22.03.2017

By Stefania Caterina and Fr. Tomislav Vlašić

Father Tomislav: Dearest brothers and sisters, the title of our reflection today is “The open soul for the Holy Spirit”. Our reflection is not meant to be general: we want to speak about the deepest place in every man, believer or non-believer, and the full realisation of one’s life. We will speak about our times in which grace is acting powerfully speeding up the recapitulation of the entire universe in Christ, in a time when God is predicting the new creation through Jesus Christ.

To participate in this grace, to reach the fullness, the eternal life in fullness God offers our complete participation is needed. Let us begin with the words the Church proposes in this liturgical time and that we have heard these days in the gospel of St. John the apostle.

Stefania Caterina:   We will take a passage of John, chapter 4, verses 23 to 26:  “’Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.’”

Father Tomislav:  It reports the conversation of Jesus with the Samaritan woman. As we know, the Samaritans and the Jews did not speak to each other; they despised each other; they had a barrier in them. Also the apostles were shocked when Jesus spoke to a Samaritan who was even a woman. There are many barriers in man, many prejudices. Man is living in a haze; for that reason, God rescues man. The Samaritan, even though unaware of it, met the Messiah, Jesus Christ. He showed her the way in the Holy Spirit that guides every man who opens himself up for Jesus Christ, because through His Passion, death, resurrection and ascension to Heaven Jesus Christ sends the Holy Spirit to those who join His life; thus, Jesus shows them to the Father in the Holy Spirit.

We who believe in Jesus Christ have to learn to go through this passage. We will look at an explanation Jesus has given of precisely this inner passage.

Stefania Caterina: Let us look at a passage of Jesus’ message of 11 January, 1999. It is taken from our book “Beyond the Great Barrier”[1] on page 248.

 Jesus said: “The senses of the body are closely linked to those of the soul: sight in the eyes is directly linked to that of the soul, physical hearing is directly linked to that of the soul etc.

When the soul is clean, when you are united with the Holy Spirit, then your gaze is clean, your eyes are bright and they see what the soul sees, and they become a light[2] for the body. In this way your gaze can go beyond appearance and see reality for what it is in God. But when the soul is dirty, closed off to the action of the Holy Spirit, the person’s gaze is dirty, closed. The same goes for hearing and speaking. Every stimulus that reaches the soul from the outside passes through the body. For example, a bad impulse reaches the soul through an evil gaze, through a loving gaze the soul receives a positive impulse.

How is harmony created within you? God’s spirit, which is present in your spirit, sees and communicates its vision of reality to your spirit and to the soul, which sees with its eyes and communicates with the eyes of the body. In this way, what lies in the depths of the soul is brought to the outside. Or, an image comes from outside, passes through the eyes of the body and  reaches the eyes of the soul, it descends into the spirit where, if the soul is open to the action of the Spirit, it is purified by the divine presence. The same happens for speaking or hearing: everything is born and returns into the Spirit of God, which lies within man.

Father Tomislav: Let us think about Jesus’ explanation in this passage. The dirty soul does not want to encounter God; it does not want to encounter the law of the pure Spirit. The dirty soul seeks to ‘bend’ God to achieve its own purposes. This results in hypocrisy that prevents the people from encountering the living, true God. All dirt hinders a healthy view. God knocks with His grace; He calls but the soul who prefers sin to God closes in more and more and follows its own fate. You, who seek God, may see the wonders of God. Your eyes, your hearing and the senses of your body go down into the soul and the soul, if it loves God, is directed to Him who knows all mysteries and who explains everything that soul and body need to know. These are the great wonders. Giving us the Holy Spirit is the greatest miracle Jesus made for us, for the Holy Spirit is within each one of us to guide and protect us.

Stefania Caterina: Jesus said that the Spirit within us communicates to our spirit what He sees, and from there the harmony within us comes forth, why? Because the Holy Spirit obviously knows all that we cannot know, He sees what we cannot see; His gaze goes beyond our limited human gaze.

 St. Paul said in the first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 2, verse 10: “The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.“  It is the Holy Spirit of course. The Spirit who knows all things, who searches all things, even the deep things of God, can illuminate our spirit and make us understand situations inside or outside of us so that we understand them in the way God sees them. In this consists also the thought of Christ that the Spirit incessantly passes on to us.

When our spirit receives this illumination from the Holy Spirit, it transmits what it has understood to the soul. The soul sees with its own eyes, understands with its intellect and communicates to the body what it has seen, that is, what the Holy Spirit has communicated to it through the spirit. And what does the body do? The body transforms the impulse coming from within into thoughts, words, actions; it brings out what has arisen inside us. Thus, a thought or a word express what we have understood within us. If we are open for God, we bring the action of God, His thought, to the outside.

However, the same happens also the other way round when we receive and impulse from outside, for example an image, a sound, a word etc. Again the soul takes it in through the brain, that is, the body, and transmits it to our spirit where the Holy Spirit is present; He takes that image or situation we have seen; He cleans and purifies it and neutralises any negative impulse. In fact, the Holy Spirit is the Defender; as Jesus said, all comes from and then returns to the Spirit who dwells in our spirit; all comes from and returns to the Holy Spirit.

Father Tomislav: Let us return to the dirty soul. We have already explained to you how confusion came to the whole universe. A small part of humanity decided to serve God and thus progressed enormously. Another part, the medium universe, remained indifferent despite having knowledge. Fortunately, they have converted and are now united to the high universe.

