The Generosity of Love. The Sacrifice of Marjiam
"Love one another as I have loved you".[1] It is a gentle word that the Lord gave us on the evening of His life, just as His Passion was about to begin.
The commandment of love frequently recurs in the Gospel. According to the Christ, it is the greatest commandment, summarizing the entire Law and the Prophets.[2] Jesus made it Himself the driving force of His life, as He gave His life on the Cross, out of love for all humanity. A blazing fire, Christ sacrificed Himself for us so that we might have life in abundance, for the multitude.
It is upon this active and living love that I would like to focus in this article.
The work of Maria Valtorta teaches us that everything done with goodness for one’s brothers and sisters can bring Graces to our Neighbor. Whether in our small daily gestures or in our little sacrifices, every action can serve the Good and help someone across the world. Abstaining from saying an evil word, giving up a small pleasure, doing a little thing to bring joy to someone — all this can constitute a heavenly flower that will aid our Neighbor.
In The Gospel as Revealed to Me, Jesus one day visits a poor grandmother who has lost many members of her Family. She is very poor, and Christ gives her a purse to help with her needs. Beside her is Marjiam, a young disciple and adopted son of Peter. He quickly begins to talk with children his own age, urging them to help their grandmother, and the little ones begin to talk about their sister.
«Oh! Rachel is good! She stays up until late to spin the little wool we have and she became feverish working in the field to prepare it to be sown when our father was dying.»Here, Marjiam wants to make a sacrifice out of love for the little girl, in order to restore her health. It should be noted the simplicity he shows: he is not trying to be a great ascetic or a great mystic capable of performing great things. He examines himself, simply and gently, and easily finds what he could give up for a time, with full sincerity of heart. He thus offers the honey fouaces, which he especially loves. It is nothing grandiose, yet it is all he has to offer, and he does it with a good heart. Here we see that his good will, his goodness, and his simplicity are all Virtues that deeply please God.«God will reward you for that» says Marjiam seriously.
«He has already rewarded me by relieving my granny of her worry.»
Jesus intervenes: «Do you not want anything else?»
«No, Lord.»
«But are you cured?»
«No, Lord. But it does not matter. Even if I die now, my grandmother is assisted. Previously I was sorry to die because I helped her.»
«But death is dreadful, child…»
«As God helps me in life, He will help me in death and I will go to my mother… Oh! don’t weep, grandmother! I love you, too, dear grandmother. I will not say that again if it makes you weep. On the contrary, if you wish so, I will ask the Lord to cure me… Don’t weep, my little mother…» and she embraces the desolate old woman.
«Cure her, Lord. You made my grandfather happy because of me. Make this old woman happy now.»
Graces are obtained through sacrifices. What sacrifice will you make to obtain it?» asks Jesus seriously.
Marjiam thinks… He seeks the most painful thing to give up… and then he smiles: «I will have no more honey for a whole month.»
«That is not much! The month of Chislev is already far gone…»
«When I say a month I mean the four phases of the moon. And just think… during these days there is the Feast of Lights and honey cakes…»
«That is true. Well, Rachel will recover, thanks to you.[3]
Jesus grants Marjiam’s request, but we quickly see that the young disciple will face the Temptation to eat the honey fouaces when Peter brings some back to Nazareth, where Christ stays for a few days.
«Ah! honey cakes!…» shouts Marjiam. Then he turns silent.«Yes. They are in here with figs dried in the oven, olives and red apples. […] Are you not tasting the honey?»
«I cannot» says Marjiam seriously.
«Why? Are you not well?»
«No. But I cannot take it.»
«But why?»
The boy blushes but does not reply. He looks at Jesus and is silent. Jesus smiles and explains: «Marjiam made a vow to obtain a grace. He cannot eat honey for four weeks.»
«All right. You will eat it after… Take the jar just the same… Just imagine! I didn’t think he was… so…»
«So generous, Simon. He who becomes accustomed to penance from his childhood will find the path of virtue easy throughout life» says Jesus, while the boy goes away with the jar in his hands.»[4]
We must not misunderstand sacrifice, which can be offered at any time in our life. Jesus does not ask us to torment our body physically or morally. Rather, He asks us to have a good and holy balance, giving our body what is good and giving our Soul what it needs so that it grows in Peace and joy.
