Among the followers of Jesus,
there are those who particularly stand out.
Not because they called attention
or because they were in evidence,
but because they gave Jesus
that indispensable support, without which
the Master wouldn't have carried out
His glorious mission
among the hearts on Earth.
And here we refer
to the women who followed Jesus.
They are those anonymous servants,
who, despite not having occupied
the stages of the Good News,
offered affection, support,
housing, material resources...
They followed Jesus
up to the painful moments of the cross,
side by side, consoling, crying,
suffering with Him...
And there is one character in particular
who is called Joanna of Chuza.
She's portrayed in chapter 15
of the book "Boa Nova", by Humberto de Campos.
There are two references to Joanna of Chuza
in all of the New Testament.
The first one is in chapter 8
of the Gospel of Luke.
Chapter 8 of the Gospel of Luke says this,
verse 1 to verse 3:
"And it came to pass, after that,
that He would go by every town and village,
proclaiming and evangelizing
the Kingdom of God.
The twelve were with Him,
and a few women that had been healed
of evil spirits and infirmities:
Mary, called Magdalene,
from whom 7 daemons came out;
Joanna, wife of Chuza,
Herod’s steward;
Susanna, and many others,
who served Him with their possessions.”
With their possessions.
Interesting reference to Joanna of Chuza
next to Mary of Magdala, Susanna,
who is a character
we hardly know anything about...
And further ahead, on chapter 24
of the same Gospel of Luke,
there's yet another reference
to Joanna of Chuza.
It's when
Mary Magdalene returns from the sepulchre
with the news that
Jesus had ressuscitated.
And then verse 9 says:
"When they returned from the sepulchre,
they told all of these things to the eleven
and to all those who remained..."
The 11 apostles,
because Judas had already committed suicide.
"They were Mary Magdalene and Joanna.
Mary, mother of James,
and the others were with them.
They said those things to the apostles,
but before them
those words seemed foolish
and they did not believe in them..."
So it's the second reference
of the New Testament to Joanna of Chuza.
We only have two references.
For that reason,
the recap done by Humberto de Campos
is quite valuable.
Because, from reading the New Testament,
the only thing we know
is that Joanna was wife of Chuza,
a steward of Herod's.
It's Humberto de Campos
that will go back in time,
will return to the Galilee
of the first century
and will bring a huge amount
of information about Joanna of Chuza.
Here it’s important we say
who Herod was.
Herod was a king,
to whom Rome handed out
part of the territory of Palestine
and Herod administered
part of that territory.
Naturally,
since it was a very large area,
it needed administrators,
solicitors, people
who could help.
Herod, then, represented,
in that region, the Roman Empire.
And Chuza, we know this
from the Gospel of Luke,
was one of those administrators
of king Herod’s.
There are certain events
involving Herod that are very sad.
Involving Herod and his family.
The first very sad event
involves the tetrarch, it’s the persecution
and murder of children,
after he had known,
through the three wise men,
the three magic kings of the time,
that the Messiah had been born.
That’s already the first tragic incident
involving Herod’s family,
and there were several kings, right?
From Herod, the Great,
to several others.
The second very sad incident
is the beheading of John the Baptist,
Jesus’ precursor.
Once again involving that family.
And there’ll be an episode even more...
unpleasant, even darker,
which is the moment when
Jesus is sent to Herod,
he has Jesus dressed in red,
gives him a cane,
representing a scepter,
and then places the crown of thorns
on Jesus’ head,
which reveals that Herod’s government,
his administration,
the manner in which he deals
with the responsibilities
that the Divine Providence
places in his hands
was not an adequate manner.
Not only Herod, the Great,
but all of his successors
have to show for them so many mistakes,
a cruel administration
that explores the people,
that submits the people to suffering,
to unprecedent tyranny.
And it’s good to remember that although Herod
was connected to the Roman Empire
and represented the Roman Empire,
he was Jewish from birth.
Right?
He was connected to the Hebrew people,
which makes his conduct even more serious
and his administration of even more consequence.
