48. Another of the
themes of the Sermon the Mount which calls for clarification is that
related to the Our Father. However, let us first set forth the true doctrinal meaning of
the following words expounded by Jesus as an introduction to the teaching
of this prayer par excellence: "But
thou when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber and, having shut the
door, pray to thy Father in secret: and thy Father Who seeth in secret
will repay thee" (Matthew VI, 6).
With this He does not disapprove of public prayer in church, since
common petition is the most efficacious, but teaches us that in prayer we
must proceed with the greatest rectitude of intention, considering that we
are in the presence of God our Father, to Whom we must humbly direct our
petition, with recollection and with confidence; for true prayer is that
which breaks forth from the depths of our hearts, and which is not mere
display of words devoid of spirit. That
is why Jesus adds: "And when you are praying, speak not much, as the heathens.
For they think that in their much speaking they may be heard"
(Matthew VI, 7). He thus
condemns the verbosity proper to the Gentiles; not however prolonged
prayer, when this possesses the conditions of true prayer, for it is very
necessary. This Jesus Himself
teaches us other occasions, as for example in the Gospel of Saint Luke: "We
ought always to pray and not to faint" (Luke XVIII, 1), for the
Gentiles offer their prayers before their idols with many words and
extravagant gestures, because their hearts lack the filial confidence felt
by one who prays to the true God Who, as Father, is aware of our needs,
although He wishes that we implore Him continually.
Therefore Jesus also says: "Be
not you therefore like to them: for your Father knoweth what is needful
for you, before you ask Him"
(Matthew VI, 8). Crowning His teaching how to pray, Jesus, in the very Sermon
the Mount itself, once more recited the Our Father in public to show us
that this has to be our fundamental prayer (Matthew VI, 9-13). only two Evangelists relate the Our Father: one is Saint Luke
(XI, 2-4), who does so incompletely, although Jesus had already taught it
in full to four of His disciples at the start of His public life, as we
already have made clear in the previous chapter.
The other Evangelist is Saint Matthew, who sets it forth whole and
entire in the Sermon the Mount (Matthew VI, 9- 13). Regarding this text of the Our Father in the Vulgate, we make
due clarification of the following phrase: "Panem
nostrum supersubstialem da nobis hodie","give us this day our supersubstantial bread" (Matthew VI,
11). The expression "supersubstantial
bread" has the same meaning as Saint Luke's: "Our
daily bread" (Luke XI, 3); for the word "supersubstantial" is due to an overliteral translation of
the Greek word "Epiousios",
which signifies sufficient for every day or daily. Therefore what we beseech God in this verse of the Our Father
is that each day we lack neither the graces necessary for salvation, nor
the Eucharistic food for the nourishment of our soul, nor material bread
for our bodily sustenance.
49. Now we select
other verses of the Sermon the Mount for greater clarification.
Jesus says: "The light
of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome.
But if thy eye be evil, thy eye be evil, thy whole body shall be
darkness: the darkness itself how great shall it be?"
(Matthew VI, 22-23). With
the word "eye" Jesus alludes to the intention in our actions.
If our intention is upright, through Grace we shall be a shining
example of virtue. However,
if our intention is evil, there will be no place for Grace in us, and our
works will be perverse. The
word "lightsome"
indicates the opportunities which God gives men to lead them to salvation.
If we reject them in order to give free rein to the pleasures of
the world, or worse still, if we use them to combat good, we submerge
ourselves in an abyss of darkness, since for greater grace God demands
greater correspondence, and if we do not act thus, greater will be our
disgrace.
50. Having finished
our brief commentary on the Sermon the Mount, we continue the historical
narrative of the Gospel, taking Saint Matthew as the starting point: "And
it came to pass when Jesus had fully ended these words, the people were in
admiration at His doctrine. For
He was teaching them as one having power: and not as the scribes and
pharisees" (Matthew VII, 28-29).
