Unity from the Heart

by Vassula
Holy Land Pilgrimage 1998

Unity will come in the conversion of our heart; that means by our love and our faith. It is not a matter of a signed treaty and it will not come either by the mighty who are fragmented; unity will come and will be lived by those who would have allowed the Holy Spirit to touch them in their poverty and be their Light. Unity will come when we use the two keys our Lord is offering us, which are: humility and love. If we use these two keys, unity will triumph over our division which is a sin. Unity will come when we truly begin to love Jesus Christ. Unity will come when we will die to ourselves. Unity will come when we lower our voices to hear Christ's voice and thus do His Will. Unity will come when we lower our heads and allow Christ's Head to be seen. Unity will come when we will start looking after Christ's Interests and not ours.

"Today there is a division in My Church as never before; like Cain and Abel, brothers, yet unlike one from the other; one blood, yet different; one was sincere, the other one not, one was well disposed, the other one was ill-disposed and displeasing Me. One was faithful and devout, the other one treacherous and a rebel. These are today's members in My Church - I have two sorts, one, devout, the other one a rebel. My Church is divided..." (Nov 29, 1992)

Our division is truly a grave sin. Our intolerance with one another is an abomination in God's eyes. Our stubbornness and pride is not according to the Spirit of our Lord. All these things prove that love is missing. Only by a deep metanoia can one obtain the fruit of love which will lead us into the path of reconciliation. Through repentance one can be reborn and have a change from within. So it is in the conversion of our heart that the Holy Spirit will lead us into unity. The Lord says in a message:

"It is not just through words that unity among brothers will come, but through the action of the Holy Spirit. I have guided you to look for unity and live the unity I desire....I want you to be the living example of what unity will be like. Anyone who will look at you will see unity according to the designs of My Heart. Do not get discouraged by those who do not perceive My plan in you - what I have given you as a gift is beyond the price of pearls, beyond the price of all the treasures of the world put together! .... I God will not reprove you the unity you are living but I will reprove the man who assaults you in your mission - his assaults on you are like a stone cast on the core of My Eyes... I tell you: set My messages as far and wide as possible. Remember, unity will come with humility and love; and now let your heart treasure what I have to say: to acquire unity, I need expiations..." (Sep 30, 1993)

Christ will accomplish His plan of Unity through the poor in spirit, for He tells to those who delay to work for unity:

"Tell those who work for Unity to look up at the skies. See how far they are from the earth? This is how far their hearts are from one another...."(Dec 21, 1992)

Unity will come because Christ wants it and demands it. Jesus said:"May they all be one. Father, may they be one in us, as You are in Me and I am in You, so that the world may believe it was You who sent Me." (Jn 17:21)

In one of His messages Jesus says:

"The coming of My reign on earth is at hand and My Will shall be done as it is in heaven, and in your hearts I shall rebuild the unity of My Church... I shall be with you all again and My priestly prayer to the Father shall be fulfilled. You shall be one like Us, in the Holy Trinity." (May 2, 1991)

Jesus tells us also about the coming of His Reign on earth when everybody will be doing God's Divine Will while still on earth, for in our hearts He would have built the unity of His Church already. Jesus is purifying many hearts in our times, He says:

"I will purify you and heal you, I will divinize you for I am Divinity, I will perfect you." (Nov 21, 1988)

Jesus said that those who work for unity should first work on unifying the dates of Easter. I sometimes wonder and say, suppose Christ Himself appeared to them suddenly in one of their unity meetings and told them that they should unite the dates of Easter immediately; what would they do? Would they linger still? Or would they just go ahead and do it? Jesus tells them:

"When will (you) they all pass a decree by unanimous vote to celebrate the feast of Easter all in one date?" (Dec 21, 1992)

Jesus asks those who work for unity the following:"Brother, have you done everything you can to preserve the unity of My Body? Every Easter season I must drink from the Cup of your division since this cup is forced on me... the more time passes for them to unite the dates of Easter, the more severe will be the sentence this generation will receive. My return is imminent and woe to the unrepentant heart! Woe to the divided heart! Woe to the unreconciled heart! They shall be thrown to hell!" (May 31, 1994)

Our Lord becomes very severe when it becomes a question of pride and hypocrisy. Jesus condemns the rigidity and the hardness of heart.

