The personages: the same, in their actions, even if different in their personalities. The judgment of God: severe for those of that time and for those of today, upon all the protagonists of that unjust or very holy drama — according as it is looked at from the side of men or that of the christs.

Come, Maria, so We may relive it together. And you will see that you are the faithful mirror of your Jesus.

When did it begin, the Passion? When the trial? Perhaps in the night between Thursday and Friday? Perhaps before Caiaphas in the hall of the Sanhedrin?  No.  Much earlier.  From when I came to light.²

Around Me there was always the contrast of perfect love on the part of a few and of perfect hate on the part of many. There was always around Me the perfect comprehension of very few and the perfect incomprehension of very many. It is so for you too, Maria. From when you were born. And you suffered from it as I suffered from it, although I — much more fortunate than you — had for a mother that Mother. And that Mother consoled Me for every pain. Her love, second only in power and perfection to that of My divine Father, repaid Me for every hate.

Men persecuted Me from infancy. You also knew unjust jealousies, foolish envies which degenerate into hate for the one persecuted, into fear of the dark peril that hangs over and weighs on one when, still a little child, man has no persuasion as to the true value of things favorable or opposed to him. So the rustle of a leaf, the darkness, the wrathful shout of a man seized by anger, the uncertainties of flight, all assume the appearance of great peril.

I had an exile, but it never was a [real] exile, because that Mother was with Me.  You had a harder exile, even though not forced to dwell in a strange land, because strange to you was the heart of her who used so little charity.³

I was hungry. And you also.
I was cold. And you also.
I lost friendships even from infancy. You also.

Then I had to work prematurely, sometimes above My small strength, because We were poor. You also had  to work prematurely, sometimes above your small strength, because your house was poor in affection. Your father's love — the single, true, great love that you had from men —  was not enough for your great heart. I made use of this, your never-satisfied hunger for love, to bring you to Me in a way uncommon for creatures. Hence,  there was good fruit from the little love which they gave you, but so painful was your having to taste this lack of love.

Hold no real grudge for the many among your kinsfolk, in school, or in society, who did not love you; as I held no grudge for my relatives who did not love Me as they should have, and whose lack of love, rather whose incomprehension increased the more I went from an adolescent, to a man, and from a man to the Master; and also as I held no grudge for My fellow Nazarene citizens, so hostile to the Master as few citizens of other cities were.

I wept at the death of My supposed father, so very lovable and just. You also wept, Maria, at the death of a father so very lovable and just. A death that occurred when it had been more necessary and sweeter for you to have him near. For Me, too, once the carpenter Jesus had become the rabbi Jesus, it would have been sweet to know My father was near My Mother, a strong defender against the accusation of relatives and Nazarenes. And sweet to have him near during My mission in its hardest moments. And sweet to have him to support Me with His love during those most bitter days of undergoing My betrayal and My suffering.

The faithful love of Joseph would have much consoled Me for the betrayal of Judas! And the presence of Joseph near My Mother, on Calvary, would have given Me some peace in dying. You too, Maria, if you had your father here now, with his name the same as the Just [Joseph],⁴ and with his so lively and fatherly justice and charity, you would suffer less from the bitterness that the betrayal by many gives you, and from being alone, defenseless in so much war, like Mary...

But these are the remote preliminaries to our true Passion, to our unjust trial. Let us go on to the closer preliminaries.

 TO PART 2

1. Maria VALTORTA, I Quaderni dal 1945 al 1950, Ed. Emilio Pisani, Centro Editoriale Valtortiano (Isola del Liri, 1985), pp. 532-652. In the excerpt offered here,  Christ addresses Maria Valtorta, showing the parallel between the spiritual sufferings of His own Passion and the sufferings of Valtorta who was also slandered, betrayed, despised, and condemned for claiming that her monumental Work, The Poem of the Man-God, and the revelations recorded in her Notebooks, were of Divine origin.
2. "From when I came to light" — that is, from His Birth.
3. "...strange to you was the heart of her who used so little charity." — The allusion is to Maria Valtorta's mother, Iside Valtorta.
4. "...with his name the same..." — Maria Valtorta's father's name was also "Joseph" [Giuseppe Valtorta], like St. Joseph's.