True Life for the Church
24 August 2000 12:58
Last year, Vassula asked Fr John Abberton to act as ‘spiritual guide’ for True Life in God in England. He has just sent the following moving reflection:
Thursday, August 24th. Feast of St. Bartholomew, Apostle.
This morning, in prayer, I read chapters 19 and 20 of Judges. It contains the horrific story of the abuse and subsequent death of a young woman, her dismemberment by her “husband” into twelve parts, sent (as a curse) to the different tribes of Israel who must take upon themselves the guilt for the sins of one group of men from the tribe of Benjamin. I tried to understand what the Holy Spirit might be saying through this reading. It became clearer when I heard the first reading of the Mass (from the feast) which was the vision of the heavenly Jerusalem coming down from Heaven.
In my thoughts and prayers, this is what I understood Our Lord to be saying:
I came to my people Israel to bind them together; to make their brokenness
| whole, to bring unity and peace to a house | divided in its spirit, its |
| heart. I was rejected and put to death. | I want you to understand that, |
| just as my physical Body had to die on the | Cross, so must you, my Body the |
| Church, suffer your crucifixion. Many of | you do not understand why this |
| must be so. I will tell you. There are | many graces ready to be |
| outpoured onto the world and the Church, but you are not ready for them. | |
Your pride must be broken and you must be humbled. Look at my Mother’s song of praise (Magnificat) which prophesies the “bringing down of the haughty and the raising up of the lowly”. Only when you have been brought down can I raise you up.
I came with my Church to a world that, in an imperfect way, welcomed me, but then, in an effort to protect its own self-image, its own sense of respectability (even according to its own customs) sacrificed my Church to the hounds who cried for it. It was abused and died (humanly speaking). But my Church lived on in my Sacred Heart and there, cannot die. The holiness of my Church is unassailable because it is in My Heart. When my Body, the Church on earth, is restored, it will be restored according to the image and likeness of the Church in My Heart.
I am calling into being some expressions of my “Heart Church” on earth. They are members of True Life in God and other movements that the Holy Spirit (My Holy Spirit – not your version of Him) has called into being. They are called to live as members of my Heart Church. This means that they must imitate My Sacred Heart in their daily lives, living as I lived, speaking in union with me, suffering in union with me.
Listen, my friends. When you are tempted to break up, fragment your groups and associations because of personal hurts, emotional upsets,
resentment and rivalries, you are damaging my mission for the Churches.
You are acting like traitors to my cause. How should you live? Hold
firm to my cross. So many of you wear a crucifix, but you have not
understood that you are to be “living crucifixes” for my Church. When
you are accused, attacked, insulted, unjustly criticised, especially by those “of your own household” can’t you see that I am asking you to live in me, in union with me, in imitation of me?
How can you retaliate in mind and word when you know I did not?
How can you withhold the forgiveness “of the heart” when you know I do not?
How can you condemn, when you know I do not?
How can you judge when you know I am the only judge?
Do not crucify me again. Let yourselves be crucified instead, by firmly
putting aside ALL resentment, ALL bitterness, ALL judgemental thoughts,
ALL jealousy, ALL hurt pride. Do this now. Begin again. Work
together. Make a new committment to peace and harmony. The gift of
unity that I am giving to you is wonderful – beyond your capabilities –
it is a true treasure from the treasue house of Grace in Heaven. It
comes to you through the intercession of my Mother and my saints, your
brothers and sisters. Do not abuse this gift. I ask for a renewed and
deeper committment to this way of Unity and Peace.
As you consecrate yourselves to my Sacred Heart, remember that you are consecrating yourselves for the sake of my Heart Church and this means
that you are, in a sense, consecrating yourselves in service to each
other. It is part of the Consecration to me. Do not spoil your
consecration by failing to grow in love for each other. Make this
renewed committment today, in your hearts, to love and honour each other. “Love one another as I have loved You” Amen.
I make no great claims for this. it is not necessarily “prophecy” or interior locution, but it is on and in my heart and I felt I had to say it.
Fr. John Abberton.