What’s certain is that Joanna’s husband,
whose name was Chuza,
was an administrator of Herod’s,
was connected to that administration
of the Roman Empire.
And from that information already
we begin to have an idea
of what Joanna’s life was probably like,
of the challenges she faced,
the difficulties, because her house
was connected to politics.
It was a house that welcomed, naturally,
every day,
powerful people, people from the army,
politicians from all regions,
possibly including
King Herod himself,
representatives of the Roman Empire...
So that already reveals
intense political activity
at Joanna’s house,
the relationships they had
with the high society of the time
and the financial condition of that family.
Here we will have
a quick reference by Luke
that Joanna is one of those
who supported Jesus’ work
materially,
because she was from a wealthy family.
Because it was connected to Herod
and to the Roman Empire.
It’s important... We’re highlighting that,
because it’s very difficult,
and we learn that
in “The Gospel According to Spiritism”,
the trial of material richness.
It’s a very delicate trial,
because many spirits,
upon receiving that task,
upon being endowed
with material resources,
many times...
The temptations are countless
to make them forget
their spiritual origins,
make them forget
the spiritual roots of their existences
and mainly their spiritual programming.
Because material richness
allows for
many distractions to the spirit.
Amenities, resources,
possibilities, influences...
All of that can make our conscience numb,
as well as the ties that connect us
to spiritual realities.
So it is indeed a great trial,
the trial of material richness.
Let us imagine material richness
connected yet to power.
Material richness connected to politics,
to political influence,
to manoeuvres of power.
It’s a double trial.
And despite all those temptations,
despite all those amenities,
all those appeals, Joanna of Chuza
will be a faithful follower of Jesus.
That’s commendable.
This fact by itself already reveals
her spiritual greatness
and the greatness of Joanna of Chuza’s heart,
because even having been born
to a wealthy family,
having had access to all resources of the time,
she has enough sensibility
to hear Jesus’ message,
she can still be touched.
Besides being touched, she begins to act
firmly, following Jesus,
supporting the project of the Gospel
financially,
supporting other followers of Jesus
and intensely working
to spread the Good News.
So that’s important, right?
The way she could manage
those two worlds. Those two worlds...
There’s yet another great woman
we know of,
that countess
on “The Gospel According to Spiritism”.
Kardec mentions her as an example
when he speaks of charity.
Although she belonged to the court,
although she had access to all resources,
she would leave with her carriage,
look for the needy ones
without being asked,
give them material help, give them affection...
And it’s an example of charity.
And Joanna was that first one.
Despite being endowed
with all those resources,
she knew how to keep the flame of her faith,
of her spiritual faithfulness lit.
And what does Humberto de Campos tell us
about this amazing woman?
On chapter 15
of the book “Boa Nova”,
Humberto de Campos uses...
he uses such words...
beautiful words to describe Joanna of Chuza.
He will say this:
when Jesus preached
along the Lake of Gennesaret, the Sea of Galilee,
“there was always a woman
of rare dedication and noble character.”
Two qualifiers, right?
“Rare dedication and noble character,
of the most highly situated
in the society of Capernaum.
So she represented the economical,
political, social elite
of the small village of Capernaum.
And he tells more.
That she was married to Chuza,
Herod Antipas’ steward.
And there Chuza administered
commerce, relations,
because Galilee was an agricultural region
that provided fish,
provided fruit and vegetables
to all of Judaea.
So it was a region
of intense production,
which provided for all of Judaea,
He managed it.
Interesting, right?
And here
Humberto de Campos will say
that Joanna’s husband
could not stand the Master’s doctrine.
Imagine that! He was dead set against
the message of Jesus,
so we can already tell from this
what was Joanna of Chuza’s drama.
A devoted wife,
a devoted mother,
a follower of Jesus
of “rare dedication and noble character”,
but who has, in her own house,
a husband who is an antagonist,
someone
who doesn’t understand her message,
doesn’t understand her dedication,
doesn’t even understand
what Jesus is saying
and is set against it.
We cannot even condemn Chuza,
because Jesus’ message was, in fact,
very cutting-edge
to someone who worked
for the Roman Empire.
