Dear brothers and sisters, Fiat!
Knowing God and knowing self is the hidden intrigue that the Gospel of John offers us. This is highlighted in the story of the Samaritan woman who, from being for 6 men, becomes the announcer of a new life. From being a Jew, prophet, rabbi, Jesus becomes Messiah. The disciples who are worried about eating, glimpse in doing the will of the Father, an effort to take over and the fields that already turn blond for the harvest.
For the modern world, the inner image of living water is not immediate, as is the meaning of the water from the rock (Nm 20.8-11) in the middle of a burning desert, or a source of fresh water on the shore for sailors forced for months to settle for tinned water in barrels.
Jesus provokes us to give us a gift to discover in ourselves an inexhaustible source capable of quenching the "beyond" - for eternal life.
"Beyond" the daily routine of life, our baseness, sick relationships, fatigue, heaviness, narrow visions: "raise your eyes" is Jesus' invitation to the disciples who cannot see beyond theirs thirst and their hunger.
The amazing journey that Jesus offers to the Samaritan woman makes His disciples glimpse and requires from all of us a journey that allows us to know ourselves to know Him. This journey can become "in us" an incredible and unexpected source.
The people of Israel who are gripped by thirst cannot see the water which is hidden under the rock and which Moses gives forth with a blow of a stick (Ex 17.3-7); because of their anxieties, the disciples do not see the prospect of an abundant harvest.
The fact is that we seek out what the Lord has put within us. "Do not go out, go back to yourself: the truth dwells in the inner man" (St. Augustine). Too often we accumulate desires, worries, sufferings; we believe of suffocating the first desires by adding other desires, other problems, other pleasures; we allow our mind and hearts to be permanently occupied by other things; such as cats, we tangle with the balls of wool without finding the edge.
We should learn to know ourselves, understanding that only in God can we know who we really are, only in Christ can we reach the fullness of our life.
On January 1, 1900 Jesus told Luisa that the more the soul humbles herself and knows herself, the closer she draws to the truth; and being in the truth, she tries to push herself along the path of virtues, from which she sees herself very far. And if she sees herself on the path of virtues, immediately she realizes the much that is left for her to do, because virtues have no end – they are infinite, as God is. So, being in the truth, the soul always tries to perfect herself, but will never arrive at seeing herself perfect. And this serves her, and will cause her to be continuously working, striving to perfect herself more, without wasting time in idleness. And God, pleased with this work, keeps retouching her little by little, in order to portray His likeness in her.
In the passage of November 11, 1900, Jesus sees that Luisa is a little tired and suffering because of His privations and asks her not to go out of the Divine Will, because by going out of His Will, Luisa comes to lose the knowledge of Him, and not knowing Him, she comes to lose the knowledge of herself. In fact, only in the reflections of the light can one distinguish with clarity whether there is gold or mud; if everything is darkness, objects can easily be confused. Now, the light is the Divine Will, which gives Luisa the knowledge of Him, and in the reflections of this light she comes to know who she is; and in seeing her weakness, her pure nothingness, she clings to her arms and, united with God’s Will, she lives with Him in Heaven.
But if one wants to go out of the Divine Will, first he would come to lose true humility, and then he would come to live on the earth and would be forced to feel the earthly weight, to moan and sigh like all the other unfortunate who live outside of the Divine Will.