In scripture we read:

“You shall not steal.”  

Exodus 20:15

Jesus mentions this commandment when being asked about the most important once:

Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”

 “Which ones?” he inquired.

Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Matthew 19:16-19

When Jesus is in contact with a tax collector called Zacchaeus, it also becomes evident how the encounter with Jesus changes his life and how he plans to make-up for cheating and stealing:

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

Luke 19:5-8

What does the commandment entail

At first glance, the seventh commandment appears simple: do not take what does not belong to you. It seems directed at obvious acts—robbery, fraud, or theft of property. Yet both the Old and New Testament contexts suggest something deeper. This commandment is not merely about protecting possessions; it is about honoring trust, justice, and the dignity of others.

To steal is to violate more than ownership—it disrupts relationships. Property in biblical times was closely tied to survival, inheritance, and identity. Taking what belonged to another was therefore an act against their well-being and against the order God intended for community life. In this sense, theft is not just a legal wrong but a relational one: it places personal gain above fairness and love of neighbor.

Jesus’ reaffirmation of the commandment places it within a broader moral vision. In his teaching, righteousness is not limited to outward behavior but extends to the heart. This invites a wider interpretation of “stealing.” It includes not only taking physical goods, but also exploiting others, withholding what is due, or benefiting unjustly at someone else’s expense. Dishonest business practices, manipulation, plagiarism, or even wasting someone’s time or trust can be seen as subtle forms of theft.

At its core, the commandment calls for integrity. It challenges individuals to respect boundaries, practice fairness, and act with honesty even when no one is watching. It also implies a positive responsibility: not only to avoid taking, but to give, to act justly, and to contribute to the well-being of others.

How is this commandment relevant today

In today’s context, this commandment remains highly relevant. Modern forms of “stealing” can be less visible but equally impactful—digital piracy, misuse of data, tax evasion, workplace dishonesty, or exploiting systems for personal gain. The principle also extends into everyday behavior: returning what we borrow, paying fair wages, giving proper credit, and using shared resources responsibly.

Applied practically, “You shall not steal” becomes a guide for ethical living:

– Practice honesty in financial and professional dealings.  

– Respect intellectual and creative work.  

– Be mindful of fairness in how you use time, resources, and influence.  

– Cultivate generosity as the opposite of taking.

Ultimately, this commandment is not only a restriction but an invitation — to build a life marked by trustworthiness and respect. In a world where subtle forms of taking can easily be justified or overlooked, it calls us back to a simple but demanding principle: to live in a way that protects and honors what belongs to others, and in doing so, strengthens the fabric of community.

Further insights

Jesus himself gives much more depth to the topic than I ever could. Below is an extract from the visions of Maria Valtorta where He addresses this commandment in a speech rather at the beginning of his official journey:

“Look around yourselves. Who are the happiest and the healthiest? Who enjoys a healthy tranquil old age? Fast living people? No. Those who live and work honestly and wish honest things. They are not poisoned by lust and thus they are strong. They are not intoxicated by orgies and are thus agile. They are not consumed by the poison of jealousy and are thus cheerful. Who instead craves to possess more and more, kills his own peace and has no joy, grows old precociously, consumed by envy and abuses.

I could link the commandment: “You shall not steal” to the other one: “You shall not covet what belongs to your neighbour.” In fact an immoderate longing urges one to steal. The step between the two is a very short one. Is every desire an unlawful one? I do not mean that. The father of a family who works in the fields or in a workshop and wishes to gain what is necessary to secure food for his family, most certainly does not commit a sin. On the contrary he fulfills his duty of a father. Who instead craves only to enjoy more and takes possession of what belongs to other people to have a better time, commits a sin.”

Envy! What is to covet other people’s property but avarice and envy? My dear children, envy separates man from God and unites him to Satan. Do you not remember that Lucifer was the first one to covet what did not belong to him? He was the most beautiful of the archangels and enjoyed the vision of God. He should have been happy with that. He envied God, wanted to be God and became a demon. The first demon. Another instance: Adam and Eve had been given everything, they enjoyed the earthly paradise and God’s friendship, blessed with the gifts of grace which God had granted them. They should have been satisfied with that. They envied God’s knowledge of good and evil and were driven out of Eden and became disliked by God. The first sinners. A third instance: Cain envied Abel’s friendship with the Lord. And he became the first leper in the history of Israel. I could lead you step by step through the whole history of the people of God, and you would see that immoderate longing made men sinners and brought the country calamity. Because the sins of the individuals accumulate and bring disasters to the country, exactly as grains of sand, piling up throughout centuries, cause landslides which overwhelm villages and their inhabitants.

