Whoever keeps my word

Gn 17,3-9; Ps 104; Jn 8,51-59
11 APRIL

It is truth. Whoever observes the Word of Jesus will not see death forever. But this is not about physical death. This is by now a part of human nature and must be suffered. Even if the man with a satanic will sometimes wishes he could eliminate it altogether, it will come. You avoid a cause, but you will not avoid another thousand, another ten thousand, which are always lurking. If there were only one place on earth where death could be avoided, everyone would line up to access it. If man enters the Word of the Lord, observes it, lives it, this death will have no power over him. Jesus, who lived the whole Word of the Father, voluntarily went to death. He offered himself with full decision to it, making of his body a sacrifice and a holocaust of salvation and redemption. Not even this death governed him. He governed death. Not death Him. When we are not in the Word of the Lord, we are also slaves of physical death. We are slaves because we feel oppressed by it and we want to eliminate it. But we are also slaves because it governs and obliges us to accelerate it by sinning against the Word of the Lord that forbids every man both to take the other or his life away. Today the slaveries of physical death are innumerable. Many see the death of others as the liberation of their problems and therefore deprive their brothers of life. Instead, problems remain both in time and in eternity. Liberation is by the Word and it is in the Word. Let nobody hope to eliminate problems with death. They become eternal.

Jesus speaks of spiritual death. It is a question of that death which is the shattering of the inner man whose effects are poured on our body and on the whole of humanity and creation. Who is outside the Word of Jesus, lacks in the grace that vivifies his soul. He is devoid of the Holy Spirit that gives knowledge, wisdom, understanding, strength, intellect, fear of the Lord and piety to his spirit. He lacks the love of the Father that constitutes him the true instrument of his love. Out of the Word, man is in all things like a tree as dry as his soul and his spirit. But all evil, wickedness and concupiscence, which drive him to all sorts of evil, remain. The vice that corrupts and leads him to every corruption action remains. Out of the Word, man is in all things like a boat in a stormy sea without any rudder. The wind takes it where it wants. This also applies to the man. Concupiscence drives him to every direction of evil. This truth does not need proof. It is sufficient to observe what happens under our eyes and we will know that every Word of Jesus is infallibly true.

Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.”  (So) the Jews said to him, “Now we are sure that you are possessed. Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? Or the prophets, who died? Who do you make yourself out to be?” Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing; but it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ You do not know him, but I know him. And if I should say that I do not know him, I would be like you a liar. But I do know him and I keep his word. Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad. So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” So they picked up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area.

Today Christ works the gift of his Word, the Holy Spirit accomplishes the regeneration, the Father pours into the hearts all his love, through the sacramental action of the Church, through the administrators of his mysteries of grace, light and truth. If the ministers of Christ dedicate themselves to the things of the earth, rather than respecting the mandate received, they do nothing but put themselves at the service of death and not of life. The poor are not those who lack in a piece of bread. These are those who lack in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. They are those who lack in the Church and the ministers of God. Poor is he who is not nourished by the grace and truth of Jesus the Lord. It is true poverty.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints ensure that we never confuse true with false poverty.