Notes for this keyword

Pain and suffering

Theme: Virtues, Christian Qualities, and Human Qualities · Page 4 of 12

Reading comfort

GRM 80.9

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

And here I experienced the weariness of the hero and of the ascetic who in an hour of forewarning realise the uselessness of their efforts… I cried… Sadness… a lure for Satan. It is not a sin to be sad in painful circumstances. It is a sin to go beyond sadness and fall into inertness and despair. 

Detail

Jesus speaks about his temptation in the desert.

Keywords

GRM 83

The Gospel as revealed to me

Detail

Jesus is in the countryside. He is talking to a peasant who confides the good he gets from listening to Jesus (it's exactly the same for us who read the Work). Jesus talks about God's blessing, and about suffering, about how it is atonement and grace. Then John leaves, and Judas asks to go to Jerusalem to meet a friend. Jesus is disheartened by Judas, and weeps quietly in a bushy grove. He prays. Finally, he is joined by Simon the Zealot, who guesses his pain. They talk about Judas... And Simon also expresses his desire for him to meet Lazarus.

Keywords

GRM 83.2

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

«Is pain not always evil?»

«No, My friend, It is evil from a human point of view, but from a supernatural one it is good. It increases the merits of just people, who accept it without despairing or rebelling and they offer it, as they offer themselves with resignation, as a sacrifice to expiate their own imperfections and the faults of the world, and it is a redemption for those who are not good.»

«It is so difficult to suffer!» says the farmer, who has been joined by his relatives, about ten people in all, adults and children.

«I know that man finds it difficult. And knowing that he would find it so difficult, the Father had not given His children any sorrow. It came due to sin. But how long does sorrow last on the earth? In the life of a man? A short time. It is always short, even if it lasts a whole lifetime. Now I say: is it not better to suffer for a short time rather than forever? Is it not better to suffer here than in Purgatory? Consider that time there is multiplied one thousand fold. Oh! I solemnly tell you: you ought not to curse pain, but bless it, and you should call it “grace” and “mercy”.

Keywords

GRM 83.7

The Gospel as revealed to me

Quotation

83.7 Jesus then says:

«My little John, how many times have I cried with My face on the ground because of men! And you would like to be less than Me?

Also amongst you, good people are in the proportion that existed between good people and Judas. And the better one is, the more one suffers. But also for you it is necessary to learn by studying Judas, and I say that particularly for those who are responsible for the spiritual care of souls. Each of you, priests, is a “Peter”. And you have to forgive and retain. But how much power of observation you must have, how much union with God, what great pains you must take and how many comparisons with the method of the Master you must make, in order to be a priest as it is your duty to be!

Some people may think that what I am saying is useless, human, impossible. They are the usual people who deny the human phases of Jesus’ life and they make of Me a being so remote from human life as to be only a divine being. What happens then to the most holy Humanity, to the sacrifice of the Second Person in becoming flesh? Oh! I was truly a Man amongst men. I was the Man. And that is why I suffered in seeing the traitor and ungrateful people. That is why I rejoiced on account of those who loved Me or were converted to Me. That is why I shuddered and cried before Judas’ spiritual corpse. I shuddered and cried before My dead friend. But I knew that I would call him back to life and I rejoiced seeing his soul already in Limbo. Here… I had the Demon in front of Me. And I will say no more.

Follow Me, John. Let us give men also this gift. And then… Blessed are those who listen to the Word of God and strive to do what it says. Blessed are those who want to know Me in order to love Me. In them and to them I shall be a blessing.»

Keywords