To someone connected to the Roman Empire
and its interests,
Jesus’ message
was way too cutting-edge.
It would be asking too much
that this man, totally connected
to material interests,
totally focused
on the interests of the Empire,
understood a message
that was genuinely spiritual,
that spoke of a kingdom which was not Rome,
that spoke of a reign
which was purely spiritual.
So that was Joanna’s challenge.
The situation then became
so unbearable to Joanna,
because now she had to reconcile
the understanding
she had of the Gospel,
the need she felt
to accompany and follow Jesus,
to hear Jesus’ preachings,
with the demands of Roman society.
The Romans had a domestic cult,
they worshipped their ancestors
who had died,
through statues, at home,
and they had to worship
the Roman Emperor like a god.
The religion that grew the most
at the time of Jesus
was the cult of the Roman Emperor.
The Roman Emperor was adored
like a god.
He had temples, priests, statues,
and the greatest part of Roman society
was asked to adore the Emperor.
That seems strange to us today,
because today we
see governors,
people invested
with political authority
as human beings, just like us,
with great responsibilities.
But it doesn’t cross our minds
to consider someone invested with power
as a god.
We have outgrown that.
But not at Jesus’ time.
At that time, Caesar demanded,
demanded adoration.
And many even died.
One of the reasons, or excuses
that were given
for the persecution of Christians
and their death at the circus,
was the fact that they
didn’t adore Caesar like a god
and adored Jesus instead.
And Caesar’s great request,
Caesar’s great claim
was that Christians gave up
adoring God and following Jesus
and began
to adore the Roman Emperor.
So it’s challenging.
We can imagine Joanna’s struggle,
because, after all,
it was her husband,
the father of her children,
the person with whom
she built a life...
Home and marriage
brought many joys to her,
made many of her female dreams come true.
She had received a lot
from family and marriage.
And now, at that decisive moment
of her spiritual story,
she was fiercely antagonized
by her companion.
So we notice,
in Joanna of Chuza’s story,
a feminine drama.
A typical wife-and-mother drama,
of that brave woman,
who always has love, affection,
devotion to offer inside her home
and that, at that crucial moment of her life,
faces a great challenge.
That hurt so much
Joanna’s sensitive soul
that she looked for Jesus.
She goes to the little house
of Simon Peter at Capernaum,
in the village of Capernaum,
and exposes to Jesus all her fears,
all her anguish,
all her longings, her dreams...
And what embarrassed Joanna the most?
How to reconcile marriage
with the new faith.
Keeping the faith that Jesus taught,
keeping on following, listening to His preachings
and exemplifying the Gospel,
or starting a process
of antagonism inside her home?
Opposing her husband,
showing him the truth,
lashing out at Chuza
and proving to him
that the Gospel is true...
That was her drama.
Joanna’s first impulse,
says Humberto de Campos,
was to lash out at her husband.
And to prove to him
that the Gospel was right.
That’s the first impulse we have
at the contact of truth; after all,
she had contact with Jesus.
After walking by Jesus’ side,
it’s very difficult to remain silent,
it’s very difficult to contain the impulse
to go out and tell everybody
of the conviction
that inflames your soul.
Because someone
who follows Jesus side by side
witnesses extraordinary events.
How many cures didn’t she witness?
How many extraordinary facts
didn’t she witness?
How many wonderful lectures
of the Master Himself didn’t she attend?
And what do you do with that?
What do you do
with that enthusiasm?
What do you do with that conviction,
with that flame burning inside your heart?
Our first impulse
is to transform our faith, to transform
our conviction into a sword to hurt people.
To transform the truth
into a tool to bend the knees
of our fellowmen.
To convince our fellowmen
of that we already know for sure.
And she believed that was the path,
she believed
that was the solution to her drama.
Showing the strength of the Gospel
through a more intense action.
But then...
She hears from Jesus
a couple of things
that we should read attentively.
There’s something
very special in the book “Boa Nova”...
Many times I asked myself
why didn’t Emmanuel himself
write “Boa Nova”?
