« Kalimera » ! You know at least this word in Greek: Hello! Which together with « Epharisto » (thank you) and « Parakalo » (excuse me/please) are the basis of brotherly and friendly communication.

And if I tell you Calimero? That sounds familiar, doesn’t it? « It’s not fair. It’s really too unfair » is the sentence that concluded each episode of this little black chick with a shell on his head, hero of a cartoon that appeared on our screens in the 70’s… but still relevant today. Have you never heard something like:

– « I never have a chance anyway. »
– « As usual, they went out without me. »
– « He got a promotion because he is the boss’s pet », etc…

Have you ever, after an unjust experience, turned into Zorro, a noble vigilante or Don Quixote, a lover of justice and freedom? In short, we are all more or less, one day or another, subjected to real injustice. Maybe even daily. Humiliations, contempt, persecutions, misunderstandings, etc. This is also part of « our daily bread ».

The theme of justice is eminently biblical. Moreover, Revelation is one of the books of the Bible that, more than any other book of the New Testament, emphasizes the « judgment » of God. It is a book that could give us the impression that God and his justice, in wanting to punish his enemies, contradict the merciful teaching of Jesus:

When he broke open the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar 8 the souls of those who had been slaughtered because of the witness they bore to the word of God. They cried out in a loud voice, « How long will it be, holy and true master, before you sit in judgment and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth? » (Rev 6:9-10)

If Justice is an eminently biblical theme, it is therefore very present in the Messages of TLIG. There are in fact more than 200 messages that speak about it. Justice, Judge, Judgment, Justification are indeed the words that we find there. The theme is obviously complex, but since it is one of the goals of our Christian life: « Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness » (Mt 6:33), it is worth meditating on it for a moment.

In the Messages of the TLIG, the Lord often repeats: « believe in My Mercy, never forgetting though, that I am also a God of Justice » (December 3, 1988)

How could we define justice? The Greek philosophers, Plato, Aristotle, explained that the world and even the whole universe had to obey an Order, a Law established by the gods, watching over the good relationship between all the parts of the existing. In order for Order and Harmony to be respected and maintained, there is a duty to obey its laws, to give it its due in some way. This is what is right. If this order is not respected, an injustice is created, a kind of break that must be corrected, repaired. St. Thomas Aquinas will define justice with this simple phrase: « give to each his own ». Learn it by heart. There is a kind of duty that must be respected with regard to the different levels of reality: things, men and God. Theologians will speak of natural law. A law that must be obeyed. Be careful, the Messages specify that this duty must be above all a duty done with love,
or, as the Blessed Virgin says:

“accomplish all your other duties too with love, for love, for acts of love are what counts most for Him, no matter how little and insignificant they appear to you, they are of great value in His eyes and thus become great” (February 19, 1987)

« With love, for love« … an expression that appears in about thirty Messages.

« To give or give back to each one what is due to him ».

First of all, « to give God His Own » is what St. Thomas Aquinas says is the virtue of Religion. We must in all simplicity give him back what he has given us. To give thanks. On December 7, 1989, the Lord said:

”realize that I give and ask accordingly, I shall never demand from a soul more than what she can offer, I do not ask more than her capacity offers; I am asking from each one a small return of love, a smile, a thought, a kind word, just one word coming from their heart would be received like a million prayers; this is of considerable importance, even a mere thought … I shall take it ever so preciously”

Whoever acts in this way is acting justly, is right before God, is entering the path of justification. There are obviously many things that we can give to God: respect, praise, honor, thanksgiving, adoration. So when you are in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, you are doing a work of justice, you are giving back to God what is due to Him, adoration. The Eucharist also, as its etymology itself says, eucharistein, means « give thanks » to God.

Justice obviously also applies to interpersonal relationships. We will then speak of social justice, giving to each one what is due to him, loving his neighbor as himself. But dear friends, everything, like a boomerang, must return to its source. Good returns to God, the source of all good, and evil returns to the man who produces it. The evil that we do, that is to say, our sin, produces a kind of debt, as we affirm in the prayer of the Lord’s Prayer: « Forgive us our debts » (Mt 6:12). It is important to remember this, because

”those of this generation have gone as far as to believe, that the calamities that befall on them now come from Me; they have never understood how evil draws evil and that they are paying now from their own coin” (October 5, 1988).

