Homily of H.E. Mons. Claudio Gatti of March 10, 2006

1st reading: Ezk 18:21-28; Psalm 129; Gospel: Mt 5:20-26

There are many things, mostly beautiful, that we have experienced and, as members of the community, it is right and above all beautiful that you too know it. Let's start with March 8. I don't care if it is Women's Day because we should have a feast every day for those who do their duty, not once a year. March 8 was the third day of the triduum and I have to thank you because I did not expect such a large presence. In fact, especially for the family mothers, it is dinner time and seeing you so numerous was truly invigorating for me; it was a grace, a new manifestation of affection for me. During the Mass a large part of Heaven also came down and surrounded the one who was celebrating, there were beloved people such as Our Lady, St. Joseph, grandmother Iolanda, grandmother Iolanda's mother, whom I did not know, but in any case she was a holy woman because it is in Heaven, Fatina, a member of our community and priests who loved us, such as Don Enrico and Mons. Guido, whom you all remember with pleasure. In addition, there were also people who were important for the Church, especially the latest popes, the saints we love most and many saints who in one way or another are linked to us. I cannot make a list for you because I would be here for a good part of the evening, but I will mention only a few who are also known to you, such as Padre Pio and San Giovanni Bosco. This massive celestial presence is the confirmation of the authenticity of the mission.

March 8 is the eve of my priestly ordination. Clearly that day I went back with my thoughts, with the memories still clear, even if 43 years have now passed and I remember having spent a good part of the day in the company of Jesus and Our Lady, whom we then invoked as Mother of Trust, the title of our Lady in the Roman Major Seminary. At that moment there was a real need for trust, first of all, trust in God, because I felt very much this priestly ordination to the point that I had a kind of dwindling, just because I felt the greatness, the huge responsibility, the weight of priesthood, and trust in Our Lady, the one who was close to me even as a child and guided me with a motherly and firm hand. This memory accompanied me throughout the eve of the anniversary and I also remember, being in the chapel, a dialogue I had with Jesus. I asked Him: “Jesus, I must be You in the world, but I would like to be You as a model. This is the highest testimony. So I ask you for the gift and grace to never betray the priesthood and, should it happen, take me first”. I also said: "Lord, tomorrow you will make me the teacher of my brothers, so I ask you to give me the gift of the word, not to make a good impression, but so that I may easily find the way to reach the hearts of my brothers". Did the Lord answer or not? You know, so let's move on.

On March 9 Marisa's room had been transformed into a flower garden and I thank those who have lent their intelligent work to prepare all these flower pots, because they had to be a worthy welcome to give hospitality to the Mother of the Eucharist and Jesus as well. The surprise was enormous when, at the moment of the apparition, Our Lady came to announce that God the Father would be coming; therefore, following Our Lady’s example we prostrated in adoration. God the Father came and spoke. I believe that there is no previous instance in the history of the Church, but I am not interested in originality or being first in something, I am interested in telling you this so that you too can understand the infinite and fatherly love of God. He began by calling me son and pronouncing with authority the title of Excellency, to emphasize that He was the one who ordained me Bishop, but the great and amazing thing was that God the Father said to me, in a fatherly tone: "My son, open your heart to me, tell me everything you want and ask me the questions you want”. I think I talked for some time, I really let off steam and I said, not because He didn't know it, but because of my personal outburst, everything I had in my heart. God, in his greatness, listened patiently and silently even knowing what I had and wanted to say and answered the questions I asked, but the amazing thing was that, in giving me the answers and the reasons why he is still forced not to intervene, said: "If I had to intervene, which I could do even at this moment to revolutionize the whole world, many of my sons priests would be lost and my heart does not accept this". Up to now, the conversation has been quiet, but then I heard him saying, and I tell you this so that you can truly grow in the love for God: "My son, please, give grant me some more time to convert these children”. God asked my permission and repeated it in every way! He also talked about my future and the beautiful thing is that God is working on this future. In fact, since a few weeks, Our Lady has been telling us the names of future collaborators and among these there are some cardinals, bishops and even priests who will have to be made bishops. When I asked God the Father if there were others I could count on, the answer was that there are ten others ready to join me. The names of the first ten are imprinted in my mind and I know some of them personally, the second ten were not told to me, but I know that Our Lady named them one by one to Marisa when there was the apparition in the evening, in the presence of young people.

