Summary:
And finally the so desired second chance!
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Chapter:
But God continued, deadpanned:
"Can't you see the irony in all this?
Hydra's golden boy, that's you, will carry the Hydra in himself (or the other way round, it depends on the points of view); but he will be also the Onethat finally will destroy Hydra once and for all, both the organization and the centuries-old monster!"
Ward blinked incredulous.
God continued.
"Yes, you have understood right.
Your mission is to return that creature to the hellfire it belongs to, saving mankind and the Earth from it… about time!
Your second mission is similar to the first: saving all mankind and saving one single soul have the same importance, to Me.
As I have already said, every single soul of yours means more that the entire Universe, to Me, because your soul is eternal, infinite, created in My image and likeness, and through it you are capable of Me.
I try everything in My power, respecting your freedom, to save any and every soul of yours. But sometimes you don't allow me that."
God paused and then continued:
"Your souls are enormously precious: this is why Satan wants to steal them so badly.
About Satan, I must explain you something about him: you need this.
Among the many things the world denies, swollen up with pride and incredulity as it is now, is the power and presence of the devil.
But, on the other side, there are those who very well know he exists, and devote their lives to him. Many of them are very powerful people on Earth.
The atheism which denies Me of course denies as well Lucifer, the one I created and that rebelled against Me, becoming My adversary, the Tempter, the Envious, the Crafty, the Tireless, the one that wants to emulate Me at any cost, because he wanted to be Me.
Lucifer, who became Satan through a sin of pride, even now that he has plunged from the Highest realms, which he dared to assault, into the deep abyss where there is darkness and horror, wanted to establish in his deep realm a copy of the heavenly court and has his ministers and his angels, his lieutenants and his children.
Also, in his manifestations he camouflages himself as a spirit of light, covering his appearance and his thought as the Lowest with deceitful sheaths copied from Me and my Angels, all this to draw you into error.
But those, who really live with their spirits vivified by My Grace, hear the false sound and see beyond the appearance, and by spiritual intuition recognize the Seducer behind the phantom showing itself.
This evidently occurs for those whom the three virtues - Faith, Hope and Love - protect with a holy defense and whom My Grace vivifies. The others - and not just the atheists who deny, but the lukewarm who slumber, the indifferent who do not observe, the thoughtless who do not reflect, and the imprudent who go forward like madmen - cannot see Satan beyond his innocuous or hypocritical appearance, and they become his bait.
Do not deny the existence of Satan, My children who perish from always denying, denying, denying everything!
He is not a fantasy of silly women or a medieval superstition.
He is a true reality.
Satan exists.
Above, I am tireless acting for Good.
Below, Satan is tireless acting for Evil.
The words of the psalm are not a pretty pious phrase, and the Apostle's words are not the fine phrasing of an orator: Satan really roams around you like a roaring lion and acts in darkness to carry you to himself.
He hides in the darkness, even if by now your incredulity, your indifference and your atheism would allow him to act in the light, openly; in fact, you open the gates of your souls wide to him and with your unbridled desires say to him:
'Come in. If I get what I want in this earthly hour, I'll make you the lord of myself.'
If it wasn't this way, you could not live, like you live, lives which cause Me and My saints, servants, and children horror.
Remember that metaphorically, artificially, and in reality Satan acts deceitfully in darkness. He coils around you with the windings and subtleties of a snake lying in ambush in thick bush.
Although he sees you already so torn away from Me, he still does not dare to present himself face to face and say:
'It's me. I love you. Follow me,'
for he knows you are cowards in evil as in good, even if, as I said, there are still a few bold ones among you who in this explicit encounter dare to say:
'I'm coming to you. Be my lord and give me what I want'.
Instead, the majority of you is hypocritical even in evil and, while desiring Satan's help, you do not dare to confess this desire.
But Satan has no need for words.
His glance pierces your hearts, as Mine does.
I see your lust for Satanism; he sees the same thing and acts.
After having tried to destroy My Christ by tempting Him, the Church by giving it periods of darkness like now, Christianity with schisms, and civil society with sects, now, on the eve of his manifestation, Satan is trying to destroy your consciences after having already destroyed your thought.
Yes: your thought is destroyed.
Destroyed not as the capacity for thinking as men, but as children of God.
Rationalism and science separated from Me have destroyed your thought as gods, and you now think only on an earthly level.
You do not see Me impressed with My seal on the things your eyes see. To you they are stars, mountains, stones, waters, herbs, and animals. To the believers, instead, they are masterpieces of Mine, and with no need for anything else they immerse themselves in contemplation and praise of Me, the Creator, in front of the numberless signs of My Power which surround you and beautify your existence and are useful for your lives.
But it is not only this. As I said, Satan is now assailing consciences.
He is offering the fruit of pleasure, greed for knowledge, pride, and, through science, the sacrilegious hope of becoming gods.
Pleasure makes some of you like animals burned by lust, repellent, sick, and condemned in this life and the other to the diseases of the flesh and the death of the spirit.
Greed for knowledge places some of you in the hands of the Deceiver, for, out of illicit thirst to know what concerns My Mysteries, in attempting to impose your will to know upon Me, you enable Satan to seduce you with his errors.
Do you really believe that Satan will serve you?
