Our
Lord instructs St. Gertrude...
How to Act towards Those Who
Cause us Harm
PURPOSE
"Love your enemies" [Mt 5:44; Lk 6:27] is still,
for many Christians, a very difficult
part of the Gospel to put into practice, since the world constantly
teaches people to "hate your enemies" with vengeance, even to kill them
"as an act of justice", as in "just wars".
For this reason, it is necessary to constantly remind the faithful of
the importance of this commandment (1) and how it works (2). Although Jesus
taught
it to us two thousand years ago, we weak humans have the tendency to
add
exceptions or justifications for not keeping it.
INTRODUCTION
(3)
St. Gertrude, born in 1263 in Eisleben, Saxony, was one of
the leading spiritual figures of the Middle Ages. She spent almost her
entire life in a convent, engaged in prayer, work and Scripture study.
As a young woman in her twenties, she experienced a profound spiritual
awakening, a born again mystical transformation of her interior life.
Immersed in the person of Christ, she received many revelations and
reached transcendent height of prayer and contemplation.
The five books of the "The Live and Revelations of St. Gertrude"
contain a succession of visions,
communications and mystical experiences which have received the
approval of a number of holy mystics and distinguished theologians.
The German original of the Revelations is lost but a Latin version
appeared in Cologne in 1536. The first English translation was
published
in 1892.
Now, let's allow Him to speak to us through St. Gertrude...
The
Live and Revelations of St. Gertrude (4)
Part III. Chapter LVI.
Of charity towards an erring brother
As the Saint [St. Gertrude] prayed one day for some persons who had
formerly injured the convent seriously by their thefts, and were again
committing depredations, our Lord appeared to her as if suffering much
pain in one of His arms, which was so drawn back that the nerves were
seriously injured.
And He said to her:
“Consider
what torment he would cause Me who should strike Me with his closed
hand on this suffering arm; and reflect that I am outraged in like
manner by all those who, without compassionating the danger to which
the
souls who persecute you are exposed, do nothing else but talk
maliciously of their sins and what they have suffered in consequence,
without reflecting that these unhappy people are members of My Body;
while all those who, touched by compassion, implore My mercy for them,
that I may convert them, act towards Me as if they soothed the pain of
My arm with healing ointments; and I consider those who, by their
counsels and charitable warnings, try to induce them to amend their
lives, as wise physicians, who endeavour to restore My arm to its
proper position.”
Then Gertrude, admiring the ineffable goodness of God, said to Him:
“But
how, Lord, can these unworthy persons be compared to Your arm?”
He
replied:
“Because
they are
members of the body of the Church, of which I glory in being the Head.”
“But,
my God,”
—exclaimed Gertrude— “they
are cut off from
the Church
by excommunication, since they have been publicly anathematised for the
violence they have done to this monastery.”
“Nevertheless,”
—replied the
Lord— “as
they can
be restored to the bosom of the Church by absolution, My natural
goodness obliges
Me to care for them, and I desire with incredible ardour that they
should be converted and do penance.”
The Saint then prayed that the monastery might be defended from their
snares by His paternal protection, and she received this reply:
“If
you humble
yourselves under My
mighty Hand, and acknowledge before Me in the secret of your hearts
that your sins have merited this chastisement, My paternal mercy will
protect you from all the efforts of your enemies; but if you rise up
proudly against those who persecute you, wishing them evil for evil,
then by My just judgment, I will
permit them to become stronger than
you, and to afflict you still more.”
NOTES
(1) As we said in The
Sin of Denial and Its Consequences:
Every believer has recourse to
God through prayer and
acts of reparation. Did He not say: [Mt
5:44] But I
say unto you, Love your enemies,
bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for
them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; ?
When an individual chooses the State of
Denial instead of cooperating with God in the solution of a serious
moral/ political/ spiritual problem, then such individual is denying
God
in the Person of Jesus. Then, the consequences are: But whosoever shall
deny me before men,
him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. [Mt 10:33]
(2) Love
is the only answer
to bring any sinner back to the House of the Father, a mechanism we
have clearly and unequivocally shown, through the Grace of God.
(3) Text of this introduction:
partially extracted from the back cover
of the book "The life and
revelations of St. Gertrude" (see note below).
(4) "The life and revelations of St. Gertrude.
Virgin and Abbess of the
Order of St. Benedict. A powerful work from the Middle Ages on Union
with Christ." Published by Christian Classics, Inc. Fifth
printing,
1990 ISBN 0-87061-079-1. pp. 257-258
Published on October 7, 2022 -
Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary
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