I have often cited little children as an instance, because they are simple and trustful. Today I say to you: imitate birds in their freedom from desires. Look. It is now winter. There is little food in the orchards. Do they worry about hoarding it in summer? No, they do not. They trust in the Lord. They know that they will always be able to catch for their little crops a small worm, a little grain, a crumb, a small spider, a little fly floating on water. They know that there will always be a warm chimney-top or a flock of wool to shelter them in winter, and they know as well that when the time comes when they will need hay for their nests and more food for their little ones, there will be sweet-smelling hay in the fields and juicy food in the orchards and in the furrows, and the air and the soil will be rich in insects. And they slowly sing: “Thank You, Creator, for what You give us and will give us”, and they are ready to sing hosannas at the top of their voices when they will enjoy the company of their mates during the mating season and they see their offspring multiply.

Is there a happier creature than a bird? And what is its intelligence as compared to the intelligence of man? A chip of silica compared with a mountain. But it teaches you a lesson. I solemnly tell you that who lives without any impure desires possesses the joy of a bird. He trusts in God, feels that God is his Father. He smiles at the rising day and at the falling night, because he knows that the sun is his friend and night his nourishment. He looks at men without malice and is not afraid of their vengeance, because he does not harm them in any way. He is not afraid for his health or his sleep, because he knows that an honest life prevents diseases and grants a peaceful rest. And finally he is not afraid of death, because he knows that, since he always acted well, God can but smile at him. Also a king dies. And a rich man dies. A sceptre will not avert death, neither can money buy immortality. As before the King of kings and the Lord of lords crowns and money are ridiculous things, a life lived according to the Law is the only thing of value!

« What are those men at the end of the room saying? Do not be afraid of speaking. »

« We were saying: of what sin is Antipas guilty? Of theft or adultery »

« I would like you to look at your own hearts, and not at other people. But I will reply to you that he is guilty of idolatry, because he worships the flesh more than God, and he is guilty of adultery, theft, unlawful desires, and he will soon be guilty of homicide. »

« Will he be saved by You, the Saviour? »

« I will save those who are repentant and return to God. The unrepentant shall have no redemption. »

« You said that he is a thief. What did he steal? »

« His brother’s wife. A theft is not only of money. It is also theft to take a man’s reputation, to seduce a virgin, to take a wife away from her husband, as it is theft to steal a neighbour’s ox or his plants. A theft, aggravated by lust or false witness, is aggravated by adultery, fornication or falsehood. »

« And what sin does a woman, who prostitutes herself, commit? »

« If she is married, a sin of adultery and theft with regard to her husband. If she is not married, a sin of impurity and of theft with regard to herself. »

« To herself? But she gives what belongs to her!! »

« No. Our body was created by God to be the temple of the soul, which is the temple of God. It must, therefore, be kept honest, otherwise the soul will be robbed of God’s friendship and of eternal life. »

« A prostitute then can only be of Satan? »

« Every sin is prostitution with Satan. A sinner, like a hired woman, gives himself to Satan for unlawful love, hoping to make a foul profit. Prostitution is a grave, a very grave sin which makes man like unclean animals. But do you think that any other capital sin is not so grave? What shall I say of idolatry? Of homicide? And yet God forgave the Israelites after the golden calf. He forgave David after his sin, which was a twofold one. God forgives who is repentant. Let repentance be proportioned to the number and gravity of sins, and I tell you that who is more repentant, will be more forgiven. Because repentance is a kind of love. Of active love. Who repents, says to God by his repentance: “I cannot bear Your wrath, because I love You and I want to be loved.” And God loves who loves Him. I therefore say: the more one loves, the more one is loved. Who loves completely, is completely forgiven. And that is the truth.”

Maria Valtorta, The Poem of the ManGod, chapter 131.Jesus at the «Clear Water»: « You Shall Not Covet What Belongs to Your Neighbour.

And furthermore we read there the following:

“But now, listen. I said: “Do an honest job.”

You know that our Law orders us to love our neighbour. Honest work forms part of our love for our neighbour. An honest working person does not steal in business, does not defraud a workman of his pay, does not exploit him guiltily, he remembers that a servant and a workman are made of body and soul like himself, and he does not treat them like lifeless pieces of stone which it is lawful to break or strike with one’s foot or an iron rod. Who does not do that, does not love his neighbour and therefore commits a sin in the eyes of God. His earnings are cursed, even if he offers part of them as alms to the Temple.

