of the sun of His Resurrection, but the mark of the works of His Humanity before His Resurrection. Therefore, they will be many; almost like stars, they will form a beautiful ornament to the Heaven of His Humanity.

But the Saints of the living in the Divine Will, who will symbolize His Resurrected Humanity, will be few. In fact, many throngs and crowds of people saw Jesus’ Humanity, but few saw His Resurrected Humanity – only the believers, those who were most,  only those who contained the seed of the Divine Will. In fact, if they did not have that seed, they would have lacked the necessary sight to be able to see His Resurrected and glorious Humanity, and therefore be spectators of His ascent into Heaven.

Now, if His Resurrection symbolizes the Saints of the living in the Divine Will – and this with reason, since each act, word, step, etc. done in God’s Will is a divine resurrection that the soul receives; it is a mark of glory that she receives; it is to go out of herself in order to enter the Divinity, and to love, work and think, hiding herself in the refulgent sun of the Divine Volition – what is the wonder if the soul remains fully risen and identified with the very sun of His glory, and symbolizes His Resurrected Humanity?

But few are those who dispose themselves to this, because even in sanctity, souls want something for their own good; while the Sanctity of living in the Divine Will has nothing of its own  everything is of God. It takes too much for souls to dispose themselves to this – to strip themselves of their own goods. Therefore, they will not be many.

Today, through this feast, the Saints give us a message. They tell us: trust in the Lord because the Lord does not disappoint! He never disappoints, he is a good friend always at our side. Through their witness the Saints encourage us to not be afraid of going against the tide or of being misunderstood and mocked when we speak about him and the Gospel; by their life they show us that he who stays faithful to God and to his Word experiences the comfort of his love on this earth and then a “hundredfold” in eternity. “Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven”.

don Marco