The Evangelist continues: "And
when He was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him"
(Matthew VIII, 1). Saint Luke
also relates: "And when He had
finished all His words in the hearing of the people, He, entered into
Capharnaum" (Luke VII, 1), coinciding with Saint Matthew, who
after the Sermon the Mount also says that Jesus entered Capharnaum (Matthew
VIII, 5). The miracle of the curing of the leper, which this latter
Evangelist places between the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus' entry into
Capharnaum, did not take place at that particular time, but a previous
occasion, as we have already related in Chapter XXX.
51. Saint Matthew
(VIII, 5-13) and Saint Luke (VII, 2- 10) narrate the healing of the
centurion's servant when Jesus, after the Sermon on the Mount, had entered
Capharnaum, and which we affirm was Friday the 15th of May in the year 32.
The Evangelists mutually complement each other in the narrative,
although they apparently differ in some aspects.
We arrange and clarify the events in accordance with our
interpretation: The centurion's servant being seriously ill (Luke VII, 2),
the former sends some elders of the Jews to Jesus, beseeching Him through
them that He deign to cure his servant (Luke VII, 3).
When they came to Jesus they urged Him, saying besides: "He
is worthy that Thou shouldest do this for him.
For he loveth our nation; and he hath built us a synagogue"
(Luke VII, 4-5). Jesus went
with them towards the sick man's house and, when not far away, some of the
centurion's friends approached and entreated Him anew to come and heal the
servant (Luke VII, 6). The
centurion, feeling himself unworthy to come into His presence, was
awaiting Jesus at the door of his home.
When he saw Him draw near he went towards Him and bended knee said:
"Lord, my servant lieth at home
sick of the palsy and is grievously tormented" (Matthew VII, 6).
To which Jesus replied, "I
will come and heal him" (Matthew VIII, 7).
The centurion, however,
replied <
52. In her revelations,
the eminent Doctor Saint Anne Catherine Emmerich says that the centurion's
name was Cornelius, and this has given us cause to examine the Acts of the
Apostles (Chapters X and XI), which mention a centurion of the same name.
It is evident in effect that they refer to the same person, due to
the coincidence of unmistakable characteristics.
The aforementioned sacred text relates that the centurion was in
Caesarea Maritime. We affirm
that he moved there, from Capharnaum, after Christ cursed the latter town
in the year 33. Furthermore,
from the Acts of the Apostles it is clear that the centurion Cornelius
referred to was a Gentile, already baptized and eminently religious, since
the sacred text says that he was "a
religious man, and fearing God with all his house, giving much alms to the
people and always praying to God", (Acts X, 2).
Further probing the text mentioned, we teach that Cornelius, seeing
the attitude of many of the Christianized Jews against the evangelization
of the Gentiles, and in the face of Saint Peter's indecision, vehemently
implored God that the difficulties impeding the universal preaching of the
Gospel cease.
While praying, there appeared to him an Angel Who, as can be
discerned from the Acts of the Apostles (X, 4) was Christ Himself, since
he calls Him "Lord",
Who commanded him to invite the Apostle Saint Peter to his house.
Thanks to Cornelius' prayers, the Lord also made the first Pope
understand more clearly that His Most Precious Blood had been shed the
Cross not only for the Jews, but also for the Gentiles. This He first shows by way of a symbolic vision (Acts X,
11-16), in which He commands him to kill and eat of animals,- shown him in
the vision -, animals declared unclean by the Law.
As Saint Peter refused to do so, the Lord said to him: "That
which God hath cleaned, do not thou call common" (Acts X, 15).
God manifests to Peter also His most vehement desire for the
evangelization of the Gentiles with the descent of the Holy Ghost the
Christians converted from heathendom assembled in Cornelius' house, in the
presence of the first Pope who, at such a transcendental event, exclaims: "Can
any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, who have received
the Holy Ghost, as well as we?" (Acts X, 47).