Oh! What a false offer! And how can anyone dare place it at the foot of the altar when it drips the tears and blood of an exploited subordinate or its name is “theft”, that is, betrayal of one’s neighbour, because a thief is the betrayer of his neighbour? Believe Me, one does not keep a holy day unless one makes use of it the previous six days.”

Maria Valtorta, The Poem of the ManGod, chapter 125 Jesus at the «Clear Water»: « Observe Holy Days. »

Here a scene where Judas is caught stealing and an interesting quite lengthy discussion develops based on that:

“John opens the door and utters «ah!» almost in terror. He drops the pitcher and covers his eyes with his hands, bending as if to grow smaller, to disappear, not to see. From the room comes the noise of coins falling on the floor tinkling.

Jesus is already at the door. It took me longer to describe the scene than it took Him to arrive. He vehemently pushes aside John who moans: «Away! Go away!» He opens the door that was ajar and goes in.

It is the room where they take their meals, now that the women are there. In it there are two old coffers reinforced with iron fittings and in front of one of them, opposite the door, there is Judas, livid, his eyes full of anger and dismay at the same time, with a bag in his hands… The coffer is open… there are coins on the floor and more fall on it from an open bag, half inclined on the edge of the coffer. Everything testifies, in a manner that leaves no doubt, to what was happening. Judas entered the house, he opened the coffer and stole. He was stealing.

No one speaks. No one moves. But it is worse than if they all shouted and rushed at one another. Three statues. Judas the demon, Jesus the Judge, John terrorised by the revelation of his companion’s baseness.

The hand of Judas holding the bag trembles, and the coins in it tinkle with a dull sound.

John is trembling from head to foot, and although he still has his hands pressed against his mouth, his teeth are chattering, while his frightened eyes look more at Jesus than at Judas.

Jesus does not quiver. He is straight and glacial, so stiff as to be glacial. At last He takes a step, He makes a gesture, and utters one word. A step towards Judas; a gesture: to make a sign to John to withdraw; a word: «Go!»

But John is afraid and moans: «No! No! Don’t send me away. Let me stay here. I will not say anything… but leave me here, with You.»

«Go away! Be not afraid! Close all the doors… and if anybody comes… whoever it may be… even My Mother… do not let them come here. Go! Obey!»

«Lord!…» John is so entreating and broken-hearted that he seems to be the guilty one.

«Go, I tell you. Nothing will happen. Go» and Jesus moderates His order by laying His hand on the head of His Favourite and caressing it. And I now see that His hand is trembling. And John feels that it is trembling and takes it and kisses it with a sob that says so many things. He goes out.

Jesus bolts the door. He turns round to look at Judas who must be really crushed if he, who is so daring, dare not say one word or make one gesture. Jesus goes straight in front of him, going round the table, which is in the middle of the room. I cannot say whether He moves fast or slow. I am too frightened by His face to be able to measure time. I can see His eyes and I am afraid like John.

Judas himself is afraid, he draws back between the coffer and a wide open window, the red light of which, as it is sunset, is projected on Jesus.

What eyes has Jesus! He does not say one word. But when He sees a kind of picklock stick out from the belt of Judas’ tunic, He has a fearful outburst of rage. He raises His arm with its clenched fist as if He wanted to strike the thief, and His lips begin to utter the word: «Cursed!» or «Curse!». But He controls Himself. He stops His arm that was about to strike, and He breaks the word at the first three letters. And with an effort of self-control that makes His whole body tremble, He just unclenches His fist and lowers His raised arm to the level of the bag that Judas has in his hand and He snatches it and throws it on the floor, saying in a dull voice, while He tramples on bag and coins and scatters them with controlled but dreadful fury: «Away! Filth of Satan! Cursed gold! Spittle of hell! Snake’s poison! Away!»

Judas, who uttered a stifled cry when he saw Jesus on the point of cursing him, does not react any further. But another cry is heard from beyond the closed door when Jesus throws the bag on the floor. And John’s cry irritates the thief. It gives him back his demoniac daring. It makes him furious.

He almost flings himself on Jesus shouting: «You had me spied upon to bring dishonour on me. Spied by a foolish boy who cannot even keep quiet. Who will shame me in front of everybody! That’s what You wanted. In any case… Yes! That’s what I want, too. I want that! To force You to drive me away! To force You to curse me! To curse me! To curse me! I have tried everything to make You reject me.» He is hoarse with rage and as ugly as a demon. He is panting as if something were choking him.