Why didn’t Emmanuel himself,
the author of “Two Thousand Years Ago”,
“Paul and Stephen”,
write those stories?
And here,
the first thing we conclude
is the importance of the Law of Cooperation,
we cannot
do it on our own.
All the works that last,
all the truly spiritual works
are done by many hands.
The Law of Cooperation is a theme
in the divine creation.
Emmanuel looks for a member
of the Brazilian Academy of Letters,
Humberto de Campos,
a master of short-stories...
And, quite frankly,
I am absolutely convinced
that this work of Humberto de Campos,
and I'm not exaggerating here,
should receive the Nobel Peace Prize of Literature.
The neatness in the sentences, the beauty
with which Humberto de Campos
portrays characters, sceneries,
the genuine form with which
he portrays Jesus’ speeches
is of a spiritual beauty
of the highest level.
And here, look at Jesus’ answer to Joanna:
“Joanna,
there is only God, which is our Father.”
“There is only one God, which is our Father.”
“And there is only one faith
for our relations with His love.”
Folks, this is very deep.
Look...
Jesus is telling Joanna,
he’s telling her again, restating
the basic principle of Jewish monotheism,
which is “there’s only one God” and “God is one”.
And for us, creatures, to have a relationship
with the love of God,
look how interesting this is...
For us to get in touch
with the love of God,
there is one faith. Faith is unique.
So I can be a Spiritist, a Protestant,
a Catholic, a Buddhist, it doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter.
The only way human creatures
can relate to the love of God
is through faith, and that faith is unique.
There’s only one faith. Faith is a feeling.
Faith is a feeling that springs from the heart
of all of God’s creatures.
It doesn’t matter the language they speak,
it doesn’t matter the latitude where they live,
it doesn’t matter the culture they born into,
it doesn’t matter the belief they profess.
The feeling is one. It is one.
So we feel that here
Jesus is already soothing
Joanna’s heart:
“Joanna, the feeling is the same.”
Let’s look at the feeling.
Then He says:
“Certain religious manifestations
in the world, many times,
are nothing but popular addiction
to exterior habits.
All temples of the Earth are made of stone.”
Look...
So first Jesus spoke to her
of the essence,
spoke of the feeling that connects us
to the love of God,
and that feeling is unique
for all human creatures,
but what about the feeling's expression?
The feeling's expression
is endless.
Because every human creature expresses love
in a way.
Each person has his or her own way
to express feelings.
And the religions of the world
are expressions of the religious feeling,
expressions of the faith
and are particular manners
men have created
to relate to the love of God.
Expressions that are not always pure,
because human beings
have perverted all expressions of feelings,
and religion was not left out.
So here Jesus
calls Joanna’s attention:
"Joanna, all temples of the Earth
are made of stone."
What does that mean?
It means that all temples of the world
get worn out and are transformed.
Everything that’s made of brick, sand,
cement, stone, is going to end.
We build something, it lives for a while
and then it ends.
Only feeling remains.
The only things that last
are the spiritual acquisitions
we have made inside the temples.
So religious temples function
as schools that educate the souls.
Temples get worn out,
acquisitions remain.
He says:
“I come...”
Some of Jesus’ sentences
are so strong, aren’t they?
“I come in the name of God...”
Look!
“...to open the temple of the living faith
in the heart of men.”
Look! It’s as if Jesus were
saying to Joanna: “Joanna,
I haven’t come to build one more temple of stone.
It's over!
I have come to open the temple of the living faith
in the heart of men.”
Living faith.
To build inside of every heart.
“Between the sincere disciple of the Gospel
and the millenary errors of the world,
the bloodless combat
of spiritual redemption
begins to take place.
There’s an important sentence here.
“Between the disciple of the Gospel
and the millenary errors of the world...”
There starts a combat, a war,
but it’s not a war against other people,
not a war in which blood is shed,
it’s an inner war.
Inner.
And what’s it called?
It’s called “spiritual redemption”.
For us to understand the dimension of that,
for us to understand the dimension,
we only have to think this:
before Jesus came, all of us
already had thousands and thousands and thousands
of reincarnatory experiences.
