Chapter 25
THE ELEVENTH SHOWING
He brought to my mind His most priceless blood and the precious water which He let pour out completely, for love.
With this sweet vision, He showed His blissful heart cut even in two, and with the sweet rejoicing He showed my understanding the blessed godhead, in part (as far as He willed at that time), stirring the poor soul to understand it so far as it may be put into words — that is, to comprehend the endless love that was without beginning, is, and ever shall be.
With this, our good Lord said most blissfully, "See how I loved you!" It was as if He had said, "My darling, behold and see your Lord, your God, who is your Maker and your endless joy! See what delight and endless bliss I have in your salvation. For My love, enjoy it now with Me."
In addition, for my greater understanding, this blessed word was said: "See how I loved you! Behold and see that I loved you so much before I died for you that I chose to die for you, and now I have died for you, and freely and deliberately I have suffered all I can. Now all My bitter pain and all
My difficult labor are turned to endless joy and bliss for Me and for you. How should it be, now, that you should ask me for anything that pleases Me, without my granting it to you with the greatest pleasure? For My delight is your holiness, and your endless joy and bliss with me."
This is the understanding, as simply as I can say it, of this blessed word, "See how I loved you!" Our good Lord showed this to make us glad and merry.
Chapter 25 THE ELEVENTH SHOWING is a noble, spiritual showing of His mother.
And with this same expression of mirth and joy, our good Lord looked down and to His right, and brought to my mind the place where our Lady stood at the time of His passion. He said, "Do you want to see her?"
And in this sweet word it was as if He had said, "I knew well you wanted to see My blessed mother, for after Myself
THE REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE
she is the greatest joy I could show you. She is My greatest delight and glory, and the one My blessed creatures most desire to see."
And because of the noble, marvelous, singular love He has for this sweet maiden, His blessed mother, our Lady Saint
Mary, He showed her in bliss and greatly rejoicing, as these sweet words had promised. It was as if He had said, "Do you want to see how I love her, so that you can rejoice with Me in the love that I have in her, and she in Me?"
And for our greater understanding our Lord God also spoke this sweet word to all of mankind that will be saved, but addressed them as a single person. It was as if He said,
"Will you see in her how you are loved? For your love I made her this important, this noble, and this worthy. This pleases
Me, and I will that it please you in the same way."
After Himself, she is the most blissful sight. But in this regard, I am not taught to long to see her in her bodily presence while I am here, but to see the virtues of her blessed soul: her truth, her wisdom, her charity. By seeing these I can begin to know myself and to be reverently in awe of my God.
And when our good Lord had showed this and said this word, "Do you want to see her?" I answered, saying, "Yes, good Lord, thank You very much! Yes, good Lord, if it be Your will." I prayed this prayer frequently, and I supposed I would see her bodily presence, but I did not see her this way. Jesus, in this word, showed me a spiritual picture of her. First He showed her just as I had seen her before — little and simple — and then He showed her as important, noble, glorious, and pleasing to Him above all creatures. He wills that it be known that all those who delight in Him should delight in her, and in the delight He takes in her and she in Him.
And for our greater understanding, He showed this example. If a man loves a creature singularly, above all creatures, he will make all creatures love and delight in that creature he loves so much. And the word Jesus said, "Do you want to see her?" seemed to me, with the spiritual showing of her He gave me, to be the most delightful word He could have given me about her.