In a low but dreadful voice Jesus repeats to him: «Thief! Thief! Thief!» and He ends saying: «A thief today. A murderer tomorrow. Like Barabbas. Worse than him.» He breathes that word on his face, as they are now very close to each other, at each sentence of the other.

attributable to You, and You never get tired of ruining me. You save everybody. You give love and honours to everybody. You accept sinners, prostitutes do not disgust You, You treat thieves, usurers and Zacchaeus’ procurers in a friendly way, You welcome the spy of the Temple as if he were the Messiah, You fool! And You have appointed an ignorant man as our chief, an excise-man as Your treasurer, a fool as Your confidant. But with me, You ration even farthings, You do not leave me a coin, You keep me close to You as a galley-slave is tied to the rowing bench, You do not even want us, I say us, but it is I, only I who must not accept the offerings of pilgrims. Because You do not want me to touch money, You ordered everyone not to take money from anybody. Because You hate me. Well: I hate You, too! You were not able to strike and curse me a little while ago. Your curse would have reduced me to ashes. Why did You not lay Your curse upon me? I would have preferred that, rather than see You so inept, so enfeebled, such a finished defeated man…»

«Be quiet!»

«No! Are You afraid that John may hear? Are You afraid that at long last he may realise who You are and he may leave You? Ah! So You are afraid, although You play the hero! Yes, You are afraid! And You are afraid of me. You are frightened! That’s why You could not curse me. That’s why You pretend to love me whereas You hate me! To blandish me! To keep me quiet. You know that I am powerful. You know that I am the power. The power that hates You and will defeat You! I promised You that I will follow You until death offering You everything, and I have offered You everything, and I will be near You until Your hour and mine. What a magnificent king who cannot curse and drive people away! King of clouds! Idol king! Foolish king! Liar! Betrayer of Your own destiny. You have always despised me, since the first time we met. You have not corresponded to me. You thought You were wise. You are an idiot. I taught You the good road. But You… Oh! You are the pure one! You are the creature that is man but is God, and You despise the advice of the Intelligent One. You have been mistaken since the first moment and You are mistaken. You… You are… Ah!»

The torrent of words stops suddenly and a lugubrious silence replaces so much clamour and a lugubrious stillness after so many gestures. Because, while I was writing without being able to say what was happening, Judas, bending just like a wild dog that points a prey and approaches it ready to dash on it, has come closer and closer to Jesus, with a face that it was impossible to look at, his fingers hooked like claws, his elbows pressed against his sides, as if he were on the point of assailing Jesus, Who does not show the least sign of fear and moves turning round to open the door with His back to the other, who could attack Him seizing Him by His neck. But he does not do that and Jesus opens the door and looks to see whether John has really gone away. The corridor is empty and almost dark, as John has closed the door opening onto the kitchen garden after going out. Jesus then bolts the door and leans against it, waiting, without a gesture I say that Satan himself spoke through Judas’ lips and that this is a moment of obvious possession by Satan of the perverted apostle, who is already on the threshold of the Crime and is damned through his own will. The very manner how the torrent of words stopped, leaving the apostle dumbfounded, reminds me of other scenes of possession seen in the three years of Jesus’ public life.

Jesus, leaning against the door, all white against the dark wood, does not make the least gesture. Only His eyes, powerful in grief and fervour, look at the apostle. If one could say that eyes pray, I should say that Jesus’ eyes are praying while He looks at the wretch. Because not only authority transpires from those eyes, which are so distressed, but also the fervour of prayer. Then, towards the end of Judas’ words, Jesus opens His arms, so far held pressed against His body, but He does not open them to touch Judas, or to make any gesture towards him, or to raise them towards the sky. He opens them horizontally, taking the posture of the Crucified, there, against the dark wood and the reddish wall. It was then that the last words from Judas’ lips slow down and he utters that «Ah!» that interrupts his speech.

Jesus remains still, with His arms stretched out, with His eyes always fixed on the apostle, with a look of sorrow and prayer. And Judas, like one coming out of delirium, rubs his forehead and sweaty face with his hand… he thinks, he recollects, and remembering everything he collapses on the floor, whether weeping or not, I do not know. He certainly falls on the floor, as if his strength failed him.