With the expression "as
well as we", Saint Peter makes clear that the grace of
Confirmation which the Apostles, already baptized, received in the Jewish
Pentecost in Jerusalem, was received also by Cornelius and his household
in the Gentile Pentecost that took place in Cornelius' home; and that in
both cases the grace of Confirmation was conferred without the external
signs proper to the Sacrament. Besides, in the above words, the first Pope refers to the
urgent need for the evangelization of the Gentiles, but not for that of
the centurion Cornelius nor of his relatives and intimate friends upon
whom the Holy Ghost had descended, they having already been baptized some
time before and, therefore, as seen by the words which Saint Peter
addresses to them in the Acts of the Apostles, already evangelized (Acts
X, 36-39). We teach as well that Saint Peter, in this Papal visit to
Cornelius, ordained him priest, along with others, and moreover
consecrated him bishop, the Centurion thereby becoming the first episcopal
authority elected among the Gentiles, with See at Caesarea Maritime.
We read in the Acts of the Apostles too, that Saint Peter commanded
"them to be baptized in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts X, 48), words by which is
indicated that the first Pope, moved by an ardent zeal, promulgated the
Apostolic Law of the evangelization of the Gentiles, and charged Bishop
Cornelius and the new priests to devote themselves fully to this important
mission. They, that same day,
baptized a number of Gentiles who had visited the house learning of
Peter's presence and of the prodigy of this second Pentecost.
In the Acts of the Apostles it can be seen that the official
evangelization of the Gentile world began from this mandate of Saint Peter
(Acts XI, 1). We clarify the
true meaning of the Angel's words to Cornelius when He commanded him to
call Saint Peter to his house: "Who
shall speak to thee words whereby thou shalt be saved, and all thy house"
(Acts XI, 14). That is, that
by the papal decree of the evangelization of the Gentiles, the latter, who
were represented in Cornelius and his family, would be saved.
It is admirable how Christ, on the occasion of the healing of the
centurion's servant in Capharnaum mysteriously foretold years beforehand
the future mission of the evangelization of the Gentiles which
Cornelius would accomplish, when He said: "Amen
I say to you, I have not found so great faith in Israel.
And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west,
and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of
Heaven: But the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into the
exterior darkness. There,
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew VIII, 10-12).
It is said in the Acts of the Apostles too (X, 1) that Cornelius
was centurion of a company called Italica, whereby we affirm that he was
born in the ancient Roman town of that name, situated close to Seville in
Spain, the ruins of which may still be seen.
53. After this
digression, in which we have identified the Centurion of Capharnaum as the
Centurion Cornelius of the Acts of the Apostles, we resume our Gospel
narrative with the following text of Saint Luke, which we affirm relates
Jesus' journey to the Temple for the feast of Pentecost: "And
it came to pass, when the days of His assumption were accomplishing, that
He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem" (Luke IX, 51).
Concerning these mysterious words we teach that each time Jesus
decided to go to Jerusalem His Soul was overwhelmed by immense sorrow and
joy at the same time, for in that city He was to suffer, in the last year
of His public life, a most bloody Passion and Death, through which He
would make reparation to the Father and redeem mankind.
However, as He had been seriously threatened with death in
Jerusalem during the last Passover, at the thought of going there again
for the feast of Pentecost, His sorrow and joy were such that this journey
appeared to Him more especially as if it were already the way to His
supreme immolation the Cross, and this is the meaning of the word "assumption".
Jesus left Capharnaum the 16th of May in the year 32, accompanied
by His Divine Mother, the Apostles, a number of His disciples, as also
some holy women and other followers.
His itinerary He passed along the western shore of the Lake, and
leaving Mount Thabor to one side, entered the town of Naim, where Sunday
the 17th of May He resuscitated Martial, the son of the widow Maroni, a
miracle recounted by Saint Luke (VII, 11-17).
Jesus remained in the town until the 24th of the same month
accomplishing a great apostolate and baptizing many.
