Believers, Beliefs, Faithful, Righteous
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Mary said of Saint Joseph, her chaste spouse and earthly adoptive father of Jesus: "At first, he was only a just man of his time. Then, through successive stages, he became the just one of the Christian era. He acquired faith in the Christ and peacefully surrendered himself to this faith."[1]
The just ones possess the virtue of Justice: CEC §1807[2]: Justice is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give to God and to the Neighbor what is due to them. Justice towards God is called the "virtue of Religion". Toward men, it disposes one to respect the rights of each and to establish in human relations the harmony that promotes equity with regard to persons and the Good common.
The just man, often mentioned in the holy Books, is distinguished by the habitual uprightness of his thoughts and the rectitude of his conduct toward the Neighbor. "You shall not favor the poor, nor show partiality to the great; with justice you shall judge your Neighbor" (Lv 19:15). "Masters, give your slaves what is right and fair, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven" (Col 4:1).
In "The Gospel as It Was Revealed to Me"
- Holiness is nothing else but the fruit of the continual Struggle that the Soul and reason of the just wage against the assaults of their evil tendencies, and the fruit of the victory they achieve in the effort to remain faithful to Love. (Lessons on the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans, Lesson no. 23, page 145)[3]
- To an apostle who said: "It is only with us that they are without love. But we are different from them. That is fair." "No, in the Kingdom of my Father it is not just and the way of judging will be different. It will not be the rich and powerful, as such, who will have honors, but only those who have always loved God. Yes, even the wicked must be loved. Not for their wickedness, but out of pity for their Souls that they mortally wound. They must be loved with a love that supplicates the Heavenly Father to heal them and redeem them.[4]
- Friend! But do you know, Ishmael, the meaning I give to this word? For many a friend means an acquaintance, for others an accomplice, for others a servant. For Me it means: faithful to the Word of the Father. Whoever is not that cannot be a friend to Me, nor I to him.[5]
- Popular beliefs arise, circulated by hearsay.[6]
- Think of the many who still wait for Me, of the many who will have to die without having seen Me, of the many who will have to love Me without ever having known Me.[7]
- With a few poor, little fishes and with a few crumbs of bread: humble Souls and laity, I will feed many, and they will be filled.[8]
In other works of Maria Valtorta
Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans
- Holiness is nothing else but the fruit of the continual Struggle that the Soul and reason of the just wage against the assaults of their evil tendencies, and the fruit of the victory they achieve in the effort to remain faithful to Love. (Lessons on the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans, Lesson no. 23, page 145)[9]
Notebooks
- Catechesis of July 1, 1943: When I spoke of the ‘ten just ones’, I did not mean that the place where ten just ones are will be saved. But one can understand without error that if ten just and generous Souls gather in prayer, for a holy purpose, to ask for mercy for a place, I will not refuse their prayer.[10]