Jesus lowers His eyes and arms, and in a low but clear voice He says:

«Well? Do I hate you? I could strike you with My foot, I could tread on you calling you “worm”, I could curse you, as I freed you from the power that makes you rave. You thought that My impossibility to curse you was weakness. Oh! it is not weakness! It is because I am the Saviour. And the Saviour cannot curse. He can save. He wants to save… You said: “I am the strength. The strength that hates You and will defeat You.” I also am the Strength, nay, I am the only Strength. But My strength is not hatred. It is love. And love does not hate and does not curse, never. The Strength could also win single battles, like this one between you and Me, between Satan who is in you, and Me, and remove your master from you, for good, as I did now by transforming Myself into the sign that saves, the Tau that Lucifer abhors. It could win also these single battles as it will win the oncoming one against incredulous murderous Israel, against the world and against Satan defeated by Redemption. It could win also these single battles as it will win the last one, remote for those who count by centuries, close at hand for those who measure time with the measure of eternity. But of what avail would it be to infringe the perfect rules of My Father? Would it be justice? Would it be merit? No. It would be neither justice nor merit. It would not be justice with regard to guilty men, who have not been deprived of the freedom of being so, and who on the last day could ask Me the reason for their damnation and reproach Me for My partiality for you alone.

Ten thousand and one hundred thousand people, seventy times ten thousand and one hundred thousand people will commit the same sins as yours and will become demons through their own wills, and they will be the offenders of God, the torturers of their fathers and mothers, killers, thieves, liars, adulterers, lewd and sacrilegious people, and in the end deicides, killing the Christ materially on a day close at hand, killing Him spiritually in future times. And each of them could say to Me, when I will come to separate lambs from billy-goats, to bless the former and curse, then, yes, to curse the latter, to curse them because there will be no further redemption then, but glory or damnation, to curse them once again after cursing them individually at their death, first, and at their individual judgement. Because man, and you know this because you have heard Me say so a hundred, a thousand times, because man can save himself while he is alive, up to his last breath. An instant, a thousandth of a minute is sufficient for a soul to say everything to God, to ask to be forgiven and obtain absolution… Each of them, I was saying, each of these damned souls could say to Me: “Why did You not tie us to Good, as You did with Judas?” And they would be right.

Because every man is born with the same natural and supernatural things: a body, a soul. And while the body, being generated by men, may be more or less robust and healthy at birth, the soul, created by God, is the same for everybody, endowed by God with the same properties and gifts. Between the soul of John, I mean the Baptist, and yours, there was no difference, when they were infused into your bodies. And yet I tell you that, even if Grace had not presanctified him, so that the Herald of the Christ might be without stain, as all those who announce Me ought to be, at least with regard to actual sins, his soul would have been, would have become, quite different from yours. Nay, yours would have become quite different from his. Because he would have preserved his soul in the freshness of innocence, nay, he would have adorned it more and more with justice complying with the will of God, Who wishes you to be just, developing the gratuitous gifts received with greater and greater heroic perfection. You instead… You have ruined and dissipated your soul and the gifts God had given it. What have you done with your free will? What with your intellect? Have you kept for your spirit the freedom that belonged to it? Have you used the intelligence of your mind intelligently? No, you have not. You who do not want to obey Me, I do not say Me-Man, but not even Me-God, you have obeyed Satan. You have used the intelligence of your mind and the freedom of your spirit to understand Darkness. Voluntarily. Good and Evil were placed before you. You chose Evil. Nay, only Good was placed before you: I. Your eternal Creator, Who followed the evolution of your soul, Who was aware of such evolution because the Eternal Thought is aware of everything that happens since Time began to exist, placed Good before you, Good only, because He knows that you are weaker than an alga growing in a ditch.

Love, One here as One in Heaven – because if there are two Natures in Me, and the Christ, because of His human nature and until victory will free Him from human limitations, is at Ephraim and cannot be elsewhere at the same moment; as God, the Word of God, I am in Heaven as on the Earth as My Divinity is always omnipresent and omnipotent – now, as I am One with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the charge you made against Me, you made it against God One and Trine. Against that God Father Who created you out of love, against that God Son Who became incarnate to save you out of love, against that God Spirit Who has spoken to you so many times to instill good wishes into you, out of love. Against that God One and Trine Who has loved you so much, Who brought you on My way, making you blind to the world to give you time to see Me, deaf to the world, to enable you to hear Me. And you!… And you!… After seeing and hearing Me, after coming freely to the Good, realising with your intellect that that was the only path of true glory, you rejected the Good and you have freely given yourself to Evil. But if through your free will you wanted that, if you have always more and more rudely rejected My hand that was offered to you to pull you out of the vortex, if you have always moved farther and farther away from the harbour to plunge into the raging sea of passions, of Evil, can you say to Me, to Him from Whom I come, to Him Who formed Me as Man to try to save you, can you say that We have hated you?

