Christ of Saint John of the Cross                                                   Salvador Dali

Victors over the Beast

     "If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to what the Spirit is saying to the Churches: those who prove victorious I will feed from the tree of life set in God's paradise."  Revelation 2:7 (Genesis 2:9)

     Jesus says:

     "I shall continue to explain to you passages which I deem appropriate.  It is said, 'I shall have the victor feed on the tree of life...'  And this thought has been applied to Me.

     Yes, I am the tree of eternal life, and I give Myself to you as food in the Eucharist, and the sight of Me will be the joyful food of the victors in the other life.  But there is another meaning which many do not know precisely because many who comment on Me are not 'victors'.

     Who is a victor?  What is needed to be one?  Works resounding with heroism?  No. Those who are victorious would then be too few in number.  The victors are those who in themselves gain victory over the Beast, who would like to get the better of them.  In truth, between atrocious, but brief martyrdom, with the help of supernatural and natural factors, and a secret, obscure, and continuous struggle, the latter, on the scales of God, is of greater weight, or at least of a weight of a different kind, but precious.

     No tyrant is a greater tyrant than the flesh and the Devil.  And those who are able to gain victory over the flesh and the Devil and make the flesh a spirit and the devil a vanquished foe are 'the victors'.

     But to be such people must have given themselves totally to Love.  Totally: those who love with all their strength reserve nothing for themselves, and, in not keeping anything for themselves, they keep nothing for the flesh and the devil.  They give everything to their God, and God gives everything to those who love Him.

     He gives them His Word.  This is what He gives the victors to eat, beginning on this earth, nor could He give them anything greater.  He gives Me, the Father's Word, to be the food of the spirit consecrated to heaven.

    My Word descends to nourish the souls given entirely to their Lord God.  My Word comes to be the priest and guide for you, that seek the true guide and see so many weak guides for the throngs perishing without a true guide.  You that have understood the Truth know that this alone is necessary: to live by My Word, believe in My Word, and walk according to My Word. 

     What would you think of someone wanting to live on sweets, liquors, and smoke?  You would say that person will die because that isn't the food one needs to live healthily.  The same holds for those who weary themselves with a thousand superficial things and do not take into account that which is the core of the whole life of the soul: My Word.

     Why don't the Mass, the Eucharist, and Confession sanctify you as ought to happen?  Because to you they are purely formal acts;  you don't make them fruitful  through attention to My Word.  Even worse: by lukewarmness, hypocrisy, and more or less serious sin you choke off My Word, which I hurl from the heights of Heaven as a summons and light for you.

     You do not love Me--that's all there is to it.  To love doesn't mean a superficial visit of worldly courtesy from time to time.  To love means to live with one's soul united, fused to a single fire which nourishes another soul.  Then, in fusion, understanding also takes place.

     I no longer speak from afar, from the heights of the heavens, but take up My dwelling--and with Me, the Father and the Spirit, for we are one single reality--in the hearts of those who love Me, and My Word is no longer a whisper, but a full Voice, no longer isolated, but continuous.  I am then the true 'Master".  I am the One who twenty centuries ago tirelessly spoke to the crowds and who now finds His delight in speaking to His beloved ones who are able to listen to Him, and I make them into My channels of grace.

     How much Life I give you!  True Life, holy Life, eternal Life, joyful Life, through My Word, which is the Word of the Father and the Love of the Spirit.  Yes, in truth I have 'the victor' eat of the fruit of the tree of Life.  I give it to Him beginning on this earth through My spiritual doctrine, which I return to bear among men so that not all men will perish.  I give it to you in the other life by being in your midst eternally

     I am true Life.  Remain in Me, by beloved ones, and you will not know death."

Written by Maria Valtorta, August 18, 1943.  Taken from THE NOTEBOOKS 1943

http://valtorta.org/