We Must Be Known By Our Love

In our liturgy, we have been reading the first letter of Saint John, perhaps my favorite book of the Bible and one that speaks powerfully to this year’s worldwide theme, “Add your love to this Flame and pass it on” (April 13, 1962). Let me clarify this important theme a little more. From subsequent messages I have seen from some of you, I think it came across as a continuation of last year’s theme of “Help me save the country” and that the emphasis was on “pass it on”, i.e., that the emphasis is on the outward focus of the Flame of Love for all people. That is still true and vitally important but that is not the emphasis of this year’s theme. I included the “and pass it on” part because it is part of the passage but that is not the focus.

The emphasis of this year’s theme is “Add your love to this Flame“. Just as we can miss the extraordinary scope of the Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary by limiting it to our prayer groups and our apostolate, we can also miss the extraordinary nature of the Flame of Love if we limit it to prayers and a list of practices. To truly accomplish what our Blessed Mother wants – to save our countries by blinding Satan – we must shine with the love of Jesus within us at every moment. We must be known by our love (John 13:35), the love of our Blessed Mother that we have added to our love to be more filled than ever with Jesus loving in us.

What are we known for?

When people think of us, they should not just be saying, “Oh, they’re the people with that special Hail Mary” or “they’re the people with that beautiful Unity Prayer.” They should be saying, “those are the people who are loving like we’ve never seen before” – the result of the greatest outpouring of graces since the Word was made flesh. We should not be known for our t-shirts or our scapulars or our white garments (though these are all good and beautiful) but for our love. If we have received the very love of our Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Heart full of grace (“add your love to it”), shouldn’t we be standing out in love? This is the most important characteristic of the people of the Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary: we must be known by our love.

What did Jesus tell us? “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35). but some might say, “isn’t this the goal of Christianity and not just the Flame of Love?” Exactly! Remember that the Flame of Love did not come to give us new prayers. They are an expression of how the Flame of Love works but they are not the Flame of Love. We are not another Rosary group (though the Rosary is vitally important). We are the people so filled with love that there is no room left for sin – Satan is blinded. It came to give us our Mother’s love which is Jesus loving in us – she gave it to us to help us be the Christians we are supposed to be but haven’t been. To be the Christians so united to Jesus by the effect of grace that His light within us blinds Satan in our lives and those around us. I know you’ve heard me say this before but let me illustrate it again with some scriptures and passages of the Diary that I haven’t used before including some passages which are only available in the Critical Edition.

First, let’s link these important scriptures. Jesus says, “As the Father loves me, so I also love you.” (John 15:9). In John 13:34, Jesus says, “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” So we are to love the way Jesus loves us which is the way the Father loves Him, i.e., with the love of the Trinity. I know you know that already but did you notice that the very next verse, verse 35, is where Jesus says, “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”? This extraordinary love needs to stand out. We must be known by our love.

Before we get to those Diary passages that most of you do not have yet, let’s review that beautiful section from I John chapter 4.

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another.

I John 4:7-11 NABRE

Sound familiar?! And then verse 12: “No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us.” Yes, perfect, as our Heavenly Father is perfect – loving in every moment.

We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. In this is love brought to perfection among us, that we have confidence on the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

I John 4:16-21

And this love must be continuous and stand out. We should be known by our love. Our love should be constant – in how we dress, how we eat or don’t eat, how we drive, how we shop, how we interact with our difficult neighbors, how we spend our money, how we spend our time, how we embrace our trials, everything, everywhere, with everyone, all the time and it should show. Let’s look at the Diary.

Fresh Flowers, Gray Habits, Little Pieces

There is a passage in the Diary that used to puzzle me:

Always give Me only new, fresh sacrifices! I sow in your soul the seed of My graces, My sacred teaching, but see to it that you cultivate it in your soul with your prayers, mortifications, constant acceptance of sacrifices. Don’t forget how painful is the fate of the seeds fallen by the roadside! Pick the flowers cultivated in your soul, and always bring them before Me fresh; let them bloom and exude their aroma with Me. I ask for only cut flowers; I don’t want those that are rooted in the earth. They can’t give Me pleasure, because that kind of sacrifice takes its strength and moisture from the earth.

