CHRIST
 


 

ON 

REACTIONS

TO

THE POEM OF THE

MAN-GOD
 


 

†

 


 
 

– From the Mystical Revelations of Maria Valtorta –
 

— INTRODUCTION —
 


Maria Valtorta introduces the brief selection, translated here from her recently published [2006] Quadernetti collection, with the words: "Reaction of Most Holy Jesus to Pende".

"Pende" would be Dr. Nicholas Pende, Italian physician and world renowned endocrinologist, whom Valtorta's editor, Dr. Emilio Pisani, has described as an admirer of Valtorta and very favorable toward her writings. Dr. Pende had personally visited with Valtorta at least three times, and had read some of her writings. He especially marveled  at her description of Christ's crucifixion, of which he said:

 

As a physician, the greatest admiration and astonishment was aroused in me for the skill with which Valtorta describes a phenomenon that only a few consummate physicians would have known how to explain. It is the scene of Jesus' agony on the Cross: the spasms of pain, the most atrocious suffering of the Redeemer from the wounds of His head, of His hands and feet supporting, in those punctures, the weight of His body. In Valtorta's account, these [sufferings] provoke rigid contractions of the whole body—tetanus-like stiffening of the trunk and limbs—which do not cloud the consciousness or the will of the Dying Man, even though they are the expressions of the greatest physical pain, produced by the greatest of tortures. The whole phenomenal progression of the agony of Jesus, as described in this Work [The Poem], shows that it had been the immense pain of His body which had stopped the breathing and heart of the Son of Man. The greatest pity and emotion invade the Christian reader on reading in Maria Valtorta's manuscript, this astonishing page, written in a truly medical style.1

 
And yet, despite Dr. Pende's enthusiastic assessment of Valtorta's writings, Christ seems to be displeased with his defective faith. Though Pende is not mentioned by name in the following critique, Christ's use of the term "costui" ["this man"] three times, and "egli" and "lui" ["he"] once each, together with Valtorta's introductory remark, seem to target Pende personally, and as typical of "all those physicians of bodies or spirits who judge like him..."

Dr. Pisani in fact had said of Pende that "he always remained profoundly impressed by the whole complex of Valtorta's writings, passionately seeking a scientific explanation of them, and never succeeding in formulating it in a complete manner with which he was fully secure."

Apparently, one of the defects of Pende's faith—which Christ targets in this critique— is his unbelief in Satan and the demonic. This is a typical defect of the Faith that characterizes many of today's Catholic and Christian academics and scientists, who attempt to reduce demonic manifestations in the New Testament to mere psychological pathology. Perhaps this stern critique from Christ will be a wake-up call to them, and a warning of their perilous position toward the Faith and their salvation...

 
—Translator


 


REACTIONS TO THE POEM...
 

[Oct. 2, 19482]

 
Valtorta :  Reaction of Most Holy Jesus to  Pende —

 
JESUS :

 
JESUS is Light for the upright of heart. He is darkness for those who have [only] human goals in their thought and their heart.

For chosen souls, the supernatural (or extra-natural), like the preternatural, is based on the natural, and should enlighten them to comprehend with supernatural understanding. But for those [with only human goals], the supernatural, like the preternatural, is changed into darkness.

The sign of Light is changed into darkness.

Because even demonic vexations—which increase the sign of the Finger of God in Its harshness of present sorrow, but which will be future joy—even demonic vexations bear witness that God is in the temple of a body-host3; and His being there explains all:  resistance to consuming maladies, [the body's outward] appearance, the [visionary's] gift of seeing, and My Word.

To whomever is pure of heart, it is given to see God wherever He is, according to what I said on the mount in the sixth beatitude [Matt. 5:8].

To the others, John—not Matthew—responds: "The Light shines in the darkness, but the darkness does not welcome it" [Jn 1:5].  But since [those with only human goals] are darkness, they should at least admit the existence and power of the Darkness.

But they do not believe in Satan or his actions of hate against my instruments. And the limbs also tied  by him—I say also, because truly Satan is here to aggravate what a satanic-man once provoked in the first place: consider this well—the limbs tied by the Torturer of one who loves Me, are mistaken for madness.3 No, in truth it is not [madness]!

How can they believe in Me, in God, if they deny [the existence of] Lucifer, who was the first and most beautiful of the spirits created by God?

Who then is the Evil One?

This man4 says he believes in God. But in truth he does not believe, because in taking Satan away from his faith he mutilates by half that faith, [its] truth, and [its] wisdom.

Oh! The human scientist: anxious to open his wings for flights into the kingdom of supernatural Wisdom! He is anxious in wanting to understand and explain the [First] Sin, its consequences, and the flaws of individuals—the fruit again of that Sin. But how can he, if he denies that Satan can harass [man]?

Did not Satan bind the perfections of Eve to make a slave of her? The perfect will, intelligence, and love of Eve: were these not bound and harassed by him, to make her guilty? And if Satan could do that to one who was sinless and [who lived] in the immediate nearness of God—for God loved to stroll in Eden near His two Innocent beings—could he not, by aggravating and using maladies created by a wicked man, oppress [this] one loved by Me, and especially hated by Satan: because [she is] loved by Me?5

But for this [scientist]4, [who is] not pure of heart, it is thus:  what should enlighten him, is changed for him into darkness: because he wants to judge with proud, human judgment, that which is supra-human.

To this man—and to all those who, as physicians of bodies and spirits, judge like him, and profanely penetrate into a living temple of Mine2—My most divine Father already gave a response in November of the past year.6

Re-read to Fr. Corrado [Berti, OSM] that Dictation, so that he may see and believe that We—Three Who are One—do not wait to forewarn Our messenger2 until the sneaky action is being accomplished, but [do so] long, long beforehand. Because no thought of man is unknown to us, even if [it is] a thought still distant in the future.

 
__________________________________

— NOTES —

 
1.  BollettinoValtortiano, No. 29, November 1970, page 6.
2. Maria Valtorta, Quadernetti (Edizioni Pisani / Centro Editoriale Valtortiano srl, Via Po 95, 03036 Isola del Liri (FR), Italia, 2006): 145-147.
3. This  refers primarily to Valtorta and her maladies.
4. This and the next paragraphs apparently refer to Pende, as a medical scientist.
5. "...maladies created by a wicked man, oppress one loved by Me..." —This again refers to Valtorta. On March 17, 1920, while walking on the street with her mother, a juvenile delinquent struck Valtorta with an iron bar in her kidneys with all his strength. This injury, along with many other grave maladies, probably resulting from her offering as a victim to Divine Justice, eventually forced her to become a bed-ridden paraplegic for the last 26 years of her life.
6. This Dictation of God the Father "in November of the past year" is probably that of 25th November 1947 [see  Maria VALTORTA, The Notebooks 1945 al 1950, Ed., Emilio Pisani, Centro Editoriale Valtortiano; Trans. David G. Murray, (Isola del Liri, 2002), pp. 443-444].