54. After leaving Naim
He continued the journey southward, and before reaching a town which we
affirm to have been the ancient Samaria or Sebaste, sent a messenger ahead
of Him to obtain lodgings. But
Jesus was not received by the Samaritans, ill-disposed because His journey
was to Jerusalem. This event,
interpreted by us, is referred to by Saint Luke (IX, 52-53), who also
mentions the anger of James and John at the Samaritans as well as their
desire for vengeance they said: "Lord,
wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume
them?"; words which prove the power the Apostles possessed to do
extraordinary things in the name of Jesus.
He, however, reproached them on account of their bad disposition,
since they were forgetful of the love which they owe inclusively
to their enemies (Luke IX, 54-56) receiving no welcome in Samaria,
they all went to Sichem. That
is why the Evangelist says: "And
they went into another town."
55. His mission here
concluded, Jesus resumed His journey to Jerusalem, passing through the
towns of Gophna and Bethel announcing the Kingdom of God wherever He went.
During this journey there took place the episode of the three
candidates whose vocation Jesus put to the test, as the Evangelist Saint
Matthew (VIII, 19-22) tells us, referring to two of them, as likewise the
Evangelist Saint Luke (IX, 57-62), who confirms the two mentioned by Saint
Matthew and speaks also of a third. We
present here the text of Saint Luke: "And
it came to pass, as they walked in the way, that a certain man said to
Him: I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest.
Jesus said to him: foxes have holes, and the birds of the air
nests; but Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.
But He said to another: Follow Me.
And he said: Lord, suffer me first to go and to bury my father.
And Jesus said to him: Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou
and preach the Kingdom of God. And
another said: I will follow Thee, Lord; but let me first take my leave of
them that are at my house. Jesus
said to him: No man putting his hand to the plough and looking back is fit
for the Kingdom of God" (Luke IX, 57-62).
56. On the 30th of May
Jesus, with those accompanying Him, reached Bethany, the home town of
Lazarus and Martha, and as it happened to be the Sabbath, He preached in
the synagogue. Accompanied by
His Apostles, He visited the Temple daily, where He taught with authority
regardless of human respect, despite all the obstacles put in His way by
the scribes and pharisees,- who, however, dared not lay hands Him.
During this visit to Jerusalem many who believed in Jesus because
of the moral force of His teaching and because of His miracles were
baptized by the Apostles in the Cedron Brook.
57. Once they had
fulfilled the precept of the Jewish Pentecost in the Temple, which that
year 32 was celebrated Friday the 5th of June, the Divine Master, His Most
Holy Mother, the Apostles and the other companions, including Lazarus and
Martha, left Bethany that same day, and passed through the heart of the
territory of Samaria. After
reaching Galilee, and when passing through the town of Magdala, Jesus was
invited by a pharisee named Simon to eat in his home (Luke VII, 36), where
took place the episode of the conversion of Mary Magdalen, sister of
Lazarus and Martha, related by Saint Luke (VII, 37-50).
The town of Magdala lay next to the Lake of Genesareth, a few
kilometers to the north of Tiberias.
58. It is Saint Luke
who relates the conversion of Mary Magdalen, although in his narrative he
does not identify her by name, but rather as a sinful woman (Luke VII,
37); nonetheless, a little later, in another passage of his Gospel (Luke
VIII, 2) he mentions, among the women that followed Jesus, a certain Mary
called Magdalen, from whom seven devils had gone forth. Moreover,
she appears in the Gospels with this name, when they speak of the Death of
Christ (John XIX, 25) and of His Resurrection (Matthew XXVII, 56 etc.).
Saint John (XI, 1-2) says that Lazarus and Martha had a sister
called Mary, and furthermore identifies this Mary as the sinful woman
referred to above by Saint Luke (VII, 37).
Saint Matthew (XXVI, 7) and Saint Mark (XIV, 3) speak of a woman
who poured a precious balm over the head of Jesus; and Saint John (XII,
3), narrating the same event, which occurred in Bethany, says that the
woman was Mary, and from the context she is seen to have been the sister
of Lazarus and Martha. The
Gospels do not explicitly say that Mary Magdalen was Mary the sister of
Lazarus and Martha, but in Chapter XX of this Treatise it was defined that
in actual fact she was. Consequently,
both the woman sinner mentioned by Saint Luke (VII, 37) who anointed the
feet of the Lord, as well as the woman who anointed the head of the Lord
at Bethany (Matthew XXVI, 7; Mark XIV, 3), as likewise the woman known in
the Gospels as Mary Magdalen (Luke VIII, 2; John XIX, 25 etc.), are the
same person, that is to say, Mary, sister of Lazarus and Martha.