Let us speak about the low universe which is rebellious. Where does this rebellion come from? Let us look at the Earth which has carried out the greatest rebellion by making an alliance with Lucifer. Thus, there is a force in the souls which makes them fight against God because they love sin and do not want to be saved by the power of God, even if it is for free. Each one of us carries a portion of this rebellion with him; it is inherited from our progenitors, but also from the spirit of the world and our behaviour. Thus, God wants to make us free; through His Son Jesus Christ He wants to make us His children.

Stefania Caterina: In this regard let us listen to what St. Raphael said in his message of 25 February, 2001, which is also in the book “Beyond the Great Barrier”, on page 266. St. Raphael spoke about the power of sin:

“Man’s conversion and his spiritual journey consist of welcoming God’s law as a law of freedom. Man becomes free when he gives himself to God through Jesus Christ, the only person who can free him. And so he lives like the Son of God and he understand the love that God has for him. A son is free, he is not a slave.[3]

Jesus Himself affirmed that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it[4]. This means that in each one of you, Christ fully implements God’s law, in the freedom and dignity of the children of God. If you do not feel free on the inside, it means that you are not living God’s law correctly.

The man who welcomes God’s law as a difficult discipline is transformed into a fanatic. Those who refuse it or fear it become passive and resigned. The law that is not experienced or that is experienced badly becomes a stimulus for sin. And so man does not cease committing sin, actually, he commits it even more.

Do not allow the law of your I to govern your life! Allow the divine law to govern it. Otherwise you will not be able to defeat death, because sin will always reign within you. God wants you free, while Satan wants you slaves. Live the freedom of God’s children and welcome His law in this spirit of freedom. You can only defeat slavery by opposing it with freedom. Know how to tend towards this freedom and you will defeat death.”

Father Tomislav: Let us return to the rebellion. Rebellion is a force; the force of the spirit of the rebellious, the souls who are united to the spirit of Satan. But where does rebellion lead? It leads to death. This is the sin that leads to death. Thus, we may be false believers who participate in the sacraments, participate in the feasts, participate in the rituals, and yet, are not ready to encounter the living Jesus Christ who makes us rise again in every moment, in every prayer, in every encounter with Him, in every form of our religion when we are ready to meet Him alive; even when He is buried inside us by our sins, He will appear, manifest Himself and make us rise again.

So, the invitation to the Christians of today and all men of good will is to welcome the living Jesus Christ within them, and He will pass on to us the Holy Spirit. And Jesus, along with the Holy Spirit, will take us to the Father because the Father, like our own fathers, wants us happy, free and united with Him in fullness, in eternal joy. And we can obtain this freedom, this fullness with true worship in the spirit and in truth; thus we will elevate ourselves to the new creation.

Stefania Caterina: Therefore, in every religious practice, in every prayer, we have to go deep in our spirit and there encounter God. This is what all saints experienced along the history of the Church, for they have encountered God face to face in their spirit. Sometimes we think we have to find God in the extraordinary signs or somewhere else. In reality, the place where God truly manifests Himself is our spirit; therefore, our prayer is empty if we do not move towards God, if we do not meet Him alive in our spirit.

Father Tomislav: Meeting Him for a moment is not enough for us; going to Church every now and then is not enough. Especially in these times that are indicated to us as “the times”, the final period of the recapitulation in Christ. There are abundant graces; the power of the One and Triune God is acting; He knocks at the door of our heart. Time is running fast. Thus, the people who wish to elevate themselves must constantly move on and fast without ever stopping. Only in this way, in this time in which we will see the universal battle between the spirits of evil and the Spirit of God we will be able to understand the events God carries out so that we may take the right direction.

This is very important because our soul must not relax and become static enjoying grace passively. Each grace received pushes us ahead towards the fullness, and we feel grateful that this is happening within us.

Some people say, “I have no time to read anything about God. I have not time to pray.” Falsehood lies in it. If you love God, you cannot neglect Him. Who is in love seeks the loved one and puts him in the first place. You should examine yourselves in this respect to see if you are correct and sincere; if you want the treasure, the fully realised life that no-one can give you except God.

I would like to ask you to reflect also on another point: are you generous with God? Are you generous with your neighbour? A journalist may risk his life when caught up in difficult and dangerous situations. Does anyone of you who calls himself Christians, who says he wants to do good for humanity, generously seek Jesus Christ, His presence, the Trinitarian power in him? Are you ready to give testimony to the One and Triune God in this time? Are you ready to seek the way of life that enables you to remain with God, to live in God and lead a life consecrated to Jesus Christ,  a consecrated life in a time in which you can understand the grace? Not in the general sense, but in reference to the “Today” of which the Letter to the Hebrews speaks, today, at this moment. There are among you some generous who put themselves completely at the disposal of Jesus.

Do not be content with superficial prayers. Let us pray together today:

 “Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, in the universe, in the living and the deceased. This is my basic wish and I believe that You will give us this day our daily bread, the one we need; that You will forgive us our trespasses because we want to forgive others and do not want to make wars. And do not allow us to fall into the trap of the Antichrist, but deliver us from the evil that surrounds us and that we can feel. Amen.”

I bless you; may you continue on your spiritual path, pray and live your faith; in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

[1] Publisher Luci’dell‘Esodo

[2] Cfr. Mt 6:22-23

[3] Cfr. Jn 8:31-37

[4] Cfr.Mt 5:17-18