The Book of Heaven
—Unofficial Version—

July 5, 1923

Jesus is presented to Pilate by the Jews. What His Kingdom is.

I was accompanying my suffering Jesus in the hours of the His most bitter Passion, especially when Jesus was presented to Pilate by the Jews, and was accused; and Pilate, not satisfied with the simple accusations they were making against Him, returned to question Him in order to find a reason sufficient to condemn Him or to release Him.  And Jesus, beginning to speak in my interior, told me:  “My daughter, everything in my Life is profound mystery and sublime teachings in which man must reflect himself in order to imitate Me.  You must know that the pride of the Jews was so great - especially in the false sanctity they professed, because of which they were held as upright and conscientious men - that they believed that by just presenting Me themselves, and by saying that they had found Me at fault and guilty to death, Pilate would have to believe them and condemn Me without making them undergo any interrogation; more so, since they were dealing with a gentile judge, who had no knowledge of God, nor a conscience. 

But God disposed things differently in order to confuse them and to teach superiors that, as good and holy as the people who charge a poor accused one may appear, they should not believe them easily, but should almost overwhelm them with many interrogations, to see whether there is truth, or rather, under that appearance of goodness, there is some jealousy, rancor, or the intention to snatch some aspired position or dignity from their superiors by making their way into their hearts.  Scrutiny makes one know people, it confuses them, and shows that one does not trust them.  And in seeing themselves not appreciated, they dismiss their thought of aspiring to positions or of accusing others.  How much harm superiors do when, keeping their eyes closed, trusting in false goodness and not in proven virtue, they assign a position or pay heed to someone who is accusing someone else of some fault.  How humiliated the Jews were left in not being easily believed by Pilate, in going through many interrogations.  And if he surrendered to condemning Me, it was not because he believed them, but because he was forced to, and so as not to lose his position.  This confused them so much that their extreme confusion and profound humiliation remained impressed on their foreheads like a mark; more so, since they noticed more rectitude and more conscience in a gentile judge than in themselves.  How necessary and just scrutiny is - it casts light and calm into the true good, and confusion into the evil. 

And when, wanting to scrutinize Me also, Pilate asked Me:  “Are You king? And where is your kingdom?”, I wanted to give another sublime lesson by saying:  “I am King”.  And I wanted to say:  “But do you know what my Kingdom is?  My Kingdom is my pains, my Blood, my virtues.  This is the true Kingdom which I possess, not outside of Me, but within Me.  What one possesses on the outside is not a true kingdom, nor a safe dominion, because that which is not inside of man can be taken away, usurped, and he will be forced to leave it.  But that which he has inside, no one will be able to take away from him - its dominion will be eternal within him.  The characteristics of my Kingdom are my wounds, the thorns, the Cross.  I do not act like the other kings who make their peoples live outside of them, unsafe, and eventually, even starving.  Not Me - I call my peoples to dwell inside the rooms of my wounds, fortified and sheltered by my pains, their thirst quenched by my Blood, their hunger satisfied by my Flesh.  This alone is true reigning; all other reigns are reigns of slavery, of dangers and of death, while in my Reign there is true life.”

How many sublime teachings, how many profound mysteries in my words.  Each soul should say to herself, in pains and in sufferings, in humiliations and in abandonments by all, and in practicing true virtues:  ‘This is my kingdom, which is not subject to perishing.  No one can take it away from me or touch it.  On the contrary, my kingdom is eternal and divine, similar to that of my sweet Jesus.  My sufferings and pains certify it for me and render my kingdom more fortified and fierce, in such a way that, in the face of my great strength, no one will be able to wage battle against me.’  This is the Kingdom of peace, to which all my children should aspire.”