59. Before speaking of
the conversion of Mary Magdalen, we present some details of her family, as
well as of her infancy and youth. The
parents of the brother and sisters of Bethany were Syron and Eucharia,
both of noble birth, very rich and of great prestige among the Jews, above
all account of their exemplary virtues.
Lazarus was the eldest of the children, followed by Martha, with
Mary the youngest. When their
parents died they inherited a great fortune, of which we give prominence
to the house of Bethany,- so often visited by Jesus -, a spacious and
comfortable mansion with gardens and with several outbuildings; and as
well the Castle of Magdala, inherited by Mary, to which she resorted in
her youth for her reckless pastimes.
The mystical Doctor Saint Anne Catherine Emmerich says that the
family of Lazarus was already friendly with the Holy Family during the
infancy of Jesus, and we affirm this to be true.
Furthermore, in this Treatise it has already been defined that
Noemi, aunt of Lazarus of Bethany and his sisters, was the mistress of the
Divine Child Mary in the Temple, and that all were Essenes.
We now teach that Lazarus, when young, as well as Martha and Mary
when still children, were sanctified on the occasion of one of the visits
made by the Holy Family to their home at Bethany.
60. Although Lazarus
and his two sisters had received a painstaking education from their
parents, Mary Magdalen, of striking beauty and passionate nature,
nevertheless was from childhood already much inclined to vanity and
caprice, which in her youth led her - after the death of her parents -, to
abandon her virtuous brother and sister and with her servants to remove to
the luxurious Castle of Magdala, in a beautiful Galilean setting close to
the Lake of Genesareth, there giving herself up to a licentious life.
Lazarus and Martha prayed intensely for the conversion of their
sister and visited her on some occasions in an attempt to persuade her to
reform. However, as she
turned a deaf ear to their
advice, they entrusted this difficult task to the Divine Virgin Mary, Who
frequently sent some of the pious women to visit her and to speak to her
of Jesus' teachings and miracles, and to invite her as well to hear for
herself the words of the Divine Master.
As a result of this she sometimes went out of curiosity,
accompanied by her friends, to hear His sermons.
Little by little the rebellious attitude of Mary Magdalen lessened,
and the profound bitterness that overwhelmed her, caused by so much vice,
contributed to this in great part.
61. However, let us
now see how this sinful woman received the impulse needed for her
conversion. Saint Anne
Catherine Emmerich says that Mary Magdalen, at the invitation of her
sister Martha, attended with some friends one of the sermons given by
Jesus on a mount close to the town of Magdala, and we affirm that it was
Saturday the 13th of June, when the Divine Master was passing through the
town after the celebration of Pentecost in Jerusalem.
The mystical Doctor, whose teaching we set forth in accordance with
our interpretation, goes to say that when Mary Magdalen heard Jesus speak
of the Kingdom of God, of sin, of eternal punishment and of the need for
penance, she was deeply moved and began to weep.
Then when Jesus, addressing Himself benevolently to sinners,
invited them to come to Him if they truly desired to be healed in soul,
Mary trembled in suchwise that she was about to throw herself at His feet,
but restrained herself. The
Divine Master, knowing the heart of the sinner, said whilst looking at
her: If only a spark of penance, of repentance, of love, of faith, of
hope, fall into a heart and bear fruit, I wish to care for it and make it
increase in order to take it to My Father.
At which Mary Magdalen was more deeply penetrated by repentance,
her love for Jesus now transpiercing her soul for having offended Him.
It is here, by virtue of perfect contrition, that Mary recovers
Sanctifying Grace and is freed from the seven devils who had possessed her
and enslaved her to the seven capital sins, and whom Saint Anne Catherine
Emmerich saw departing like dark shadows.
