The Generosity of Love. The Sacrifice of Marziam

"Love one another as I have loved you" (John 15:12). 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 (Matthew 26:36-40). 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.

One of the different kinds of fouaces.

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 Marziam, 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.

"[...] Rachel is good! She stays up late spinning the little wool and cotton we have, and she caught the fever in the field while preparing it for sowing as our father died.

– God will reward you," says Marziam seriously.

– He has already rewarded me by relieving my grandmother’s pain [through the purse Jesus gave them]."

Jesus intervenes:

"Don’t you ask for more?

– No, Lord.

– But are you healed?

– No, Lord. But it doesn’t matter. Now if I die, our grandmother is helped. Before, the idea of dying displeased me because I helped her.

– But death is an ugly thing, little girl…

– As God helps me during my life, He will help me at death and I will go to find mother… Oh! Don’t weep, dear grandmother! I love you Good. I won’t say it anymore if it makes you cry. And even, if you want, I will ask the Lord to heal me… Don’t cry, my little mother…"

And she kisses the little old woman, sorrowful. Marziam adds:

"Make her heal, Lord. My grandfather, you made him happy for me. Make this little grandmother happy now…

– Graces are obtained through sacrifice. You, what sacrifice would you make to obtain it?" asks Jesus seriously.

Marziam thinks… He looks for what will be hardest for him to give up… then he smiles:

"I won’t take honey for a whole moon.

– That’s little! The one in Casleu is already Good advanced…

– I say a moon meaning four phases. And think… these days it’s the Feast of Lights and there are fouaces with honey…

– It’s true. Well Good! Rachel will be healed thanks to you.

Here, Marziam 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.

Jesus grants Marziam’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.

– Oh! The fouaces!… cries Marziam, who immediately falls silent.

– Yes. They are in there with the oven-dried figs, as well as the olives and the red apples. […] Do you not taste the honey?"

– I cannot, replies Marziam seriously.

– Why? You don’t want to?

– Yes. But I cannot eat it.

– Why not?"

The child blushes but does not answer. He looks at Jesus and remains silent. Jesus smiles and explains:

"Marziam made a vow to obtain a Grace. He cannot take honey for four weeks.

– Ah! Good! You will eat it afterwards… Take the jar anyway… But look at this! I didn’t think you were so… so…

– So generous, Simon. He who trains in penance from childhood will easily find the path of virtue throughout his life," says Jesus as the child walks away with his little pot in his hands.

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, Marziam 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:

"Why, Mother, didn’t you put the honey fouaces on the table? Jesus loves them and they would do Good for John’s throat. Besides, my father likes them too…

– And you also, finishes Peter.

– For me… it’s as if they don’t exist. I promised…

– That is precisely why, my dear, I didn’t put them out…" says Mary, caressing him [...]

"No, no. You can bring them to everyone. And even, you must do so and I will give them to everyone."

[...] Marziam takes the platter and begins to distribute. [...]

Then he returns to his place, placing the platter resolutely in the middle of the table and crossing his arms.

"You make me choke on this delight," says Peter seeing Marziam really not taking any.

And he adds:

"At least a little piece. Here, some of mine, just so you don’t die of envy. You are suffering too much… Jesus allows you.

– But if I didn’t suffer, I would have no merit, father. It’s Good because I knew it would make me suffer that I offered this sacrifice… And besides… I’m so happy to have done it that I feel full of honey. I taste it everywhere, I seem to smell it in the air…

– It’s because you die of envy.

– No, it’s because I know God tells me: “You do Good, my son.”

– The Master would have pleased you even without this sacrifice. He loves you so much!

– "Yes. But it is not right that just because I am loved, I take advantage. He himself says the reward is great in Heaven for a simple cup of Water offered in His name. I think that if it is great for a cup of Water given to another in His name, it will also be for a fouace or some honey refused for the love of a brother. Am I wrong, Master?"

Jesus then intervenes as the child asks His opinion. He then expounds on all that the generosity of love can do.

"You speak with wisdom. I could indeed grant you what you asked for the little Rachel even without your sacrifice, because it was a useful work that my Heart desired. But I did it with more joy because I was helped by you. Love for our brothers is not limited to human solutions; it rises Good higher. When it is perfect, it touches God’s throne and unites with His infinite charity and goodness. The communion of the saints is precisely this continual action, just as God continually acts in every way to help brothers, whether for their material or spiritual needs, or both simultaneously as in Marziam’s case who, by obtaining Rachel’s healing, relieves her illness and at the same time soothes the despondent Soul of the old Joanna, and ignites in the Heart of all the Family members an ever greater trust in the Lord. A simple spoonful of honey sacrificed can serve to bring Peace and hope to one afflicted, just as the fouace or other food, voluntarily given up out of love, can obtain a bread, miraculously offered, to a hungry distant and always unknown to us. Likewise, a word of anger, even of just anger, restrained by the spirit of sacrifice, can prevent a distant crime, just as resisting the desire to pick a fruit out of love can give a thought of regret to a thief and thus prevent theft. Nothing is lost in the holy economy of universal love: neither the heroic sacrifice of a child before a plate of fouaces nor the holocaust of a martyr. I tell you even that the holocaust of a martyr often originates from the heroic education given to him from childhood for the love of God and of the Neighbor."

Marziam’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.