That is why the Lord warns us in such a way as to shake us from our blindness and our lethargy. On September 1st, 1987 He tells us:

”creature, since the beginning of times, I have shown My Love to mankind, but I have also shown My Justice too; each time My creation rebelled against Me and My Law, I hardened at Heart, My Heart grieved by their iniquities… My Chalice of Justice is full, creation! My Justice lies heavily upon you! unite and return to Me, honour Me creation! when you will, then I too will lift My Justice; My cries resound and shake the entire heavens leaving all My angels trembling for what has to come, I am a God of Justice and My Eyes have grown weary watching hypocrisy, atheism, immorality; My creation has become, in its decadence, a replica of what Sodom was; I will thunder you with My Justice as I have thundered the Sodomites; repent, creation, before I come”

Now, dear friends, in front of this Justice whose Chalice is full, Mercy is ready to remove it totally and definitively, if we want it. Mercy cannot stand by with its arms folded, unwilling to act. As the Apostle James says: ”mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13):

”I am not menacing you, I am warning you out of love; just like a father who warns his child, and who tries to reason with him, bringing him back to his senses, I, too, am trying to reason with you and show how wrong and misled some of you are, and how sins can obstruct My Light” (December 3, 1988)

Yes, because the TLIG is a work of Mercy: ”bring this work of Mercy We are giving you across the world” (September 27, 1995)

God is practically moved to act by seeing us so miserably lost in this world. He will say it to Vassula, but of course he says it to each of us: ”your wretchedness compels My Mercy to immerse you” (October 20, 1994). And again: ” My compassion on you was so great that it compelled My Mercy to be gracious to you to save you, by means of the cleansing water of rebirth and by renewing you with the Holy Spirit” (September 8, 2002)

God’s mercy is therefore at our doors, insistent, great and unfathomable, incomparable and infinite. It is entirely at our disposal so that we may benefit from it, so that it may heal us, and… so that it may remove this debt of sin: ”come and seek Me in simplicity of the heart, do not remain in debt to your sin, ask for forgiveness and I shall forgive you” (June 19, 1995) So you understand why repentance, reconciliation is what forgives our debts. And so you understand that it is also our own acts of mercy that remove any debt. Mercy, Compassion, Love are the tipp ex, the eraser, the cleaner of our debts.

There are many messages that remind us of this:

”the love and the repentance I receive from these souls console My Wounded Heart and appease My Father’s Justice and relent Him; relent Him, for He sees your efforts and indeed takes in consideration all your good intentions; you are not many, but even for those very few ones, My Father’s Hand is relenting” (November 6, 1989)

”let your love extinguish My Flare of Justice, let your prayers from your heart soothe My Wounds, let your prayers rise in Heaven like incense, glorifying Me and praising Me” (April 5, 1989)

”ah how your words of love appease My Justice! every drop of  love counts, innumerable souls can be saved by love” (July 17, 1989)

”I desire love, love to efface injustice, love to repair the damage inflicted upon My Church, love to feed My starved lambs, love to repay evil, love to quench My insatiable thirst” (March 3, 1989)

”every time you tell Me I love you, I overlook all your wretchedness, letting it pass by and stop My divine Justice from striking you, Vassula, for indeed you are wretched beyond words; you soothe My anger by telling Me you love Me” (October 5, 1987)

How many times a day do I tell God that I love Him? How many times a day do I respond to injustice with love, instead of always lamenting « it’s not fair, it’s really too unfair »?

In the end, the reminder of divine Justice, so often present in the Messages, should push us, almost compel us, because of Love, to convert ourselves by becoming love, by doing acts of love. Because too often the Apocalypse is seen from the point of view of retribution, of punishment, which is certainly true, it is obvious, but only from time to time do we interpret it from the point of view of inciting us to more charity, to more compassion and mercy, to more acts of love. The apocalypse is the story of Christ’s decisive victory in time, but above all of the final victory of Love over evil.

I will stop here, because I have only developed one aspect of divine Justice, giving to each one his own. But there are other aspects that we could meditate on, such as defining the Justice of God as simply the Will of God. What God wants is right. Let us therefore ask the Lord that during this retreat the hunger and thirst for Justice may increase in us, desiring to increase our conversion, desiring to participate in His salvific plan through His work of Mercy. Let us not hesitate to ask Him for a new
resurrection of hearts:

”I have raised you to appease the Father’s Justice; I have raised you to embellish My Church […] you are to relent the Father’s Justice by adoring Me, by praying, by penance, sacrifice, fasting and by reducing your size; you have no merits but your humble plea can reach the Father” (March 4, 1992).