62. For our part as
well, we teach that when Jesus had finished speaking, Martha took the
Magdalen to the Most Holy Virgin, and the Magdalen besought Her to
intercede before Her Divine Son and ask for mercy and pardon.
Meanwhile, Jesus had departed with His Apostles, Lazarus and the
other disciples for the home of Simon the pharisee who, as we know, had
invited Him to a banquet, at which a considerable number of people
partook. Mary Magdalen,
brought by the Divine Mary and accompanied by Martha and some of the pious
women, arrived at the home of Simon the pharisee. And, in face of the apprehension of the latter and of his
table companions, who knew her to be a public sinner, she went up to Jesus
and, as the Evangelist says, "standing
behind at His feet, she began to wash His feet with tears and wipe them
with the hairs of her head and kissed His feet and anointed them with the
ointment" (Luke VII, 38). The
Evangelist then refers to the hasty judgement which Simon the pharisee
made of Jesus as well as to
his inner contempt of the Magdalen, when he said to himself: "This
Man, if He were a prophet, would know surely who and what manner of woman
this is that toucheth Him, that she is a sinner" (Luke VII, 39).
However, as Jesus knew his perverse thoughts,- we affirm too that
Simon despised the very woman with whom he had sinned many times -, He
corrected him by making him see, in the parable of the two debtors (Luke
VII, 39-46), the contrast between his small-mindedness and the generosity
of the sinner who, for her sublime display of love, received her well-
deserved public eulogy from Jesus. He,
besides absolving her of her sins, remitted all the temporal punishment
due to them, and endowed her with a special strength, through which Mary
Magdalen never again sinned, neither mortally or venially.
That is why Jesus says of her to Simon the pharisee that "many
sins are forgiven her, because she hath loveth much" (Luke VII,
47), with which He left the following teaching to the Church: In the
Sacrament of Penance instituted by Him after His death, attrition at
least, is required for the forgiveness of sins.
Nevertheless, in the Sacrament, perfect contrition obtains more
abundant graces for the penitent, since the measure of remission of the
temporal punishment due to one's sins as well as the supernatural strength
received in order to avoid relapses, is commensurate with one's degree of
love. That is the meaning of the second part of the abovementioned
verse: "But to whom less is
forgiven, he loveth less" (Luke VII, 47), the doctrinal
interpretation of which is: "To
him who loveth less, less is forgiven".
Mary Magdalene was baptized by Jesus the same day as her
conversion, that is, the 13th of June.
Jesus then left for Capharnaum, accompanied by the group of His
followers as well as by Lazarus of Bethany with both his sisters.
63. It remains for us
to say that Simon the pharisee, sincerely moved by the repentance of Mary
Magdalen, humbly begged the Lord to forgive him his sins also, and
consequently was baptized that same day together with many others.
From then Simon took a very close interest in Jesus, and led a most
exemplary life. We affirm
that this Simon the pharisee is the same Simon the Leper mentioned by the
Evangelists Saint Matthew (XXVI, 6) and Saint Mark (XIV, 3) whom they
situate in Bethany. And he is the leper Jesus had cured on the outskirts of
Magdala some time previously, as seen in Chapter XXX.
The eminent Doctor Saint Anne Catherine Emmerich supports our
teaching, for she says that in Bethany there was a man named Simon who had
been cured of leprosy and who was also called Simon the pharisee; and, in
addition, that he did not always live in Bethany.
To this we add that after the conversion of the Magdalene, the
abovementioned Simon did live for periods of time in Bethany.
64. After His arrival
at Capharnaum, Jesus remained there with His Apostles and disciples,
including Lazarus, until the 23rd of June of the year then current, that
is 32, in the morning of which He set out to journey through Galilee, as
we shall see later. The
Divine Virgin Mary and the pious women, including the sisters Martha and
Mary, withdrew to the community residence,
where Mary lived several days of intense prayer and penance.