Right? So today,
if we ask people:
“What’s your name?”
“My name is John,
my name’s Peter, my name’s Francis...”
But how many personalities
have you been on Earth?
Who are you really?
Funny, isn’t it?
We have been hundreds
and hundreds of people.
We have spoken so many languages
that we even lose count.
We have lived in so many different cultures...
Who in fact are we?
What are our tendencies?
What are our habits from thousands
and thousands of years?
When we got in touch with the Gospel,
a small light began to light up,
but contrary to that light
there are thousands of years of darkness.
So there’s a struggle.
There’s a struggle.
And the great enemies of our soul
are inside of us, not outside.
They’re inside.
We run the risk of falling,
of compromising
our reincarnation
not because of others,
but because of ourselves.
It’s the risk of repeating the past.
It’s the risk of forgetting
that today you are John and start behaving
like the Francis of a thousand years ago.
So look!
What is spiritual redemption?
We looked for a message
to help understand those words
Jesus is saying to Joanna:
“spiritual redemption”.
We went to the book
“The Way, the Truth and the Life”,
dictated by Emmanuel,
psychographed by Chico,
in chapter 104.
Chapter 104 is entitled
“The Symbolic Sword”
and it’s a comment Emmanuel makes
of Matthew, chapter 10, verse 34:
“Do not suppose I have come to bring peace to the Earth,
I have not come to bring peace, but the sword.”
A strong statement Jesus made:
“I have not come to bring peace, but the sword.”
So the benefactor comments:
“Countless readers of the Gospel
are disturbed when faced with those statements
of the Divine Master,
for the concept of peace
among men, for many centuries,
was viscerally perverted.
In the common expression, having peace means
having acquired outward guarantees...”
To have peace, I need a house.
To have peace, I need so much
in my bank account.
To have peace, I need physical health.
To have peace, I need this and that.
Outward guarantees.
“…which can allow the body to vegetate
without care,
and man to surround himself with servants,
rotting in idleness
and retreating from the movement of life.
Jesus could not endorse
such kind of tranquility,
and in opposition
to the false principle established in the world,
he brought the regenerative struggle with himself.”
Regenerative struggle
or the struggle of inner regeneration.
“The symbolic sword
of inner knowledge
through divine revelation.”
How come,
“inner knowledge
through divine revelation”?
It’s what Jesus is saying to Joanna:
“I have come to install the temple
in the heart of men."
When Jesus installs
this “temple of the living faith
in the heart of men”,
we begin to receive revelations
not from the outside, but the inside.
So most spirits
look for a medium
to reveal things to them:
“Look, you were So and So,
this is going to happen in your incarnation…
You have a job to do…
But the true revelation
happens inside the heart
of each one of us,
when we edify the living faith.
Because, when we edify the living faith,
God speaks in us, not with words,
but through feelings.
Nobody speaks. You feel.
You feel you have to do something.
You feel that’s what you’re committed to.
You feel you have to walk
in that direction.
You feel that people who are...
You feel that people
who are around you
are the people that Divine Providence
has placed at your side,
they’re the most adequate
to our inner improvement.
You feel that everything
is right with your life.
Everything’s right.
It’s an inner revelation.
Inner. Why?
Like Auta de Souza says:
“Return to your abandoned inner temple,
the highest of all chapels.
Listen to your heart in every prayer.
God answers in you...”
Not through someone else’s mouth,
but in yourself.
“God answers in you and enlightens you
with the eternal force of consolation.
You will then understand the pain that dominates you,
under the pure and wandering language
of God’s voice in light of redemption.”
It’s Joanna’s case.
So came to Jesus
in search of outward peace,
in search of peace in marriage,
outward peace.
She came full of doubts,
because she believed
that the religion Jesus was bringing
was a religion of outward cults.
She believed
the temple Jesus wanted to build
was a temple of stone,
but the true work of the Gospel
does not happen outside, but inside.
It’s an inner temple.
And in that inner temple
you only experience peace
when you’re struggling.
It sounds like a paradox.
True disciples of the Gospel
only experience peace when they are
fighting with themselves.
