CHAPTER 63

That the Church is figured by the members of Jesus Christ. How we must act toward those members which are diseased, and in regard to our Superior.

AS THE Saint prayed for another person, the Lord Jesus, the King of Glory, appeared to her, showing her, under the figure of His natural Body the mystical Body of His Church, of which He is the Head and the Spouse. He appeared to have the right side of His Body magnificently clothed with a royal and Divine habit, but the left was uncovered, and seemed all over ulcers. The Saint was instructed by this, that the right side of Our Lord signified the elect who are in His Church, and who have been prevented by special gifts of grace; the left side represented the imperfect, who are still full of vices and imperfections. The ornaments with which the right side of Our Lord was adorned represented the benefits and services which some had rendered by a singular zeal to those whom they knew to be more advanced in virtue than others, and to enjoy more familiarity with God, because, whenever they acted thus, they bestowed, as it were, a new ornament on the Lord. But there are also those who, while they willingly do service to virtuous persons for the love of God, reprehend the faults of the wicked and imperfect with such severity that they increase these wounds instead of healing them.

Our Lord then spoke thus to Gertrude: “Let all learn from My example in this matter how they should heal the wounds of the Church, which is My mystical Body— that is, how they should correct the faults of their neighbors. First, they must touch them gently, and endeavor, by their kind and charitable advice, to withdraw them from their imperfections. When they see that these means are ineffectual, then, in the course of time, they may use stronger remedies to effect their cure. Those who care nothing for My words are they who, while they know of the faults of others, concern themselves so little about them, that they would not correct them, even by a word, for fear of giving themselves the least trouble, saying, with Cain, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ They plaster over My wounds who, instead of trying to heal them, draw them out, and cause them to become corrupt, by allowing the imperfections of their neighbors to continue by their silence, when they might cure them by their words.

“There are others who discover the faults of their neighbors, but give way to anger if they are not corrected and chastised for them at the moment, according to their fancy; and such persons resolve in their hearts never again to advise or reprehend another, imagining that their advice has been disregarded; and yet they will condemn others harshly themselves, even injuring them by untruths, without giving them one word of advice for their amendment. And they who act thus seem as if they placed a plaster on My wounds exteriorly, while interiorly they tear them with burning irons.

“They who neglect to correct the faults of others more from negligence than from malice act as if they trod on My feet. And those who follow the impulses of their own will, without caring how they scandalize My elect, so that they gratify their inclinations, seem to pierce My hands with red-hot needles.

“There are others, also, who sincerely love, as they ought, good and holy Superiors, and who show them every respect by their words and actions, and yet despise those who appear less perfect, and condemn their actions in their own minds too rigorously; and these act as if they adorned the right side of My head with pearls and precious stones, and, at the same time, struck the other side violently and without mercy when I desire to lay it down upon them to rest. There are some also who applaud the ill-regulated actions of their Superiors, in order to insinuate themselves into their friendship, and thus to be permitted more easily to follow their own will; and these act as if they dragged My head back rudely, insulting Me in My suffering, and finding pleasure in My wounds.”