Identity: Know Who You Are
Lourdes Pinto — December 8, 2016
Adam and Eve fell because they had not embraced their identity in relation with God and with each other. Our perseverance in the Church, in our relationships and community requires that we know who we are and are willing to fight for it...
Note: These are supplemental notes. To get a fuller and richer understanding of this teaching, we recommend you listen to the audio.
Adam and Eve fell because they had not embraced their identity in relation with God and with each other and the responsibility that goes with it: son, spouse, protector, guardian of the garden... This is an essential aspect of loving.
Satan was able to plant thoughts of distrust against God. Once they disobeyed they would not accept their wrongdoing. Intead they blamed each other and God: Gen 3:9-20 "The woman whom you put here with me, she gave me fruit..." Notice the lack of love.
For Love to endure we must know who the other is to me and be willing to suffer to defend the relationship. Adam did not act according to his identity as husband and his identity as son of God who had made them to be one in love. The woman then blames the Serpent. When the truth is exposed, they go into hidding, away from the relationship.
Why were they disobedient?
Their love and identity was not yet perfected through sacrifice. Instead of trusting God who is all good and truth, they were open to other options. Instead of thinking of the spouse they each thought only of themselves. Their identity wan not mature.
Message 66 on The Path: "The virtue of obedience it the fruit of interior transformation... it grows from humility and purity of heart." To be obedient we must be willing to go through this transformation. We must abandon of our will and believe. Obedience is the fruit of trust and love. Disobedience comes from a heart that lacks trust and love.
Jesus was perfectly obedient to the will of the Father. He loves and trusts. He knows His identity: who He is, where He came from, where He is going.
To grow in obedience is to grow in deep attentiveness to the movements and stirrings of the Holy Spirit.
This is why silence is so important. God told us: "Perfect obedience to My will is your response of love."
Meekness
Meekness is not being a wimp; it is to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit so that we are not defined by earthly power. It is know who you are and where you are going. To be at home in your own skin, not afflicted with envy, no defined by what you or others do or have. To be meek is to be free because you know you belong to God. Blessed are the meek!
Jesus and Mary are the New Adam and the New Eve. She gives birth to the New Adam and forms Him. Encourages and conforts Him, suffering all with Him. There is no blame between them but only perfect sacrificial victim love.
This is the mission of The Path: to bring us into a profound interior transformation so that we can trust, surrender and love God and thus live in perfect obedience to His will. Only through the work of The Path, which requires our consent and great dedication, that we become meek of heart, free to live our true identity knowing where we come from, where we are going and who we are. The Lord is telling us:
KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!
Our perseverance in the Church, in our relationships and in community requires that we know who we are and are willing to fight for it.
Messages from The Path 47-48
Jesus says to the Mothers of the Cross: "You are my consolation because you are united as one with Mary the New Eve. I need you to bring life my Missionaries of the Cross and to all the men in our territory of souls… It is my hidden martyrs of love, in perfect union with the Queen of Martyrs, that will raise up my apostles of light. Know that I have taken my abode in each of your hearts, therefore radiate the humility and purity of my mother. Do not grow weary in your hidden life of suffering all with me for you are my holy remnant that God the Father will use to purify My Church and pierce the darkness penetrating her. Therefore, go forth my daughters, as My holy warriors with Mary to seize the dragon and cast him into hell."
It is through the hidden life of my mothers of the cross that my army of holy priests will be raised. These spiritual mothers will live the tears and sorrows of their hearts united as one with the mother of sorrows. Zilkia and Maria have experienced the grace of our Blessed Mother of tears in this pilgrimage.
As mothers united with Mary, we bring life to others. But each (Mothers and Missionaries of the Cross) must be perfected in living her hidden ordinary life with all its trials, sorrows, exhaustion with PURE LOVE.
In this community there is confession and accompaniment
Our transformation and our freedom to live our identity as sons of God comes through our openness to receive both. Our way of responding when we mess up reveals the disposition of our hearts. Like Adam: the way he reacted revealed the darkness in his heart. But when we go with good disposition to confession and accompaniment, we can enter the root system of that darkness, the hidden pride in all of us. This develops a meek heart.
Our identity as a hidden soul
One of the greatest purifications is to embrace the reality that our lives as victims of love will go unnoticed by the world. We need to enter and accept our identity as hidden souls. Then we begin to live in the freedom of knowing who we are in the gaze of the Father and be happy being unnoticed by the world and even by our closest family. This gives power to our intercession and our ability to bring new life to the New Adams.
The transformation of the Missionaries of the Cross is contingent to the Mothers of the Cross being obedient to their mission. Also, If the the men do not become meek (firm in their identity in Christ the bridegroom), they will not be able to protect the women nor the mission. They will remain old Adams. They will not be obedient to the mission given by God to this community. Thus we all need each living The Path in order to grow.
Message 44 of The Path tells us: "through the restoration of motherhood I will strengthen the domestic church, aid in the healing of fatherhood and bring restoration to my universal Church."
Our identity is in Christ and Mary as victims of love
Ephesians chp. 1 tells us that we were chosen, destined, according to the purpose of the ONE, Christ. Ours is not a separate mission, It is one with Jesus. We continue the mission of Christ. Through The Path, we are to become Christ and be love. We exist to praise and glorify the Father as we live our identity as victims of love suffering all with Christ solely for love. Our mission is to be united specifically to His victimhood and to live it on earth bringing forth the graces of redemption. Our identity is Christ as victim.
All Mothers of the Cross will conceive many sons to be Jesus.
At the Annunciation the angel says to Mary, “The Lord has found favor with you.” The Lord says this now to the Mothers of the Cross as they are called to be one with Mary: "You are my delight." So do not be afraid, each mother is going to conceive and bear sons—Jesus in the priests. This is our purpose. Nothing is impossible with God.
Messages 139-140. "Give your lives for them united with Mary as victim intercessors." We give birth to them and they bring us to heaven. The women need to help form the men become victims of love. If we are not transformed at the cross with Mary as victim souls, will will bring them trouble, not help. We have to be a committed community to this transformation.
Jesus is God and He humbles Himself and receives formation from the Father and from Mary.
It is important to receive the charism and mission form me (Lourdes), the spiritual mother of the community. This is my identity and responsibility. If I would not give the pure milk as spiritual mother of the community, I would fail the Lord. But you as members of the Community have the responsibility to receive from me the charism. This is a fundamental point of discernment to know if you are called to Love Crucified. I had to grow through many years to say this because my lack of meekness blocked me from being fully who I am in Christ and so I hid my identity. That is a sin.
Many men do not want to receive formation from ordinary moms. Until they have the humility to receive they will not be able to be Christ crucified. See how Father Felix received from Conchita to be part of Works of the Cross. Only the humble and pure of heart receive The Path and find it to be a treasure. Pride and arrogance is an obstacle to receive. It becomes a wall.
May this reflexion help you in your discernment, to solidify and grow in meekness, and to acquire the freedom to live who we are in Christ.