But fighting for what?
Fighting to tame their bad inclinations,
not fighting another person.
The other person’s time will come.
The other person’s calling will come.
Yours is now.
Yours is today.
The other person’s calling is tomorrow,
maybe...
Like a friend of ours says,
Ricardo Wardil, a homeopathic doctor,
“He who opens other people’s eyes is God.”
Nobody's task
is to open other people’s eyes.
The most we can do
is to open our own eyes
and therefore move,
move our neighbor.
It’s the most we can do...
That’s what Jesus
was trying to say to Joanna.
Look at what Emmanuel says:
“The symbolic sword
of inner knowledge,
through divine revelation,
so that man can start
the battle of improvement within himself.”
Within himself.
“The Master came to install
the combat of redemption on Earth.”
Look at the word “redemption” again.
That’s why we read this message,
because of the word “redemption”.
Once again the word “redemption”.
Not like an outward struggle,
but the liberation of our own selves.
Liberation from whom?
We are trying
to evolve spiritually,
but there are certain mistakes
we have been making
for 40 incarnations...
That has become an addiction.
It’s like when you see people
who are addicted to drugs.
They’re not strong enough to free themselves.
It’s a struggle.
When people addicted to crack
check into a clinic, it’s a struggle.
It’s a battle.
Because addiction has taken over them.
It’s the same with us.
We have inner addictions
that have taken over us,
they command us.
We bow to those addictions,
so we need a sword to fight,
but not a sword
to wound our neighbor.
It’s the sword of spiritual knowledge,
of inner knowledge
so the inner struggle happens within us.
That's what Jesus
was telling Joanna:
“Joanna, calm down.
The only fight you have to fight
is against yourself, not against Chuza,
not against your husband.
Let him be, understand him...”
It’s what He will say:
“Between the sincere disciple of the Gospel
and the millenary errors of the world,
a bloodless combat begins to be fought,
the combat of spiritual redemption.
Thank the Lord for having considered you worthy
of the good work, from this moment on.”
Look!
“Your husband does not understand
your sensitive soul?
He will one day.
He is flighty and indifferent?
Love him just the same.
You would not find yourself connected to him...
You would not find yourself connected to him,
if there was not a fair reason for that.
By serving him with amorous devotion...
By serving him with amorous devotion,
you will be fulfilling God’s will.”
Look, that’s curious...
Because we understand it like this:
“I have to start a Spiritist group,
I have to found a Spiritist group
for 2.000 people in Belo Horizonte.
That’s God’s will.
Yes, it could be.
But God’s will may also be
the wife or husband you have at home.
Understanding, loving and serving.
That’s what Jesus is telling Joanna:
“You tell me of your fears
and your doubts.
Because of the Gospel, you should love him even more.
The healthy ones do not need doctors.
Besides, we cannot gather grapes
from thistles...” Thornbushes.
“... but we can love the ground
which has produced poisonous thistles
so we can cultivate on the same ground
the wonderful vine of love and life.
So wait a minute.
If someone is producing thorns today,
will the ground of that person’s heart
produce thorns for all eternity?
No.
No. The person’s heart
may be producing thorns today,
but tomorrow it will produce grapes.
Tomorrow it will produce
what is best.
It’s just a matter of time.
Then she speaks to Him...
“Master, your word relieves
my tormented spirit;
however, I find great difficulty
in mutual understanding.
In other words: “My husband and I...
we can’t get along.”
“Is it not right to fight
to impose your principles?
Acting that way,
will I not be reforming my husband
to Heaven and to your kingdom?”
So she said:
“It’s my responsibility.
I will reform him!
I’ll convince him! I’ll change him.”
Look at what Jesus says:
“Who will find it more difficult
to reach out a helping hand?
The one who reached the safe margins
of knowledge with the Father,
or the one who still struggles
in the waves of ignorance
or desolation, inconstancy,
or indolence of spirit?”
Who can lend a hand?
Those who have saved themselves
or those who are drowning?
How can we demand
from spirits who are drowning
that they reach out their hands,
that they understand?
