Lack of Charity as an Obstacle to Conversion

(CEV) “The Notebooks 1944”, p. 91
Jesus says: “[…] If all were able -instead of just cursing over all of life’s troubles, afflictions, and misfortunes- if all were able to come to Me when their neighbor offends, nips, harms, calumniates, deceives, degrades, or strikes with indifference, anti charity, or incomprehension, as if with a sword, how much better it would be! They would suffer less and acquire divine blessings.

Instead, cursing of everything and everyone, including Me, always flowers on these human lips, which feel tired when it comes to praying, but not tired when it comes to insulting.

And how can I go to those harboring hatred which ferments? And isn’t cursing hatred which ferments? Against Me, against one’s neighbor, against the will of God, and against yourselves. And know that, even if it is against yourselves, it is condemned by Me because I abhor the hearts and mouths that hate, whether they hate Me, God, or their brothers and sisters, creatures of God, or themselves, the work of God.

Moreover, whoever hates an unfortunate for Me, to hate is not to love, and in order not to love there is no need to kill; it suffices to fail to show that sense of patient compassion which even household pets feel for their suffering master -whoever hates an unfortunate, causing him to feel his condition in a harsh way and grating his wounds, which I have medicated with my love so that he will suffer less, offends Me, who said, Blessed are the merciful! You shall be rewarded even for a glass of water. And a good word receives a much greater reward than a glass of water.

[…] But wild fruits sometimes sprout from a very sweet apple tree. And they remain such because they do not receive God’s word with faith. I am the one who implant Good in you. But whoever does not receive Me remains harsh and wild like the fruit of a wild plant.

In truth, that is not the way to practice ‘charity towards one’s neighbor.’ The Martha of old was much better. She worried about too many things, but did not deride her sister’s love; on the contrary, she was glad that she was caught in that love, and it did not disturb her to the point of placing the bitter veil of fraternal incomprehension, which is always disturbing, between her and Me.

I said to the woman from Samaria, Whoever drinks this water will still be thirsty, but whoever drinks the water given by Me will no longer be thirsty, but, rather, the water given by Me will become a fount of living water in him gushing up to eternal life.

But if the person into whom I come -bringing the divine fount, under the Eucharistic species, containing all the virtues and graces suitable for making a man a saint-remains marble which does not soak it up, and with his lack of true faith and true charity remains not only an impenetrable marble basin, but even a basin perforated by this lack of honest faith and charity, how can I become a fount of living water in him gushing up to eternal life? The fact is that I shall flee from him after having come because I do not love the incredulous and the uncharitable, and each time I shall leave him empty and arid as before.

This is the destiny of those demanding that God work the whole miracle and making no effort on their part to improve themselves.

How Satan works around these hearts! If they saw themselves, they would tremble. Like unheedful birds, they do not listen to their father’s cry warning them of danger and calling them; they do not see -they do not want to see- that the malefic bird catcher is standing with the net in his grasp to capture them and make them unhappy. And they end up becoming his prey and an instrument for the affliction of my beloved ones.

The world is full of these distracted people. They are the east likely to be converted because pride already possesses them and there is no charity in them to heal them. They prompt my pity. Be merciful, too, and pray. If your prayer, like my grace, brings no benefit, it will come back to you, as grace comes back to Me, and you will have the same merit as you would if it obtained the conversion of that heart.

Maria Valtorta: The Notebooks

“These Notebooks belong to a category of mystical literature which the Catholic Church has long been familiar with: that of so-called “private revelations.” A private revelation is not binding for the faith of Christians, but its value is to be measured by its capacity to instruct and inflame souls, spurring them to love God more and apply divine teachings to their everyday lives. In the confidence—and the conviction—that this work superabounds in these inspired qualities, we offer it for the spiritual nourishment of readers. —David Murray

Content taken from the works of Maria Valtorta with the permission of the “Centro Editoriale Valtortiano Srl”- Viale Piscicelli, 89/91 – 03036 Isola del Liri, (FR – Italy), www.mariavaltorta.com, which has all the rights upon Valtorta’s Works.