"Because of their rigidity they are left uninhabited; (that means without the Holy Spirit) many of them talk of unity and brother-hood, but their works are fallacious, void... REPENT!

Then Jesus says to His Church:Once you lived in humility, simplicity and unbounded love with rich food covering your table. Yes, the greatness of My Church exceeded everything and every living creature because the Eucharist made the life of My Church. If My Church lacks today brightness it is because many of My Churches have abolished My perpetual sacrifice..."(Nov 25, 1991)

In another message Jesus shows how grave it is to be rigid when it comes to unity and how offended He becomes when we are unreconciled in heart, He says:

"You speak of the Spirit but do not act in the spirit; tell My people that I do not want administrators in My House, they will not be justified in My Day because it is these very ones who have industrialized My House. This is why the Spirit that lives in you, will show you that My Church will be rebuilt inside your heart and you will acknowledge each other as your brother in your heart." (Oct 14, 1991)

We cannot deign to talk about unity without first living the two greatest commandments of God. It will be as though we want to construct a house without laying down first its foundations. For how could we believe that unity could come when the seeds of unity are constantly sown in an arid and unfertile land? No seedlings will sprout in that sort of aridity, which represents the hardness of our heart. The Lord says in a message:

"Some would say: 'But we have always kept the law of the Church and obeyed it...'. The Lord today says: It is not enough to keep the law of the Church and obey it. I need humility and love and the conversion of your heart to be the foundation of your unity. From above I look at you all; each one of you and I tell you: whosoever continues to work for His own interest and for his own glorification has already lost My Heart... your division is a sin; by sinning in your division against each other, it is I, the Lamb against whom you sin. This sin of your division which massacres daily My Body." (Mar 27, 1992)

God speaks today and calls us all for Reconciliation and Unity. There are those who believe and those who do not believe that Jesus Christ is speaking to us through my weak hand. But this is because they see unity only according to their own mind and not in the mind of God. Jesus says:

"I have spoken from above not to impose My rules on you, but propose to you an alliance of peace and love to lead you all under My Wings and unite you... Have you really understood what the Spouse had offered you? Explain to Me then why every time I speak of reconciliation you turn your eyes away from Me...Explain then to Me, if you claim you are in the Truth, your division... open your eyes My friend! Open your ear not your mind! Unity will be in your heart, reconciliation will be in the heart and not by a signed treaty! How can any man claim he is just when your countries are at war and aflame! Learn that My Sacred Heart seeks from you, charity, generosity, prayer and a spirit of reconciliation and to love one another as I love you. Will I hear from you your cry of surrender and of repentance?" (Sep 14, 1992)

By the power of the Holy Spirit we will be united and the Promise will be accomplished, for it is only through the Spirit of the Lord Who is the Giver of Life, that we will obtain the gift of unity. As we are now, we are like the scattered dry bones in Ezekiel's vision so says our Lord. Here is what He says:

"I shall make one single body out of all those dry bones now lying scattered in the valley of Death. Yes, like in the prophet's Ezekiel's vision, I ask you the same question: Can these bones live?"

(I said:) No. Not without Your intervention. Not without Your putting life into them, my Lord, for they are quite dry and lifeless.

"I am going to revive them. I am the Resurrection. I shall put sinews on them, thus the scattered bones will be joined together, then flesh will grow on them. I shall cover them with skin and give them breath, so that they live. I shall make out of them one sing Body... and bring them back to life again. I shall send My Holy Spirit to blow through Its nostrils a most powerful Breath which will revive It and make It stand up once more on Its feet to glorify Me."I shall pour crystal-clear Water over you (the Body, the Church) from My Throne to cleanse you from all defilement and I shall pour out My Holy Spirit to live in your midst. My Holy Spirit will be given to you to become your Heart. Then, I Myself will anoint this Body (which is the Church) and the light I will give in your eyes will be My Own Divine Light - it will be from My radiant glory, and like a warrior you shall walk fearless for I will be your Torch walking before you, showing you the way. You will need no lamplight, as I Myself will be your Light. All the other nations (it means, all other religions) will recognize Christ as the Son of God (thus Jesus' Prayer in Jn 17, 21, will be accomplished) upon seeing your beauty will follow your step, bringing their treasure and their wealth, offering them together with themselves to you; and in your hand I will place an iron scepter dressing you in majesty and splendour... This is how My Spirit will unite every single one of you in the end and every one will believe it was the Father who sent me. Every one will recognize Me as the Sacrificial Lamb..."(May 30, 1993)