Those who have understood the Gospel
are called to comprehend,
because they have reached the margin,
they are safe already.
They should understand.
“‘As far as imposing one’s ideas’,
Jesus went on, stressing out
the importance of His words:
‘For what reason does not God impose
His truth and His love
on the tyrants of the Earth?’”
God could gather up all humans
who rule planet Earth
and impose truth and love on them.
Couldn’t He? Does He have power for that?
Yes, anytime He wants.
Why doesn’t He do it?
Why doesn’t God impose
love and truth?
“Why does not he strike with lightning
the soulless conqueror
who spreads out misery and destruction
with the sinister forces of war?”
Why doesn’t God eliminate
the tyrant, the perverse?
"The heavenly wisdom
does not exterminate passions,
but transforms them.”
Look!
So here we learn with Jesus
that no characteristic
of our personality will be destroyed,
however bad it is.
No characteristic
of our personality will be destroyed.
It will be transformed.
So the energy that assassins
use to kill
will be transformed one day,
and they will use that energy
in order to do good,
but the energy will not be destroyed.
That energy will be preserved.
The anxious, disordely person,
who does everything out of turn,
who can’t wait...
That energy will be transformed
and that creature will be the one
who has initiative, who acts at the right time,
who has the impulse to act.
It’s the same energy, only administrated.
So look what
Jesus is telling her,
nothing in Chuza would be destroyed,
no characteristic of her husband’s
would be destroyed.
The passions and characteristics of Chuza
would be transformed.
“The one who sowed the world with corpses
wakes up to God, sometimes,
with only one tear.”
Human creatures
who, after a lifetime of mistakes,
mend all their incarnation and their soul
thanks to a disease.
We don’t know.
Sometimes you have a warrior
who sews corpses on a field,
and all it takes is a disease
for him to regret it already.
Why?
Because many times that violence of his
results from spiritual frailty,
from low self-esteem,
from insecurity.
All it takes is pain
to transform that creature.
And God knows our hearts, right?
“The Father does not impose reform on his children.”
Look what Jesus is saying.
God does not impose on anyone:
"Now you have to regenerate!"
No.
“... He enlightens them at the right moment.”
“Joanna, the apostolate of the Gospel
is of collaboration with Heaven
in the great principles of redemption.
Be faithful to God,
loving your companion in the world
as if he were your son.
Do not waste your time discussing
what is not reasonable.”
In other words,
only discuss when it’s important,
then you discuss.
When it’s not reasonable, not important,
do not discuss it.
“God does not fight battles
with his creatures
and works in silence
for all Creation."
Imagine that!
If God would come and:
“Do you doubt me?
You don’t have faith in me?
I’m here, let’s talk!”
Imagine if God would
start quarrelling with us...
No.
"God does not fight battles
with His creatures
and works in silence.”
God does not make noise.
And we want to take over God’s role
and transform people.
Here Jesus is saying:
“No, Joanna. We have to be
merely collaborators of God,
He’s the one who will transform people.
We will only collaborate.”
But since God works in silence,
we have to learn
to work in silence as well.
Work in silence
for our transformation
and for the transformation of those
whom we love.
Work in silence, without fuss,
no pushing furniture around, no fighting,
no arguments, no battles,
silently.
“Go!
Exert yourself...
Go! Exert yourself as well, in silence.
God works in silence,
exert yourself in silence as well.
For all...
Exert yourself in silence as well.
And when asked to explain something,
utter the sweet
or vigorous verb...”
Look.
Sweetness or energy, use them both.
"...the sweet or vigorous verb of salvation..."
Not the sweet or vigorous verb of destruction,
because sometimes our sweet talk
is meant to destroy someone.
How many parents don’t get their children addicted
with too much sweetness?
And how many people
don’t spoil their affections
and their relationships
with too much harshness?
So use the sweet and vigorous verb
of salvation, not of destruction.
“... according to the circumstances.”
That is, each circumstance
requires one thing.
“Go back home and love your companion,
love your companion
as the divine material
Heaven has placed on your hands,
so that you insculpt a work
of life, wisdom and love.
