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Jesus Christ, the Saviour and Redeemer. I think, and Iam not mistaken, that those who have been rehabilitatedby Me in the eyes of God and in their own, will be Myfaithful disciples, the ones who with greater strength willbe able to lead crowds of people to God saying: “Are yousinners? So am I. Are you depressed? So am I. Are youdesperate? So was I. And yet you can see that theMessiah had mercy on my spiritual distress and Hewanted me to be His priest. Because He is mercy and Hewants the world to be convinced of that, and no man ismore suitable to convince than he who has experiencedsuch mercy in himself.” Now I will put them on a parwith My friends, and with those who have worshipped Mesince I was born, that is, I will associate them with youand with the shepherds. Nay, I will set them alongsidethe shepherds, with those who have been cured, withthose who without any special election, like you twelve,have followed My way and will follow it as long as theylive.Isaac is near Arimathea, as requested by our friendJoseph. I will take Isaac with Me, so that he may joinTimoneus when the latter arrives. You may join them,Joseph, if you think that there is peace in Me and apurpose for a whole life. They will be good brothers toyou. »3 « O my Comfort! It is exactly as You say. My deepwounds, both as a man and as a believer, are being curedvery quickly. I have been with You three days. And I feelthat what was my torture only three days ago, is a dreamthat is fading away. I had that dream, but the more timeelapses, the more its harsh details vanish before reality.During the past nights I have pondered over things. I4

have a good relative at Joppa. He was. the involuntarycause of my trouble, because it was through him that Imet that woman. And that will tell You whether we werein a position to know whose daughter she was. True, shemay have been the daughter of my father's first wife. Buthe was not the father. Her name was different and shecame from far away. She became acquainted with myrelative through business transactions. And that is how Imet her. My relative was very fond of my business. I amgoing to make him an offer. The business would come toan end without a master. I am sure he will buy it, alsobecause thereby he will not feel remorse for the troublehe caused me. I will then be self-sufficient and I will beable to follow You without any worry. I only ask You togrant me that man Isaac You mentioned. I am afraid ofbeing all alone with my thoughts. They are still too sad.»« I will let you have Isaac. He is a kind soul. Sorrow hasperfected him. He has carried his cross for thirty years.He knows what it means to suffer. In the meantime wewill go ahead. And you will join us at Nazareth. »« Are we not stopping at Joseph's? »« Joseph is probably in Jerusalem. The Sanhedrin isvery busy. We will find out from Isaac. If he is there, wewill take him our peace. If he is not there we will stoponly one night, to rest. I am anxious to reach Galilee.There is a Mother Who is suffering. You must rememberthat there are people who are keen on distressing Her. Iwant to reassure Her. »5

142. Instruction to the Apostles Going towardsSamaria.21st April 1945.1 Jesus is with the twelve apostles. The region is stillmountainous, but since the road is quite wide, they areall in a group and are speaking among themselves.« But, now that we are all by ourselves, we can talk aboutit: why so much jealousy between the two groups? » asksPhilip.« Jealousy? It is nothing but pride! » replies Judas ofAlphaeus.« No. I say that it is only a pretext to justify, somehow,their unjust behaviour towards the Master. Under thecover of zeal for the Baptist, they succeed in driving Himaway, without alienating the crowds too much » saysSimon.« I would unmask them. »« Peter, we would do many things that He does not do. »« Why does He not? »« Because He knows it is better not to do so. All we haveto do is to imitate Him. It is not for us to guide Him. Andwe must be happy about it. It is a great relief to have onlyto obey.»2 « You are quite right, Simon » says Jesus, Who waswalking ahead of them apparently pensive.« You are quite right. It is easier to obey than tocommand. It does not seem so, but it is. It is certainly6

easy when the spirit is good. And likewise it is difficult tocommand when the spirit is upright. Because a spiritthat is not righteous, gives irrational orders and worsethan irrational. Then it is easy to command. But. howmore difficult it is to obey! When a man is responsible fora place or a group of people, he must always be charitableand fair, wise and humble, moderate and patient, firmbut not obstinate. Oh! It is difficult!. For the time beingyou have but to obey. You must obey God and yourMaster. You, and you are not the only one, wonder why Ido or do not do certain things. You wonder why Godallows or does not allow such things. See, Peter, and all ofyou, My friends, one of the secrets of the perfect believeris not to set oneself as the interrogator of God.“Why do You do that?” a soul that is not completelyformed asks God. And that soul seems to be taking theattitude of a wise adult before a little schoolboy and says:“That is not to be done. It is silly. It is wrong.” Who isabove God?You now see that under the pretence of zeal for John I ambeing driven away. And you are scandalised. And youwould like Me to put matters right by polemizing withthose who maintain such principles. No, never. You haveheard what the Baptist said through the mouths of hisdisciples: “He must grow greater, I must grow smaller.”There is no regret in him, no clinging to his position. Asaint is not attached to such things. He does not work toincrease the number of his “own” followers. He has nofollowers of his own. He works to increase the believersin God. God alone is entitled to have followers. Therefore,as I do not regret that some people, in good or in badfaith, remain disciples of the Baptist, so he is not7