You reproached Me for wanting what is evil for you… Also a sick child reproaches the doctor and his mother for the bitter medicines they make him drink and for the things he wishes to have and they deny him for his own good. Has Satan made you so blind and mad that you do not understand the true nature of the action I took on your behalf, and that you can call malevolence and wish to ruin you what is a provident cure of your Master, of your Saviour, of your Friend to restore you to health? I kept you close to Me… I took money away from your hands. I prevented you from touching that cursed metal that drives you crazy… But do you not know, do you not feel that it is like one of those magic potions that bring about an unquenchable thirst, and produce in the blood a fierce heat, a fury that leads one to death? You – I can read your thought – reproach Me thinking: “Why, then, for such a long time You allowed me to be the administrator of the money?” Why? Because if I had prevented you from touching money earlier, you would have sold yourself and you would have stolen earlier. You sold yourself just the same because there was little you could steal… But I had to try to avoid that without doing violence to your freedom. Gold is your ruin. Because of gold you have become lustful and treacherous…»

«There You are! You believed Samuel’s words! I am not…»

Jesus, Who had become more and more animated in speaking, without ever assuming a violent tone or threatening punishment, suddenly utters a cry of authority, I would say a cry of anger. He darts a furious look at Judas who has raised his face to speak those words and imposes «Be quiet!» in a voice that sounds like the roar of thunder.

Judas falls back on his heels again and speaks no more.

There is silence and Jesus with visible effort recomposes His humanity in such a composure and with such powerful control that testifies by itself the divinity that is in Him. He resumes speaking in His usual voice that is warm and kind also when it is severe, persuasive, conquering… Demons only can resist that voice.

«I am not in need of information from Samuel or anybody else to know what you do. But, you wretch! Do you know in front of Whom you are? It is true! You say that you do not understand My parables any longer. You no longer understand My words. Poor wretch! You do not even understand yourself any more. You do not even understand good and evil any more. Satan, to whom you have given yourself in many ways, Satan whom you have followed in all the temptations he presented to you, has made you stupid. And yet once you understood Me. You believed that I am He Who I am! And you still retain a clear memory of that. And can you believe that the Son of God, that God needs the words of a man to know the thought and the actions of another man? You are not yet perverted to such an extent as not to believe that I am God, and that is where your greatest fault lies. The proof that you believe Me to be such is that you are afraid of My wrath. You realise that you are not struggling against a man, but against God Himself, and you shiver. You shiver, Cain, because you can but see and think of God as the Avenger of Himself and of innocents. You are afraid that it may happen to you as it happened to Korah, Dathan and Abiram and their followers. And yet, as you know Who I am, you struggle against Me. I should say to you: “Cursed!” But I would no longer be the Saviour…

You would like Me to reject you. You do everything, you say, to achieve that. Such reason does not justify your actions. Because it is not necessary to commit sin in order to part from Me. You can do that, I tell you. I have been telling you since Nob, when you came back to Me, one pure morning, filthy with lies and lust, as if you had come out of hell to fall into the mud of a pigsty, or on the litter of libidinous monkeys, and I had to struggle against Myself not to repel you with the point of My sandal like a revolting rag and to check the nausea that was upsetting not only My spirit but also My bowels.

I have always told you. Even before accepting you. Even before coming here. Then, I made that speech just for you, only for you. But you always wanted to stay. For your own ruin. You! My greatest grief! But you, o heretical founder of a large family that will come after you, you think and say that I am above sorrow. No. I am only above sin. I am only above ignorance. Above the former, because I am God. Above the latter, because there can be no ignorance in the soul unspoiled by the Original Sin. But I am speaking to you as a Man, as the Man, as Adam Redeemer Who has come to make amends for the Sin of Adam sinner, and to show what man would have been if he had remained as he was created: innocent. Among the gifts given by God to that Adam was there not an intelligence without impairment and a very great science, as the union with God instilled the light of the Almighty Father into His blessed son? I, the new Adam, am above sin through My own will…