Spiritual Dairy May 18, 1963

My thought was, wouldn’t you want potted plants that keep blooming? But Jesus says picked flowers. He wants these to be a constant act of will, not just routine growing. An act of will to bring this love continuously and not just because of routine. Remember how Jesus said, “Do not ask Me what to do. Be creative! Take advantage of every opportunity to quench My thirst with your desire to save souls.” (April 8, 1962) and Mary said, “Offer me greater sacrifices. Do not ask how, just improvise!” (July 30, 1962). And Jesus again, “Let your sacrifices always be fervent.” (May 4, 1962) With that in mind, let me share passages from the Diary that are only in the Critical Edition. I assume Sister Anna Roth removed them from her Diary extracts (the ones used by Father Rona) to protect the priest who is mentioned.

That others too might understand this conversation of the Lord Jesus, I would have to uncover that priest’s attraction to the Lord Jesus as He allowed me to see it. This is a totally singular development, shaped in an unusual form which, as the Lord Jesus says, He wants to turn to the individual’s benefit, so that he might come close to Him. For this reason, the Lord Jesus […] shaped the circumstances in such a way that I should live in the unceasing whirlwind of humiliations close to the priest in question. /This is the priest who was already mentioned in the entry for March 4-7, 1962, whom I didn’t know at all at that time.

Spiritual Diary March 6, 1964

So let’s go to that passage from 1962 to see what she is referencing:

During these days I heard that a priest I knew had been barred by the State from carrying out his priestly function. The priest was very crushed on account of this. An acquaintance asked me to pray for him. This gave me a lot to think about. And since the Lord Jesus used to talk to me so intimately, I knelt before Him with deep humility and asked Him in plain words why this happened? I didn’t hear His words in the great silence of my soul. The whole matter seemed so murky to me during these days, even more so since I heard, time after time, that priests were being taken off to prison from different places.
When I knelt before Him again a few days later, He began to speak to me of this: “My little daughter, do you understand Me? This is how I want to bring them closer to Myself, because they have little love for Me. They are too worldly, too arrogant. Although they say beautiful words about Me, they themselves don’t live them out intimately. O, these souls consecrated to Me! My Heart’s sadness is immeasurable on their account”
I was greatly surprised at this. A searing pain cut through my soul and from then on He often showed me souls with whom daily life brings me into contact, without my ever having known or spoken with the individuals. He allowed me to feel what attraction this soul whom I don’t know has for Him. In cases like this, there’s a sharp, cutting pain in my heart. He said: “Suffer with Me!” These feelings affected my soul like some sickness. They not only caused pain in my soul, but also affected my physical strength, and I felt almost weak on their account. I pondered in myself what this could be.

Spiritual Diary March 4-7, 1962

So this is a good priest, a courageous priest. Good priests in Hungary at this time were lucky if they were sent to remote, rural parishes to get them out of the way. Others were exiled to Siberia, imprisoned, tortured, and murdered. In this case, the priest was relieved from duty by the State. He’s a good priest, a courageous priest, but there is a problem. Let’s learn more about what this problem is and what it has to do with fresh flowers and being known by our love. Returning to the entry from 1964:

The Lord Jesus showed me, or rather He allowed me to see into his soul, at which I became very frightened. I became ill. This seeing into souls is for me such that I almost die of suffering./
The Lord Jesus began to converse again. It’s already the third time today. During the conversation, I was just putting the mentioned priest’s room in order. This work is extremely difficult for me, not only because the Lord Jesus showed me what attraction He has for him, but even (allowed me) to see the abnormalities of his soul, on account of which He cannot get close to his heart.
“My little sister, I disclose to you the sorrow of My God-Man’s soul so you might see what souls look like which burden their soul with the tawdriness of the world, and leave Me only enough room to huddle in a small tight nook. I can’t spread out My love in his heart. He has been mastered by the gray power of habit. And do you know how many souls like this there are? But it’s enough that you see this. You can get an idea even from this one example, which gives meaning to your suffering. My little sister, My little sunflower, your seeds turned to the divine Sun are already swelling. I’m bringing ever closer to you the time when, by means of your constant self-surrender, I will press out the content of your oily seeds which, falling on souls, will enkindle the light of My graces. . . . . When I awoke during the night He also spoke immediately: “Elizabeth! Thank you for your love that you send Me, from which I can sense that it doesn’t pause even during the night.”

