Newsletter n. 5/22 – Resurrection

“As soon as I saw him, I fell at his feet as if dead. But he, placing his right hand on me, said to me: Do not be afraid! I am the First and the Last”, so it is written in the book of Revelation 1,17. Maria Valtorta on this verse receives a long comment from the Holy Spirit (Q45-45 p. 522). I extract a fragment: “Jesus, in his body glorified by him, of an inconceivable beauty, is and is not different from what he was on Earth.He is different because every glorified body assumes a majesty and perfection that no mortal, however beautiful, majestic and perfect, can have; but He is no different because the glorification of the flesh does not alter the traits of the person. So, at the resurrection of bodies, he who was tall will be tall, he who was slim will be slim, he who was robust will be robust, and the blond blond, and the brown brown, and so on. However, the imperfections will disappear, because in the Kingdom of God everything is Beauty, Purity, Health and Life, just as it was established that it was also in the earthly Paradise, if man had not brought sin there”.

It is appropriate to reflect on this, both because we are still in the octave of the Holy Easter of this year of the Lord 2022, but even more so because all Christianity, our faith, is based on this fact-truth. When you say “all”, it really all. St. Paul writes that “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Cor 15,14). Therefore, if there were no resurrection of Jesus, everything would be meaningless: prayers, sacraments and good works would become without eternal value. I repeat this to emphasize that even in our time, on this point, the enemies of Jesus and of his Church are waging war, and a close war. But the truth of the resurrection for us is proactive, it is valid for itself, regardless of the war that the enemy wages against it. We, with Saint Paul, believe that our eternity is dependent upon the resurrection of Jesus in his true body. This is why we remember it, we relive it, we celebrate it, we teach it and we live it, even against everyone and everything. A few examples? The secularists consider it so bad that they do not even understand what it is about. For them speaking and believing in the resurrection is like believing the Donald Duck stories to be true. And there is no miracle that can convince them! For them “it cannot be true”: Pilate, who does not want to hear about the truth (cf. Jn 18,38), fully relives in them. Even among esotericists in general – from spiritualists, to the new age, to the most heated Satanists – there is an unbridled struggle against the resurrection. Any invention is possible: reincarnation, life that continues on other planets, theories of Akasic or perispirit worlds, considerations on extraterrestrial worlds; these theories are continually repeated, insisted, proposed. For atheists – theorists and practitioners, as they used to say – the question is similar. In the best of cases they consider it a “pious wish”, but useless, indeed, harmful, and which must be crushed in every way.

Manifesting the truth of the resurrection of Jesus in His true body is then not only beautiful to tell, but a duty to repeat and obligatory to live for every Christian. For us Catholics it is obvious and a joy, because the source of our hope lies here and not in the possible merits acquired with good works.

The resurrection of Jesus then opens the chapter of truth about our personal resurrection. Yes, we are immortals (Highlanders) who seek eternity in God in both soul and body. This is where our faith often lacks clarity. Maria Valtorta becomes an instrument of theological repetition of the Christian truth about the resurrection. Yes, after a certain time – we do not know how long it will be, between our personal death and the universal resurrection at the end of time – our resurrected body will be reunited with our soul and our being will be resurrected complete and immortal. Simple truth, but very profound and on which to meditate and contemplate for a long time. What does “body of inconceivable beauty” mean? It is written of the risen Jesus, but it must be applied to every risen one for eternal life, even to us! It is obviously not a problem, for God, because being omnipotent he can do this and much more. We too will have and will be of an inconceivable beauty, in our small, which is even smaller compared to what we are and have now. This is obviously consoling, but even more comforting is that we, that is, the person who is most important to each one, will live eternally. We will be alive in eternity, aware of being conscious, of being ourselves, what we are today, “name, surname, address and shoe size” as it is often said, but transfigured in imitation of Jesus. As the writings of Maria Valtorta repeat: “He who was tall will be tall, he who was slim will be slim, he who was robust will be robust, and the blond blond, and the brown brown, and so on. However, the imperfections will disappear”, but completely transfigured, without comparable measure today. The resurrection of Jesus also recalls ours and must be strongly remembered so as not to fall into a forgetfulness that unfortunately often reeks of loss of true faith.

Blessed then Maria Valtorta, who with her passion repeated this truth full of light and hope to us.