Jesus will not accept our division for long...Listen now, (He says): "I will melt you all! (the 3 iron rods, representing the R. Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Churches, in the vision He had given me) I will put you all in a melting pot together, and as a fire stoked underneath the pot, I will melt you all down. My kingdom shall not remain divided..." (May 30, 1993)

Jesus asks us to pray for those who suppress His Holy Spirit and who pretend they work for unity but stretch out a net for those who practice unity and have reconciled. Jesus seeing all these upheavals asked in a sad voice:

"When I return how much faith will there be left? When I come will I find you, My friends, different from what I want you to be? Will you still have the language and the Traditions I passed on to you? Or will you be speaking like philosophers and preaching on a Tower of Babel? Tell me, what has become of the Spirit of which I endowed you with? You talk of the Law but you do not carry It in your heart....you have neglected the weightier matters of the Law: love, repentance, mercy, good faith! Who of you who preach in My Name truly loves his enemies?" (Mar 19, 1993)

"Pray for the house of the East and the West to join together. Like a pair of hands when joined in prayer, similar and in beauty when joined together. Let those two hands, belonging to the same body, work together and share their capacity and resources with each other... let those two hands lift me together. Ah, when will those Hands of My Body lift Me over the Altar, holding Me together? O come! I do not want lengthy discourses, anyone who wants to be first and best among you must be slave to all." (Jun 15, 1995)

During the Angelus on the 11th August 1996, the Pope, John Paul II, when he was talking about the Orthodox, he declared: "The things that unite us are far greater than the things that divide us." These were very encouraging words to hear for the Orthodox, because we have heard from one of His prelates who wrote to Alexis II that between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church there were great elements that divided us.

The Pope calls the Orthodox Church, "Sister Church". He also said that the Body of Christ needs the two lungs to breathe properly, equaling us to the other lung. But his voice reminds me of the voice of John the Baptist's, "a voice crying out in the wilderness", for there is not much of a response to his cries from his very own. I truly wish to hear an echo from the Pope's priests, bishops and cardinals. Why can't we hear more voices echoing what he said from his own prelates?

By not accepting one another and by not reconciling, it only proves to the rest of the world that love is missing within us and that we do not want to bend. Jesus repeatedly says that the key to unity is humility and love. The Lord asks us to bend (our rigid iron necks) in humility and love to obtain the fruit of unity. Jesus says:

"Pray for unity and do not listen to those who do not want unity -the divider keeps them separated and aggressive in their spirit. Anyone who does not work sincerely and with all his heart for unity is seriously grieving My Holy Spirit...It is not the eloquence of speech nor the lengthy discourse that will lead them to unity. It is not their exchange of praise on one another that will lead My Church into one. All these things weary Me... devastation and ruin have penetrated into My Sanctuary, so what praise can they exchange on one another?" (Jun 15, 1995).

The Holy Spirit calls out to His Bride for Unity too:

"Pray that I, the utter fullness of God, the utterance of your spirit, the light in your eyes, descend in your midst to show the world how wrong it was, to show to the Churches their iniquity of their division and how, although they declare daily that there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God who is Father of all, over all, through all and within all, are uncharitable with one another. We cannot say: "You have done everything to preserve the Unity I offered you in the beginning when you were still a child and in My arms.

Today you say: "I am not a child any longer and I can walk by myself." And since then you stepped out of My embrace and accustomed your steps to walk your own way... O child of the Father! Fruit of the Son! My City and My Bride! Your fragrance left you... are there going to be any survivors left in you when I will descend in full force?" (Nov 9, 1994)

And I will finish with these words of Christ:

"The real Christian is the one who is inwardly a Christian, and the real Unity is and will be in the heart. Unity will not be of the letter but of the spirit."