No!
It is much more likely that I will grant you what you request, if it is something licit, than for Satan to give it to you.
Satan wants to be served himself!
And I assure you that for an hour of his help he asks for your whole life; for one triumph, all eternity."
Ward couldn't agree more, on this point.
"Do you believe that by saying 'I want this', I will want it, too?
No.
I want what is useful for your own good.
Not everything you want.
My Son said: 'You cannot serve God and Satan at the same time.'
Where one is, the other is not.
Your life is a sign of Me, or your life is a sign of Satan.
Examine yourselves, your works, the inspirations you receive.
If you see they are honest, even in merely human terms, say, 'The power of God may be here'.
But if they are contrary to human morality and widely apart from superhuman morality, also say, 'God cannot be here, but his Enemy'.
And some of you, already perverted to the point of having embraced the accursed religion which I call 'Satanism' - that parody of religion which is a sacrilege and a crime - remember that I don't need darkness, solitude, and 'magnetism' to come.
I am Light, and My saints are light.
I do not fear the sun and do not fear the crowd.
I can snatch out of the midst of a crowd and appear as the Sun in the sun.
My disciples can say how simple, sweet, spontaneous, and absolute my coming to them is, how I lift them beyond what surrounds them, plunging them into the light and the sound which is Heaven coming to them.
They can say how, after every contact, they feel their matter lose weight and take on spirituality, how after every fusion the flesh dies a little more and I live more and more intensely in them. I, the Victorious over the flesh, the instrument of Satan, and therefore the Victorious over Satan.
They can state the peace, the serenity, and the equilibrium which are in them, the intelligence, love and purity.
They are not human.
They are even more than superhuman.
They are Mine, for I become them, and they become Me.
The creature no longer exists.
I exist.
They are a drop of blood in my Heart.
I live.
I reign.
I make them gods because I assimilate them to Myself.
Satan CANNOT give what he claims he can give: to become like Me.
I am the Only One that can give that to you, and I actually give that to some of you who deserve it or that need it to have the strength to fulfil special assignments, fusing them to Myself and deifying them in that fusion."
Ward was speechless. He didn't know what to say in response to that.
God continued, matter of factly:
"Remember: your souls are enormously precious, and this is why Satan wants to steal them so badly.
One soul that is close to your heart is in great danger, now.
I know how deeply she is rooted in your heart.
I know how much you love her.
Yes, I am talking about Skye.
She is now in a great danger of losing her soul, and somebody must save her.
I want that somebody to be you.
She saved your life making your heart beat again, once: it seems only fitting for you to do the same for her, now.
You really love her, so I give you this mission."
And now, hearing her name, Ward remained completely astonished, an un-hopable hope flourishing in him.
"Yes, Grant.
I created her for you, and you for her.
So be sure that finally the two of you will end together.
And your sons and daughters will be My delight."
At those words he felt a surge of joy he never thought he would experience in a lifetime!
"I've prepared you all your life to endure what is waiting for you out there.
You know what it means to be controlled against your will, you know that sense of impotence and burden, you know the rage it provokes the friction of control, and now you will learn how to resist it.
You are going to experiment on yourself a control so powerful, so deep like anything you ever experienced.
But you will have the strength to resist it.
Now you will be finally given the strength to get rid of it once and for all, to become free, resisting and fighting and defeating the greater danger Earth had ever encountered!"
Ward was starting to be really concerned about all that, feeling that he may not rise to the occasion and, sensing that he was on the verge of dismissing, he spoke:
"But I don't think I can accomplish such a mission! It's too big for me!
Moreover, I would like to remain here! With You!
You are everything I ever desired!
You are unbelievable!
There aren't words to describe what You are.
I only want to stay here with You, forever!
Please, don't send me away!"
"No.
You don't deserve to stay with Me, yet.
Paradise is for the souls that have reached absolute perfection: nobody less than perfect can enter in it, otherwise Paradise would be progressively ruined. And Earth is enough, in terms of imperfection and ruins.
If I hadn't intervened, you should have stayed several centuries in Purgatory to be purified and to atone for your sins. And Purgatory's fire is exactly what you are feeling now: the longing, the homesickness, the nostalgia, the desire of Me after having understood what I am, but a desire that can't be fulfilled yet, because of your unworthiness.
And it burns, a lot.
What I am offering to you now is the possibility to discount your Purgatory on Earth, saving it; and saving Skye.
This is your second chance, the second chance nobody was willing to give to you.
Full disclosure: this is your last chance.
I am your last chance.
But you are free to choose.
Do you want redemption? Do you want to make everything right?
…
SAY YES!"
Ward remained silent for an instant, those words reminding him of his mentor's same words when he was 17 years old, at the juvenile.
But this time everything was different: he had complete faith in the counterpart and he felt he was doing the right thing.
He felt this as his real defining moment.
He would have to follow orders, but good ones, orders that would increase his freedom instead of reducing it.
And he decided, finally, to do the best choice of his life: working for the Greater Good.
"YES!
I'll do it.
For her.
For mankind, that I damaged so thoroughfully.
And for You."
"Right answer!"
Notes:
02/08/2018:
I added a wonderful piece from Maria Valtorta's Notebooks.