That's what God is! The one who loves so much that he puts himself on the level of his children, begging, asking for understanding. He also said: "Of course, I know very well everything you have lived and experienced" and even quipped: "There is no need for you to send Our Lady to tell me things because I already know everything". Here, this is God. Then there was the Mass, there was the one who celebrated and only one person who participated visually, Marisa. I wanted this Mass reserved for me and Marisa just because I wanted to remember the strong, indissoluble union that has kept us united and bound for almost 35 years in which the Lord wanted us to work together. However I did not see him but, believe me, I felt His presence, all of Heaven was truly here, more than those who were present the day before and the beautiful and meaningful thing was, but it wasn’t the first time, when at the moment of consecration Marisa no longer saw the Bishop, but Jesus. This is not the privilege of one, but it is the reality that must be lived by all priests who, when they celebrate and confess in the name of Christ, must be all the same in Christ. This Mass has not been recorded, but remains in our hearts and the prayers and reflections that have been made are experiences that will remain in my heart and Marisa's.

In the evening there was again the apparition of Our Lady, which she reminded those who were present of the great moment experienced in the morning, when God the Father spoke. The Lord also listened to my plea, that at least on the 9^th Marisa could feel a little better and so it was, but unfortunately only on the 9^th, because today there was a progressive burst of sufferings that brought Marisa's glycemic level to 450; strong natural pains, accompanied for several hours in the afternoon by hard and intense passion. There was no apparition for everybody because Marisa did not have the strength to transmit, hear and repeat the message, but Our Lady came anyway and revealed to me that while she was suffering and the pains were stronger, without me being able to hear, Marisa repeated in her heart: “My God, all this is for your sake and for my brothers”. I believe that seeing the suffering of a loved one is a great suffering that you never get used to and I believe that these moments, which are sometimes long, very long, is a suffering lived in a different way by Marisa and myself and it is truly the most important thing the Lord wants us to give to the Church. It is easy to say: "Marisa suffered the passion", but those of you who saw it were traumatized, to the point of saying: "Yes, it is true, it is very hard, it is inhuman". This is the way of the cross and one of the things I said in confiding to God the Father was just this: "Are the sufferings of your Son not enough?" I knew the answer, but the outburst was also legitimate. God does not need me or anyone else, but it is an act of esteem, trust, love on the part of God to call people to experience suffering and immolation. It is hard, but the men of the Church are saved by the love of God, by the blood of Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, there is no need for human interference, it is God who calls. This is beautiful because the Church is being reborn, but not because new cardinals or bishops have been appointed, not because there are speeches, meetings, but simply because God is guiding his Church and Christ is the head of the Church.

I end by thanking you also for your generosity. This year, and it will certainly not be the last time, I asked you to donate a sum of money, meant to buy a gift for me and for the community lunch, in favor of the children of the Philippines I told you about. According to what Franco the administrator told me, never before have you been generous as on this occasion, 6.000 euros have been collected. I thought of sending half of it immediately to these children, because I know that they have asked for around 3.000 euros to buy tents, while we keep the other half aside for when there will be another occasion when I feel that we have to intervene to help.

It is important to be generous, but there is a generosity that must somehow be paid in person. Remember that the Lord appreciated the offer of a poor widow much more than the offerings of powerful and rich people, because she was generous. The others gave a lot, but it was superfluous, the widow gave little, but she deprived herself of something she needed to give it to others. Always remember the passage I gave you from Isaiah: "as far as heaven is from earth, so my judgments are different from your judgments". In the sight of God, people who, at times, are unimportant and even dangerous to men, are in fact very important. You know the story concerning us and you have certainly had occasions when you have heard negative judgments from ecclesiastics, but remember that every word of the Gospel is truth. One of the last expressions of today's Gospel was: “whoever says ‘you fool’ will suffer the fire of Gehenna”. Then you should not be surprised if Our Lady said several times, and God also repeated it on March 9: "Those who have slandered and offended my Bishop will suffer the pains of hell", referring to those who have consciously and deliberately slandered, because they blatantly went against the truth. These are judgments of God.

