By Tomislav Vlašić

Inspired to Go Beyond the Borders

8 May 2013

Dear Readers,

What I write is not the fruit of exaltation but of faith: the believer does not progress by projecting himself forward with his own strength, but by participating in the action of the Almighty. He finds all the strength and the knowledge he needs in the faith he has received (2Pet 1,3).

We are invited to participate in God’s thoughts and in His action. Are we aware of this? Yes, in theory, but can we truly say that we are participating in every moment in the action of God, who desires to transform the universe rapidly? Let us honestly answer this question before God.

St. Peter calls us to hasten the times (2Pet 1,10-12).The testimony we have given to you in recent years states that we are in the time when, on the one hand, God hastens and strengthens His action and, on the other hand, He puts a time limit to humanity: humanity must make a final decision. What means does God make available to us in order to speed up the times? This is exactly what I want to speak about in this message. I count on your openness and responsibility.

1. “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me” (Rev 3,20 NIV).God wanted to share His life with us, be our fellow guest. He did so, by taking upon Himself our flesh and through the Paschal Mystery: He remains present among us through His Word and through the sacraments in order to nourish the inner part of man so that the whole human person would be transformed. This is the process of regeneration, by which man reaches the new creation.
2. God urges us to go further. We are often locked in our world and place questions to God, such as: “We are not able to know or to do what is beyond us; no one has ever talked to us about such a subject; science has not explained to us whether there are other humans in the universe, etc.” Instead, let us sincerely ask ourselves the real question: “Do we want to accept what God will reveal to usand live according to what He will show us? Will we assume responsibility for all this?“ 

If we are ready, God will awaken us interiorly, He will compel us to go further, and He will enlighten us. Take the example of St. Peter: he came from an incredibly closed-minded mentality to a new mentality, a universal one (Acts 10.11,1-18). He was released from prison by an angel (Acts 12, 1-19). Read the narrative of St. Luke in the Acts of the Apostles, and you will realise how God led St. Peter to keep going further. The external impediments do not limit us if we do not apply resistance and justifications from within.  Keeping our interior doors locked, prevents us from hearing God’s knocking; it stops us from going further, from going out and participating in the transforming action of God. All our spiritual commitment should be to remove all resistance to God, which stifles faithful trust, hope and love. This would open up all our inner prisons, which suffocate life. Our duty is to get out of our self-limitation. If we decide to do this, we will always find the path open and free: “But in these things we obtain the most complete victory, thanks to Him who loved us” (Rom 8: 37). This awareness will make us feel how God encourages us to go forward and actively participate in His work.

3. What does God communicate to us in Christ? To give you answers that awaken in you the awareness of what you can obtain, I will use some passages from the book of Stefania Caterina “Rewriting History – Vol. I – In the Mind of God.”1In Chapter V, entitled “The mind of Christ transforms us,” outlines the steps of our transformation: it is God who transforms us, and we participate freely in His action:

– “The mystical union with Christ is the basis of all knowledge. Without communion with Jesus, there is no communion not even with the Father, and there is no openness to the action of Holy Spirit. In fact, the Father sends the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus, by virtue of His sacrifice,“ says  St. John the Apostle in the message of 27 December 2008.2

Jesus says in the message of 22 March 2008: “From this flows the mission of all humankind, which should have been from the beginning and that original sin has distorted: governing the universe on God’s side, giving divine life to all creatures. Think about it, men and women of the Earth; see how far away you are from all of this, and how miserable your condition is!”3

To awaken our awareness and our conscience Stefania Caterina shakes us: “This is not an extraordinary experience reserved for few chosen souls, but it is an obligatory stage for every Christian, the starting point and, at the same time, the point of arrival of our journey.”4

This is living for Christ, with Christ and in Christ.

– Seek the sublime knowledge of God from which every other knowledge comes. St. Raphael the Archangel said to Stefania Caterina: “The Intellectual vision is the fruit of mystical union with Christ; it is the highest degree of mystical life besides human thought. The mystic is the one who, by entering into an authentic communion with God, also enters a deeper knowledge of God and the divine mind. He automatically enters the knowledge of the laws of the Spirit. The true mystic, enlightened by God, should be perfect acquainted with the spiritual laws, which are the source of all the natural laws that govern creation. Every man is called to the mystical life, that is, to be in profound union with God, to communicate with God, to receive true and absolute knowledge from Him.”5

From there springs the blessed life6, which frees us from the darkness that corrupts our life. From there, all knowledge and science will arise in the future that God has planned for humanity.

– St. Raphael the Archangel told Stefania Caterina that we are given the immediate knowledge.7 “Know that each of you has the true knowledge that comes from being created in the image of God. God’s image is imprinted in the memory of the soul from conception. It encloses the knowledge of all that God has created. Based on this knowledge, you can know reality.”  

God planned that we should live in communion with Him and contemplate His face. This will lead us to the immediate knowledge of all that we need and that we are called to serve.

It is a gradual process that we are called to go through and to accomplish. God wants us to be like Him, people of integrity, endowed with divine creativity, in communion with everyone, yet free and independent. He invites us to follow Him to be re-created from within, to be constructive and aware of what enslaves us. It is easier for us to make use of external knowledge, but God wants us to know from within in order to discern everything and be living, transformed people of integrity.

Every step forward of an individual or a nucleus has an impact on all of us and on the whole universe. Every sincere decision we make is rewarded with a new grace, a new knowledge and a new revelation that elevate us. I would like to pray with St. Paul:

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,

 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people,

to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,

 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge –

that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,

according to his power that is at work within us,

to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus

throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen (Eph. 3: 18-21)

 Take courage then! I bless you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

1 The original Title of the book by Stefania Caterina is “Riscrivere la storia – Vol. I – Nel pensiero di Dio”, Luci dell’Esodo, 2010. The book is available in Italian.

2 See Caterina, p. 78

3 See Caterina, pp. 77-78

4 See Caterina, pp. 73-74

5 See Caterina, p. 83

6 See Mt 5, 3-11

7 See Caterina, Message of St. Raphael the Archangel of 1 December 2008, pp. 88-89