Our small acts of love and renunciations must never be disproportionate, as if someone wants to reach the summit of a mountain directly, without climbing it. We must climb slowly, doing things at our own pace, but always blaze and shine with love. It is with love that our actions gain value; it is with love that we become like God. It is with love, finally, that we bring Graces to our brothers and sisters.
In the work of Maria Valtorta, Marjiam is deeply committed to the healing of the little girl, even showing some heroism when it is time to sit at the table. He asks Mary:
«Mother, why have You not put the honey cakes on the table? Jesus likes them and they are good for John’s throat. And my father likes them, too…»«And you, too» concludes Peter.
«As far as I am concerned… they do not exist. I promised…»
«That is why I did not put them on the table, My dear…» says Mary caressing him [...]
«No, no. You can bring them. Or rather: You must bring them. And I will hand them out to everybody.» [...]
Marjiam takes the tray and begins to hand them out. [...]
He then goes back to his place lays the tray in the middle of the table resolutely and folds his arms.
«You make this delicious cake go the wrong way» says Peter when he sees that Marjiam does not take any. And he adds: «At least a little bit. Here, take some of mine, so that you will not die to have some. You are suffering too much … Jesus will let you have it.»
«But if I did not suffer, I would have no merit, father. I offered this sacrifice exactly because I knew that it would make me suffer. After all… I have been so happy since I made it, that I seem to be full of honey. I taste it in everything, and I even seem to breathe it in the air…»
«That’s because you are dying to have some…»
«No. It’s because I know that God says to me: “You are doing the right thing, My son”.»
«The Master. would have satisfied you, even without this sacrifice. He loves you so much!»
«Yes. But it is not fair that I should take advantage of it, just because He loves me. In any case, He says that great is the reward in Heaven even for a cup of water offered in His name. I think that if it is great for a cup of water given to other people in His name, it must also be great for a cake or a little honey which one gives up out of love for a brother.
Am I wrong, Master?»[5]
Jesus then intervenes as the child asks His opinion. He then expounds on all that the generosity of love can do.
«No, you have spoken wisely. In fact, I could have granted you what you asked for, in favour of little Rachel, also without your sacrifice, because it was a good thing to do and My Heart desired it. But I did it with greater joy because I was helped by you. The love for our brothers is not confined to human means and limits, but it rises to much higher levels. When it is perfect, it really touches the throne of God and blends with His infinite Charity and Bounty. The communion of saints is just this continuous activity, as God works continuously and in every way, to assist our brothers both in their material and spiritual needs or in both as it is in the case of Marjiam, who relieves Rachel of her illness by obtaining her cure, and at the same time he relieves the dejected spirit of old Johanna and kindles greater and greater trust in the Lord in all the hearts in the family. Even a spoonful of honey, offered as a sacrifice, can help to bring peace and hope to an afflicted soul as a cake or any other food given up out of love, may obtain some bread, offered miraculously, for some starving person who is remote from us and will never be known to us; and an angry word, not uttered out of spirit of sacrifice, although justified, may prevent a remote crime, as to resist the desire to pick a fruit, out of love, may bring about a thought of resipiscence in a thief and thwart a theft. Nothing is lost in the holy economy of universal love: neither the heroic sacrifice of a boy before a dish of honey cakes, nor the holocaust of a martyr. In fact, I tell you that the holocaust of a martyr often originates from the heroic upbreeding imparted to him since his childhood for the love of God and his neighbour.»[6]
Marjiam’s example thus shows us all that love can do. Whether in our daily life, in the most trivial gestures, or in our little renunciations made out of love, the Lord blesses us and takes our offerings to help a brother or sister in Christ.
"Nothing is lost in the holy economy of universal love," says the Christ in the work of Maria Valtorta.
This is what we can keep in mind to progress in our life, always more lovingly and more saintly.