When a woman disciple rebuked Peter and Apostles.

Concerned by the increasing adulation among the populace for Jesus after He raised Lazarus from the dead, the Sanhedrin and Jewish leaders convened under Caiaphas the High Priest. It was on this occasion that Caiaphas prophesied that it was expedient for one man to die for the nation, and mandated His arrest. In order to elude capture, Jesus was forced to retreat to the Samaritan city of Ephraim for an exile lasting many weeks. He would be safe there, because the righteous Pharisees, Scribes and Judeans would not ritually defile themselves by consorting with “impure” and inferior Samaritans. (John 11: 47-54; see below.)

 

Maria Valtorta’s Poem of the Man-God, elaborates in detail on the exile of Jesus to the city of Ephraim. He and the apostles spent about six weeks at the home of a hospitable widow, located near the border of Samaria with Judea. It was towards the end of winter in the year in which He was crucified. Except for the Sabbaths when they were all together, most of the apostles spent the week evangelizing the Samaritans.

 

After a few weeks at Ephraim some of the woman disciples began to arrive, including Eliza. She was an elderly widow from Bethsur, who as a child knew the Blessed Virgin because they had both lived together for a time in the Temple at Jerusalem. She would be present at Calvary with the holy women, and be a witness to the Ascension.

 

It was on a Sabbath day, while Jesus and a few of the apostles had gone out of the house, that some of the remaining apostles began to vent their anger and frustration at the open persecution of Jesus.

 

James, the brother of John the Evangelist, is speaking: “How much fear! Now, when we go to Jerusalem, I want to send my brother to Annas [High Priest Emeritus, father-in-law of Caiaphas]. I could go myself, because I also know the sly fox well. But John is more capable. […] I will send John. He will be able to put up even with abuse without reacting. I... if he said anathema of the Master to me, or even if he only said that I am anathema because I follow Him, I would jump to his neck, I would seize him and squeeze his old stout body as if it were a net out of which water is to be squeezed. I would make him give back the wicked soul he has! Even if all the soldiers and priests of the Temple were around him!” [...]

 

“You are right! You are not the only one to have certain wishes. I have them, too!” says Peter.

 

“And I, too, and not only with regard to Annas,” says Jude Thaddeus.

 

“Oh! in that case I... would serve several of them. I have a long list... Those three old crocks of Capernaum – I leave out Simon, the Pharisee, because he seems to be tolerably good – those two wolves of Esdraelon, and that old heap of bones of Hananiah, and then... a slaughter, a real slaughter, I tell you, at Jerusalem, with Helkai [the Pharisee] at the head of them all. I cannot bear those snakes lying in wait any longer!” Peter is furious.

 

Thaddeus, calm in speaking, but even more impressive in his glacial calm than if he were as furious as Peter, says: “And I would give you a hand. But... perhaps I would begin by removing the snakes close at hand. […] There are many who show a face but their souls are different from the face they show! I never lose sight of them. Never. I want to be sure before acting. But when I am sure! David's blood is hot, and hot is the blood of Galilee. They are both in me through my paternal and maternal lines.”

 

“Oh! In the event... tell me! I will help you...” says Peter.

 

“No. Blood revenge is the concern of relatives. It's for me to take it.” [The father of Thaddeus was the brother of Saint Joseph.]

 

Finally, Eliza breaks in: 

 

“But, my dear children! Do not speak thus. That is not what the Master teaches! You look like little furious lions instead of being the lambs of the Lamb! Restrain so much spirit of revenge. The days of David went by long ago! The law of blood and retaliation has been canceled by the Christ. He confirms the ten unchangeable commandments, but He cancels the other hard Mosaic laws. The commandments of Moses concerning pity, humanity and justice remain and are condensed and perfected in His greater commandment: “To love God with our whole selves, to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, to forgive those who offend us, to love those who hate us. 

 

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“Oh! forgive me, if I, a woman, have dared to teach my brothers, who are greater than I am! But I am an old mother. And a mother can always speak. Believe me, my children! If you yourselves call Satan by hating enemies, by wishing for revenge, he will come into you and corrupt you. Satan is not strength. Believe me. God is strength. Satan is weakness, a burden, he is sluggishness. You would not be able to move a finger any more, not only against your enemies, but not even to caress our distressed Jesus, if hatred and revenge should enchain you. Cheer up, my dear children, all of you! 

 

“You are all sons for a woman who loves you, for a mother who has found once again the joy of being a mother by loving you as her children. Do not make me feel distressed once again, having lost my dear children again and for good; because if you die cherishing hatred or crime, you die forever, and we shall not longer be able to gather all together up there, in joy, around our common love: Jesus. Promise me here, at once, as I implore you, promise me, a poor woman, a poor mother, that you will never have such thoughts again. Oh! they even disfigure your faces. You seem strangers to me, you are different! How ugly hatred makes you! You were so meek! But what is happening? Listen to me! 

 

“Mary would say the same words as mine to you, with greater power, because She is Mary; but it is better if She is not aware of all the grief... Oh! poor Mother! But what is happening? So have I to really believe that the hour of darkness has already come, the hour that will swallow everybody, the hour in which Satan will be king in everybody, with the exception of the Holy One, and he will lead astray also saints, you also, making you cowards, perjurers, as cruel as he is? Oh! so far I have always hoped! I have always said: “Men will not prevail against the Christ.” But now! But now I am afraid and I tremble for the first time! I see the great Darkness, whose name is Lucifer, stretch out and invade this serene sky of Adar and darken all of you, and pour poisons that make you sick. Oh! I am afraid!”

 

Eliza, who for some time had been weeping silently, drops with her head on the table at which she was sitting and sobs sorrowfully. The apostles look at one another. Then, although distressed, they begin to console her. But she does not want consolations and she says so: “One, only one is good for me: your promise. For your own good! So that Jesus may not have the greatest of His sorrows: to see you, His beloved disciples, damned.”

 

“Of course, Eliza. If that is what you want! Do not weep, woman! We promise you. Listen. We will not lift a finger against anybody. We shall not even look, so that we may not see. Don't weep! Don't weep! We will forgive those who offend us. We will love those who hate us! Don't weep.”

 

Eliza raises her face shining with tears and says: “Remember. You have promised it! Repeat your promise!”

 

“We promise you it, woman.”

 

“How dear you are, my children! Now I do like you! I see that you are good again. Now that my worry is appeased and that you are once again free from that bitter ferment, let us get ready to receive Mary. What is there to be done?” she asks [...] as they prepare for the arrival of the Blessed Virgin at Ephraim.

John 11: 47-54. 

 

The chief priests therefore, and the Pharisees, gathered a council, and said: What do we, for this man doth many miracles? If we let him alone so, all will believe in him; and the Romans will come, and take away our place and nation. But one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that year, said to them: You know nothing. Neither do you consider that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. 

 

And this he spoke not of himself: but being the high priest of that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation. And not only for the nation, but to gather together in one the children of God, that were dispersed. From that day therefore they devised to put him to death. Wherefore Jesus walked no more openly among the Jews; but he went into a country near the desert, unto a city that is called Ephraim and there he abode with his disciples.

Based in Chapter 564 in The Poem of the Man-God by Maria Valtorta. 

 

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