The Book of Heaven
—Unofficial Version—

June 10, 1904

The beauty of man, and his blindness with regard to himself.

Continuing in my usual state, my adorable Jesus came for just a little, all sad and sorrowful, and He told me:  “Ah, my daughter, if man knew himself, oh! how careful he would be not to become stained.  In fact, his beauty, his nobility, his strikingness are such and so great that he encompasses all the beauties and varieties of created things within himself.  And this, because all other things of nature had been created to serve man, and man was to be superior to all of them; so, in order to be superior, he had to encompass all the qualities of the other created things within himself.  Not only this, but since the other things had been created for man, and man for God alone and for His delight, as a consequence he was not only to encompass all creation within himself, but he was to surpass it to the point of receiving the image of the Supreme Majesty within himself.  But in spite of all this, heedless of all these goods, man does nothing but dirty himself with the ugliest filth.”  And He disappeared.

I understood that it happens to us as to a poor woman, who received a garment woven with gold and enriched with gems and precious pearls.  But since she knows little about these things and does not know their value, she keeps the garment exposed to dust; she easily lets it get dirty with mud, and she holds it as she would a rough and inexpensive dress; so much so, that if it is taken away from her, she suffers little or no displeasure.  Such is our blindness with regard to ourselves.