One day, a long time ago, you were surprised that I had been tempted, and you asked Me whether I had ever yielded to temptation. Do you remember? And I replied to you. Yes, as I could reply to you… Because since then you were such… an impoverished man that it was useless to open the most precious pearls of Christ’s virtues under your eyes. You would not have understood their value and… you would have mistaken them for… stones, as they were of such an exceptional size. Also in the desert I replied to you repeating the words, the meaning of the words I had spoken to you that evening while going towards Gethsemane. If John or also Simon Zealot had repeated that question to Me, I would have replied in a different manner, because John is pure and he would not have asked with the malice with which you asked, as you were full of malice… and because Simon is an old wise man, and although he is not unacquainted with life, as John is, he has achieved that wisdom that can contemplate every episode without being upset in his ego. But they did not ask Me whether I had yielded to temptations, to the most common temptation, to that temptation. Because in the irreproachable purity of the former there are no memories of lust, and in the contemplative mind of the latter there is so much light to see purity shine in Me. You asked… and I replied to you. As I could. With that prudence that must never be separated from sincerity, both being holy in the eyes of God. That prudence that is like the treble veil, stretched between the Holy and the people, to conceal the secret of the King. That prudence that adapts words to the person listening to them, to his intellectual power of understanding, to his spiritual purity and to his justice. Because certain truths mentioned to corrupt people become for them the object of laughter, not of veneration…

I do not know whether you remember all those words. I do. And I am repeating them here, just now that we are both on the brink of the Abyss. Because… But it is not necessary to say that. I said in the desert, in reply to the question that My first explanation had not satisfied: “The Master never felt that He was superior to man to be the ‘Messiah’, on the contrary knowing that He was the Man, He wanted to be so in everything except sin. To be masters it is necessary to have been pupils. I knew every-thing as God. My divine intelligence was able to make Me understand also the struggles of man through intellectual power and intellectually. But one day some poor friend of Mine could have said: ‘You do not know what it means to be a man and to have senses and passions’. It would have been a just reproach. I came here to get ready not only for My mission, but also for temptation. A satanic temptation. Because man could not have had power over Me. Satan came when My solitary union with God ceased and I perceived that I was the Man with real flesh subject to the weaknesses of the flesh: hunger, tiredness, thirst, cold. I felt matter with its needs, morale with its passions. And if through My will I subdued evil passions at birth, I allowed the holy

ones to grow.” Do you remember those words? And I also said, the first time, to you, to you alone: “Life is a holy gift and is to be loved holily. Life is a means serving a purpose, which is eternity.” I said: “Then let us give life what it needs to last and to serve the spirit in its conquest: continence of the flesh in its lusts, continence of the mind in its wishes, continence of the heart in all the passions belonging to humanity, infinite ardour for Heavenly passions, love for God and our neighbour, good will to serve God and our neighbour, obedience to the voice of God, heroism in good and in virtue.”

Then you told Me that I was able to do that because I was holy, but you could not do it because you were a young man, full of life. As if to be young and strong were an excuse to be vicious, and only old and sick people, being impotent, because of their age or weakness to do what you were thinking, burning as you are with lewdness, were free from sensual temptations! I could have replied to you with many arguments, then. But you were not able to understand them. You are not able even now, but at least now you cannot smile with your incredulous smile, if I tell you that a healthy man can be chaste, if he does not accept the allurements of the demon and of senses, of his own free will. Chastity is spiritual love, it is an impulse that influences the body and pervades it all, elevating, scenting and preserving it. He who is imbued with chastity has no room for any other evil incentives. Corruption does not affect him. There is no room for it. And then! Corruption does not enter one from outside. It is not an impulse penetrating inside from outside. It is an impulse that from inside, from the heart, from thoughts comes out and penetrates and pervades the envelope: the flesh. That is why I said that corruption comes from the heart. Every adultery, every lust, every sensual sin does not originate outside. But it comes from the intense activity of the mind, which being corrupt, clothes everything it sees with alluring appearance. All men have eyes to see. How come then that a woman who leaves ten men impassive, as they look at her as a creature like themselves and they also consider her a beautiful work of Creation without feeling obscene incentives and phantasms rise in them, upsets the eleventh man and leads him to shameful concupiscence? Because the heart and thought of the eleventh man are corrupt and where ten see a sister, he sees a female.

