Chp. 381. In Nike's House - NOTE: of Suffering; of Blessed Souls

Just a side note: I decided against typing the whole chapter. Too large to fit!

*pickup on page 646 down last paragraph starts.

Cheer up. There is a house over there in the fields. Says Jesus
If it is like the others... there will be nothing but distress of the villages they have been through during the last weeks before their Passover trip.

You just arrived in time to save the little ones. remarks Lazarus....

The Lord always arrives just in time to save. Says Myrtha, the mother of Abel from Bethlehem.
My son was just as close to death, and what a death!, as Dorcas' baby. But He came... and He saved. What a frightful moment!

So You will come in time also for me, will You not? To give me peace... Says Lazarus,

Jesus says to Lazarus: No, My dear friend. The fact is that I instill My peace in you. Your soul is sated with it and that dulls the pain of your body. It is God's decree that you must suffer.
Lazarus says: And die. You may as well say so. Well....... may His will be done, as You teach us. From now on I will not ask to be cured or relieved. I have received so much from God (he looks at Mary his sister of Magdalen) that it is just that I should repay for what I had with my submission..

Jesus says: Do more than that My friend. It is a great thing to be resigned and bear sorrow. But you can give it greater value.

Lazarus says: Which, my Lord?

Jesus says: Offer it for the redemption of men.

Lazarus says: I am a poor man myself, Master. I cannot aspire to be redeemer.

Jesus says: You say so, but you are wrong. God became Man to help men.
But men can help God. The deeds of the just will be united to Mine in the hour of Redemption. Of the Just who died ages ago, who are still alive, or will live in the future. Add yours, as from now. It is so beautiful to merge with the infinite Bounty by adding to it what we can give of our limited bounty and say: "I am cooperating too, Father, to the welfare of my brothers". There can be no greater love for the Lord and for neighbor, than this ability to suffer and die to give glory to the Lord and eternal salvation to our brothers. To save ourselves for our own sakes? It is very little. It is the "least" degree of holiness. It is beautiful to save other people, by sacrificing ourselves, to love to such an extent as to become a sacrificing fire to save our neighbor. Love is then perfect. And great will be the holiness of such generous souls.

*pickup at third paragraph page 611.

Jesus says to Mary Magdalen: Yes, Mary you most certainly are! I heard the prayers and the heart-throbs of your good brother. But this must not cause a dull anguish to you, on the contrary it must urge your will to become perfect, for what you cost. And rejoice! Rejoice because Lazarus, for snatching you from the demon.....

Jesus says: for snatching you from the demon, has deserved from God a future reward, whereby peoples and angels will speak of him. And as for Lazarus, they will speak of other people, and particularly of other women, who through their heroism have snatched the prey from Satan.

The women ask who are they Lord?

Jesus says: You will know in Heaven.

NOTE: Of the blessed souls in Heaven

Judas' mother is now on the spot to speak:
Heaven? But, Lord a wife, a sister, or a mother who should fail in saving those whom she loves and should see that they are damned, could she enjoy Paradise, even if she were in Paradise? Do you not think that she will never be able to rejoice because..... the flesh of her flesh and the blood of her blood have deserved eternal damnation? I think that she will not be able to rejoice seeing her beloved ones in dreadful pain...

Jesus says: You are wrong, Mary. The vision of God, the possession of God are the sources of such infinite beatitude that no grief can exist for the blessed souls. While they are active and diligent in helping those who can be saved, they no longer suffer for those who are separated from God, and consequently from themselves who are in God. The Communion of saints is for the saints.

*page 612.

Peters steps up: But if they help those who can still be saved, it means that those who are helped are not yet saints.

Jesus says: But they have a will, at least a passive will, to be saints. The saints of God help also in material needs, to make them pass from a passive to an active will. Do you understand Me?

Peters says: I do and I don't. For instance, supposing I were in Heaven and I saw, let us say, a fleeting kind attitude in.... Eli, the Pharisee, what would I do?

Jesus says: You would find all the means to increase his kind attitude.

Peter says: And if it did not help in any way? Then?

Jesus says: Then, when he were damned, you would be unconcerned about him.

Peter says: And if he deserved to damned, as he does now, but he were dear to me - which will never be the case - what should I do?

Jesus says: First of all, you had better know that you are in danger of being damned by saying that he is not dear to you and never will be; secondly you must know that, if you were in Heaven, you would pray for him and for his salvation, until the moment of his judgment. There will be souls that will be saved at the last moment, after a whole life of prayer for them..