Go, daughter! Be faithful!
Go, daughter! Be faithful!”
Be faithful to God, right?
Look! Be faithful to God. Then she went...
What happened?
She followed Jesus...
Jesus was crucified...
Jesus gave the example of faithfulness to God
in the most serious moments...
Mary of Nazareth, who was the mother of Jesus,
on whose side Joanna always was,
gave the example of resignation,
because Mary saw her son
being crucified.
So she saw Mary setting the example,
seeing her son there being crucified
and accepting the divine will.
Then a storm hit Joanna’s home.
Political intrigue, persecutions,
Herod’s death...
The situation changed.
He lost his material wealth,
he went through a major setback...
Expiation knocked on the door
of Joanna of Chuza’s house.
After much suffering,
her companion got sick...
Look! The whole process
of softening her husband’s heart.
He lost
everything he believed in:
material goods, political influence,
physical health...
and ended up discarnating.
And to top it all off,
Joanna of Chuza and her son, in Rome,
were arrested and driven to martyrdom.
Taken to the Circus Maximus
to be assassinated
by Nero, the emperor.
In the year 68 A.D.,
Joanna of Chuza is driven to martyrdom
and we have an impressive scene.
What was the last sentence uttered by Jesus
to Joanna of Chuza? “Go, daughter! Be faithful!”
“Be faithful!”
Joanna of Chuza is tied to a post,
Joanna’s son is tied to a post,
they begin to burn up the post
she is tied up to,
so that the two of them are burned to death.
When the flames start rising,
Joanna’s son, in despair,
says to his mother:
“...in tears:
‘Deny Jesus, my mother!
Do not you see we lose ourselves?
Deny him for me, your son!”
Oh my!
Have you imagined a son asking you:
“Mom! Deny him! I’m gonna die, mom!”
“Deny him, for me, your son!”
So at that moment,
Humberto de Campos tells us,
Joanna of Chuza experienced the strongest pain
of her whole life.
Because motherly love is all about
protecting one’s children until death,
if necessary.
It’s the maternal instinct.
To die, if necessary,
to protect one’s children.
And now, Joanna of Chuza had to reach
for spiritual energy deep inside her heart,
to keep herself loyal. Loyal to her faith.
Loyal to the living faith in the temple of the heart.
That was the test.
The test, the combat. The good combat.
The test of spiritual redemption
of Joanna of Chuza.
Once that test was behind her,
she would attain spiritual victory,
which is victory over ourselves.
So what does she say?
“For the first time, from the martyr's eyes,
the abundant fountain of tears runs down...”
Until then
she had not cried.
Imagine the strength of that woman!
At that moment,
she begins to cry abundantly.
The pleas of the son
are swords of anguish
that tear her heart out.”
As if they were cutting up
her maternal heart.
“‘Deny! Deny!’
Joanna hears those cries,
recalling her whole existence...”
A movie starts to play in her mind.
“The cheerful and festive home,
the hours of happiness,
the domestic disappointments,
her desperation,
her death, her widowhood,
her desolation and her strongest needs.”
Because, after her husband’s death,
Joanna of Chuza lost everything
and saw herself forced to work hard
to support herself and her son.
Many even criticized her for it.
A high-society woman working?
At that time,
working was dishonorable.
Dishonorable.
And she works hard.
“Then Joanna
finds strength deep inside her soul
and says:
“Be still, my son!
Jesus was pure
and did not disdain sacrifice.
Let us know how to suffer at this painful hour,
because above all passing joys
of the world,
we must be faithful to God.”
Upon hearing that sentence,
the soldier approaches Joanna
and says:
“‘Has your Christ only taught you
how to die?’,
one of the executioners asked her.
The old disciple,
concentrating all her capacity
to resist,
still had the strength to mumble:
‘Not only to die,
but also to love you.’
At that moment,
she felt the consoling hands of the Master
softly touched her shoulders
and heard the sweet
and unforgettable voice:
‘Joanna! Be cheerful.
Here I am.’”
And she returns to the spirit world.
That’s the story
of this great female martyr,
Joanna of Chuza.