Yesterday was good to me and to you all. I said to prepare for hard days, but I didn't know today would be the first hard day. The moment of enthusiasm is beautiful and needed, but reality is sometimes hard, painful and must be faced. So we must try not to live in sterile enthusiasm, but in the deep conviction, which must be felt by all of you, that God keeps what he promised. Unfortunately, there will still be suffering for Marisa, but I have heard her telling Our Lady several times that she will not deny the "Yes" of her total immolation to suffering. Then we must accompany her by participating in her suffering, by praying and suffering too, because I am convinced that we can carry out the duty of the Cyrenian who helped Christ to carry the cross, by helping our sister to carry her cross. This is a duty of charity and do know that when this cross is raised, God will intervene and carry out his great plans. What I understood is that God wishes to do it and he would do it immediately, but he is held back by love, by the desire to still snatch a number of priests, bishops and cardinals from Satan. As Our Lady said, hell is unfortunately full of these characters, who, in order to cover up their sins, speak of the mercy of Christ and forget that alongside mercy there is also justice. This is what God said on March 9: “I have patience, but I am not only merciful, but also just”. Saving them is my personal commitment, but it is also good for the Church, because every soul that is saved is a victory for Christ, it is the triumph of the cross, it is the triumph of the Eucharist. The triumph of the Eucharist is this: may men grow in love, turn away from sin and live united with Christ.

I think I told you what I owed; however, even this evening, at the moment of the consecration, Marisa saw Jesus again. I believe, and I say this without pronouncements or triumphalism, we have a new record: no-one has ever filmed Jesus, Our Lady and the saints, but this happened here through God's intervention. Through the camera positioned in the chapel, through the television in her room, Marisa saw Jesus, Our Lady and the saints. Today God the Father also told Marisa that she is already in Heaven, but she is not aware of it. Do not ask me how this is possible, but God can do everything. Marisa is aware of this only in some situations, such as this night where she was able to rest peacefully just because she was in Heaven all night, with the only difference that in Heaven those who are normally there, therefore from Our Lady downwards, see God, while the living, we, and Paul himself who was enraptured in Heaven, cannot see God. We can only see Him after death, not before, because we cannot bear this impact that would destroy us, because it is so disproportionate the infinite greatness of God with our littleness that we cannot face the infinite and experience it. Only when we reach Heaven will it be possible to see God and this is the enjoyment, the joy of Heaven: to see God and in God to see all the beauty, the greatness and we will not get tired because the infinite is infinite, it is boundless, and God is outside of time. Time is a limit that we have on earth, but those who are in Heaven do not have this type of limit or that of space.

John Paul II told a truth that, I can simply say, I said it for the first time when we went to various churches. It was just the feast of the Trinity and we were in the San Romualdo church. I said that Heaven is God, therefore he does not have a ubiquity, that is, God is not here or there, God is God and that's it. Heaven is God, so it is a condition, not a place. Certainly it is impossible to talk about Heaven or God, we can only stutter something, but what matters is that we can all go there. We are in 2006, in 2106 we hope to be all in Heaven, this is the desire I wish to myself and to each of you. My joy will be complete if I can truly enjoy the Heaven together with each of you and your joy will be complete if you in turn can share the joy of Heaven with others. We hope that the ones leaving first will go directly to Heaven to prepare the place for us and among them certainly there will be our sister Marisa, even if we do not yet know when her time will come, but it must not be very far. Our Lady told us about this several times in her messages, even if she reminded us that the little and brief of God is different from the human little and brief. However different it may be, you certainly know that the triumph will come after the complete immolation of Marisa, so it will be for her immolation. Maybe it is my wish that she too can participate, but I think I understand that everything will happen after her departure for the Heavenly Fatherland. This must be lived with joy, especially by those who go there; for those who remain it is human and legitimate to feel the detachment, but God has confirmed to me again that I will be helped and I will see, besides Our Lady, Marisa and grandmother Iolanda, they will help me with my responsibilities. For me this is a comfort, a relief, because the stupendous heights make me dizzy, but knowing that I will be helped, advised, supported, sustained, besides God, also by Our Lady, by Marisa and by grandmother Iolanda, for me is reason for serenity and tranquility. I thank you for listening to me and I hope I have succeeded in igniting something beautiful in your hearts. What can I say to conclude? Let’s love the Church because whoever loves the Church loves Christ.