distressed, as you have heard, if some of his disciplescome to Me. He disregards such numerical pettiness. Helooks at Heaven. And I look at Heaven. Do not argue,therefore, among yourselves, whether it is fair or unfairthat the Jews should accuse Me of snatching disciplesfrom the Baptist, whether it is just or unjust to allowpeople to say that. Those are altercations of talkativewomen round the village fountain. Saints help oneanother. They give and exchange spirits with unreservedease, smiling at the idea of working for the Lord.I have baptized, nay, I made you baptize, because thespirit is so dull, nowadays, that it is necessary to presentpiety, miracles and doctrine in a material form to it.Because of such spiritual dullness I will have to availMyself of the help of material substances when I want tomake you work miracles. But believe Me, the evidence ofholiness is neither in the oil, nor in the water, nor in anyother ceremony. The time is about to come when animpalpable, invisible thing, which materialists cannotconceive, will be the queen, the “returning queen”,powerful and holy with every holy thing and in every holything. Through it man will become again the “son of God”and will work what God works, because he will have Godwith him: Grace. That is the returning queen. Thenbaptism will be a sacrament. Then man will speak andunderstand the language of God and will give life andLife, he will give power of science and of strength. Then.oh! then! But you are not yet mature to learn what Gracewill grant you. Please help its coming by continuouslytraining yourselves and forget useless and mean things.3 There is the boundary of Samaria. Do you think I oughtto speak there? »8

« Oh! » They are all more or less scandalised.« I solemnly tell you that there are Samaritanseverywhere, and if I should not speak where there is aSamaritan, I should not speak anywhere. Come therefore.I will not make any effort to speak. But I will not disdainto speak of God if I am asked. One year is over. Thesecond is beginning. It is between the beginning and theend. At the beginning the Master was still predominant.Now the Saviour is being revealed. The end will see theface of the Redeemer. Let us go. The more a riverapproaches its estuary, the more it grows. I also amincreasing the work of mercy because the end isapproaching. »« Are we going towards some big river after Galilee?Perhaps to the Nile? Or the Euphrates? » whisper some ofthe disciples.« Perhaps we are going amongst the Gentiles.» replyothers.« Do not speak among yourselves. We are going towards“My” end. That is, towards the fulfillment of My mission.Listen carefully to what I say to you, because afterwardsI will leave you and you will have to continue in Myname. »9

143. Photinai, the Samaritan Woman.22nd April 1945.1 « I will stop here. You go into town and buy what isnecessary for our meal. We shall eat here. »« Shall we all go? »« Yes, John. You had better be all together. »« And what about You? You will be left alone. They areSamaritans.»« They will not be the worst enemies of Christ. Go. I willpray, while waiting for you. I will pray for you and forthem. »The disciples reluctantly go away, and they turn roundthree or four times to look at Jesus, Who has sat down ona little wall, exposed to the sun, near the low broad edgeof a well. It is a big well, so wide that it seems a cistern.In summer it is shaded by tall trees, which are now bare.It is not possible to see the water, but the little puddlesand ring marks of wet pitchers on the ground near thewell, are clear signs that water has been drawn. Jesussits down and meditates, in His usual attitude, Hiselbows resting on His knees, His hands stretched out andjoined, His body slightly bent forward and His headlowered. When He feels the mild warmth of the sun, Helets His mantle drop from His head and shoulders andholds it round His waist. He raises His head and smilesat a flight of wrangling sparrows quarrelling over a largecrumb of bread, which someone has dropped near thewell.10

But the sparrows fly away when a woman arrives nearthe well. With her left hand she is holding an emptyamphora by one of its handles, whilst her right hand witha gesture of surprise pushes aside her veil to see who theman is who is sitting there. Jesus smiles at the thirtyfive/ forty year old woman. She is tall, with a beautifulstrongly marked figure. A Spanish type, we would say: apale olive complexion, rather thick bright-red lips, darkeyes which are even exceedingly large, very darkeyebrows and hair, visible through her transparent veil.Also her rather plump features are typically oriental andslightly soft, as is customary with Arab women. Her dressis a multicoloured striped robe, which is held very tightround her waist and her plump sides and breast, andthen falls to the ground in a kind of wavy fringe. She iswearing several rings on her rather plump dark fingersand bracelets on her wrists, which appear under herlinen sleeves. Round her neck she wears a heavy necklacefrom which some medals are hanging I should call themamulets because they are of all shapes. Heavy ear-ringshang down as far as her neck and shine under her veil.2 « Peace be with you, woman. Will you give Me somewater to drink? I have walked a long way and I amthirsty. »« Are You not a Judaean? And You ask me, a Samaritanwoman, to give You a drink? What has happened? Havewe been rehabilitated, or have you been routed? A greatevent must have taken place, if a Judaean speaks kindlyto a Samaritan woman. But I should say to You: “I willnot give You anything, to punish in You all the insultsthe Jews have been heaping on us for centuries.” »11

« You are right. A great event has taken place. Andbecause of it many things have changed and many morewill change. God has granted a great gift to the world andthrough it many things have changed. If you knew thegift of God and Who is saying to you: “Give Me a drink”,perhaps you would have asked Him to give you a drinkand He would have given you living water. »« Living water is in the veins of the earth. It is in thiswell. But it is ours. » The woman's tone is derisory andarrogant.« Water comes from God. As bounty comes from God. Aslife comes from God. Everything belongs to the One OnlyGod, woman. And all men come from God: Samaritansand Judaeans. Is this not Jacob's well? And is not Jacobthe head of our race? If later on an error divided us, thatdoes not change our origin. »« Of course, it was our error, was it not? » the womanasks aggressively.« Neither ours nor yours. It was the error of one who hadlost sight of Charity and Justice. I do not wish to offendyou or your race. Why do you wish to strike an offensiveattitude? »« You are the first Judaean whom I hear speak thus. Theothers. But reverting to the well, yes, it is Jacob's andits water is so plentiful and clear that we in Sychar

Maria Valtorta's Il Poema Dell'Uomo Dio (The Poem of The Man†God) VOLUME TWO Translated from Italian by Nicandro Picozzi, M.A., D.D. Revised by Patrick McLaughlin, M.A.