Greeting speech by H.E. Mons. Paolo Giulietti, Archbishop of Lucca
at the Valtortian Conference – 13th Italian and 4th International – held in Viareggio on Saturday, 29th October 2022.
My brief greeting is linked to what has just been said by Don Ernesto about the important theme of the relationship between the two natures – human and divine – in the person of the Incarnate Word and how a passage from Maria Valtorta can help to understand better that relationship. The humanity of Jesus is the “place” in which the Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, is manifested, and through which His work of salvation is carried out. Everything passes through this humanity: the word, the action… everything is realized through the flesh of Jesus.
This humanity, precisely because it is true, can fully submit to the mission only when it becomes adult, as happens to every man. When do we fully welcome the mission to which we are called in our life? When we become adults. The adolescent, the child… despite having their own “perfection of humanity”, they cannot fully accept the mission, because their human structure does not make it possible. For example: we can become parents not only when we are biologically capable, but when we are ready to give our life. The adolescent cannot do this gift of self fully, but only to a certain extent: it is the adult who is fully generative, as evolutionary psychology teaches us. It is the adult who can freely decide to make his life a gift, even to those who do not deserve it or to those who are unable to reciprocate. And this is what makes us capable of being spouses, parents, priests… In fact, others do not always deserve to be objects of love; indeed, sometimes they don’t deserve it at all.
This also happens for Jesus: His humanity fully welcomes the mission received from the Father when He becomes an adult. It is not that His humanity is first imperfect, but it is His adulthood that makes Him capable of recognizing and accepting that mission which manifests itself in the descent of the Spirit at the Jordan, which becomes clearer in the forty days spent in the desert, and which is finally expressed when He makes himself in all respects an instrument of the Father’s plan, in the so-called “public ministry”, up to the total gift of Himself on the cross.
This should also happen for us, who struggle to become adults and do not always succeed. This is why Jesus says, in the Valtortian passage quoted by Don Ernesto: “When you become adults” – that is, when your life is fully subjected to the mission you have received – “you too will do what I do”. As happens eminently for the saints: they perform miracles not because they are supermen, but because their life is totally subject to the mission, it is totally consecrated to what God wants from them. This is why the Lord gives them the gift of doing extraordinary things. When Cottolengo throws the leftover money out of the window, because he entrusts himself to Providence, the money arrives the next day, precisely because his life is fully compromised with the mission received. God acts in an extraordinary way in this life totally entrusted to Providence. When Francis of Assisi chooses poverty, this total abandonment means that he lacks nothing to live, precisely because he is totally entrusted: his life is in all respects subject to the mission, for this reason the Lord makes things happen that manifest His power, His making himself present in this existence totally dedicated to Him. And we could go on.
In the writings of Maria Valtorta, a simple person, surprising intuitions sometimes appear that refer to knowledge certainly not hers. I think that the work to be done by those who take care of her work is exactly what we asked with prayer, that is, that Maria Valtorta be recognized by the Church, not only in her person – because I believe that there is little in her personal life to object – but in his work, which is an element to be judged with greater attention, precisely because it deals with Jesus, with what He does, with His words… Undoubtedly, in this ability to intuit things that are certainly beyond her intellectual reach and her knowledge, one can intuit an element of objective “supernaturality”, which must be investigated, explained, understood… in such a way that on one hand the value of this private revelation is recognized, on the other it is shown that in nothing it contradicts the Gospel but, indeed, it can be a help to understand It better. A help to be used freely, because private revelations – you know – are totally entrusted to the freedom of each one: we can use them or not. Some need them and derive great spiritual benefit from them; for others they may be something superfluous, as happens with the many private revelations that the history of the Church has left us. When a private revelation is declared authentic it means that, for those who wish it, it can constitute a sure help to enter into a better relationship with the Lord, that is, to better understand and welcome public revelation, the Sacred Scriptures and the Tradition, which manifests authoritatively and in a binding manner for all the holy mystery of God, as we have been given to know in the Lord Jesus.
So good work to those who take care of this and good journey to all of you. Good day.