Spiritual Diary March 6, 1964

Do we see? Jesus loves this priest. He wants to get close to him but He can’t. Why? “He has been mastered by the gray power of habit.” Oh brothers and sisters, are we? “Yup, today’s the Monday fast; tomorrow’s my cenacle; time to go to Mass; time to say my Rosary just like always.” Our love must always be fresh, love in every moment, picked flowers. We must be known by this love, this freshly picked, voluntary choice of love in every moment. Notice the contrast between the priest and Elizabeth: “constant self-surrender”, love that doesn’t pause even during the night. Notice that it is this constant self-surrender that Jesus uses to press the oil out of us so that souls can light – so that Satan can be blinded. If we want to blind Satan, it must be by this constant self-surrender of love – love in every moment – the love that is expressed in our prayers and in our constant actions – the love by which we should be known. One more passage from the end of the entry from September 1, 1964:

I’m the one who increases your suffering with My love, while with your constant sacrifices you feed the love I pour over you. Tell Me, what is there to imagine about this? This is a natural, yet supernatural process. Understand finally this simplicity with which I approach you! I do it to give you strength in your human misery for making constant sacrifices. For it’s not the size of the sacrifice that sustains the abundant outpouring of My graces, but that continuity which you yourself don’t interrupt. Is it clear to you? To make it so, I will repeat an earlier teaching of Mine: Gather the small mosaic stones; I’m the artist who will create a masterpiece from them. You just be diligent, not weighing how formless and colorless your actions may seem. Rest on your Master’s Heart!”

Spiritual Dairy September 1, 1964

Note the emphasis on constant love: “with your constant sacrifices you feed the love I pour over you”, “it’s not the size of the sacrifice that sustains the abundant outpouring of My graces, but that continuity” – constant sacrifice, constant love, love in every moment. When we do this, we will be known by our love and Satan will be blinded.

Please, that analogy of the pitch black room is important. If you’ve ever been in complete darkness, you know it is terrifying and disorienting. We are in that pitch black room with many others; they are frightened, confused, and disoriented. We have been given the light (I place in your hands a beam of light – the Flame of Love of my heart). When it shines, when we are known by the love we are shining, we are the hope of the room. If we let that light go our for even a moment, the darkness returns. Please, please, think of how much those around you need the light. Love in every moment and we will be known by our love.

Why we have neighbors to love

Let me share one last quote – this time from The Dialogue from Saint Catherine of Siena. If you have never read it, I would heartily recommend it. There is a reason why she and Saint Teresa of Avila were the first two women Doctors of the Church. In section 64, we see an interesting explanation of why we must have this continual love, this love in every moment, why our neighbors must know us by our love:

I ask you to love Me with the same love with which I love you. But for Me you cannot do this, for I loved you without being loved. Whatever love you have for Me you owe Me, so you love Me not gratuitously but out of duty, while I love you not out of duty but gratuitously. So you cannot give Me the kind of love I ask of you. This is why I have put you among your neighbors: so that you can do for them what you cannot do for Me.

In other words, God wants us to love Him as He loves us, i.e., selflessly without being loved first (think Matt 5:46-47: “For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors* do the same?”) but that’s impossible because God loved us first (I John 4:19). Thus, the only way we can demonstrate this love to God is to love our neighbors without being loved first or even loved at all, maybe even despised.

So let us love our neighbors with the love God has for us, the love that fills our Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Heart, the love she shares with us that we add to our love, the love that is miraculously given to us as the effect of grace of the Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the love that blinds Satan, that will save our countries and finally bring us peace. Let us put our Blessed Mother’s gift into practice all day every day adding our love to it. Then, we will be known by our love.