Although I did not say that to you then, I told you that I had come just for men, not for the angels. I have come to give back to men their royalty of children of God teaching them to live as gods. God is without lewdness, Judas. But I want to show to all of you that man also can be without lewdness. I wanted to show you that one can live as I teach you. To show you that I had to take a real body and thus be able to suffer the temptations of man and say to man, after instructing him: “Do as I do.” And you asked Me whether I had sinned when I was tempted. Do you remember? As I saw that you could not understand that I had been tempted without sinning, because you thought that temptation was unbecoming for the Word and that it was impossible for the Man not to sin, I replied to you that everybody can be tempted, but only those are sinners who want to become so. Great was your surprise and you were incredulous, so much so that you insisted saying: “Have You ever sinned?” It was then possible for you to be incredu-lous. We had known each other only for a short time. Palestine is full of rabbis whose lives are the antitheses of their doctrine. But now you know that I have not sinned, that I do not sin. You know that even the fiercest temptation provoking a healthy virile man, who lives among men and is circumvented by them and by Satan, does not disturb Me to the extent of making Me commit sin. On the contrary, every temptation, although its virulence increased when it was rejected, because the demon made it fiercer to overcome Me, was a greater victory. And not only with regard to lewdness, a whirl that revolved around Me without succeeding in shaking or scratching My will. There is no sin where there is no consent to temptation, Judas. There is instead sin, even without consummating the act, when one accepts the temptation and contemplates it. It may be a venial sin, but it prepares the way to mortal sin in you. Because when one accepts the temptation and allows one’s thought to linger over it, following the phases of a sin mentally, one grows weaker. Satan is aware of that, and that is why he repeatedly hurls blazing thrusts, always hoping that one may penetrate and work inside… Afterwards… it would be easy to change the person who is tempted into a sinner.

You did not understand that then. You could not understand it. You can now. Now you are less deserving to understand than you were then, yet, I repeat those words that I spoke to you, for you, because it is in you, not in Me, that the repelled temptation does not subside… It does not calm down because you do not repel it completely. You do not consummate the act, but you brood over the thought of it. That is what happens today, and tomorrow… Tomorrow you will fall into real sin. That is why I taught you, then, to ask the help of the Father against temptation, I taught you to ask the Father not to lead you into temptation. I, the Son of God, I, Who had already defeated Satan, asked the Father for help, because I am humble. You did not. You did not ask salvation and preservation of God. You are proud. That is why you collapse…

Do you remember all that? And can you now understand what it means to Me, true Man, with all the reactions of man, and true God, with all the reactions of God, to see you thus: lustful, liar, thief, betrayer, homicide? Do you realise what a stress you impose on Me, having to put up with your being near Me? Do you know how laborious it is for Me to control Myself, as I am doing now, to fulfill My mission for you till the very end? Any other man would have seized you by your throat, seeing you, a thief, intent on picking the lock of a coffer and stealing money, and learning that you are a traitor, and worse than a traitor… I have spoken to you, still with pity. Look. It is not yet summer and the cool breeze of the evening is coming in through the window, and yet I am perspiring as if I had been working at a very hard task. But do you not realise how much you cost Me? Or what you are? Do you want Me to drive you away? No, never. When a man is drowning, he who lets him go is a murderer. You are between two forces attracting you, Satan and Me. But if I leave you, you will have him only. And how will you save yourself? And yet you will leave Me… You have already left Me with your spirit… Well, I will still keep Judas’ chrysalis near Me. Your body deprived of the will to love Me, your body inert towards Good. I will keep it until you exact also this nonentity, that is, your mortal remains, to join them to your spirit and sin with your whole self…

Judas!… Will you not speak to Me? Have you not one word for your Master? Not even a prayer? I do not expect you to say: “Forgive me!” I have forgiven you too many times in vain. I know that that word is a mere sound on your lips. It is not an impulse of your contrite spirit. I would like an impulse of your heart. Are you so dead as to have no further wishes? Speak! Are you afraid of Me? Oh! if you were afraid! At least that! But you are not afraid of Me. If you were afraid of Me, I would repeat the words that I spoke to you on that remote day when we spoke of temptations and sins: “I tell you that also after the Crime of crimes, if its culprit should rush to the feet of God with true repentance, and implored Him with tears to be forgiven, offering himself to expiation with confidence, without despairing, God would forgive him, and through expiation, the culprit would still save his soul.” 23 Judas! If you are not afraid of Me, I still love you. Have you nothing to ask My infinite love in this hour?»

«No. Or at most one thing only: that You order John not to speak. How do You expect me to make amends if I am a disgrace among you?». He says so with arrogance.

And Jesus replies to him: «And you say so like that? John will not speak. But at least you, and I ask you this, must behave in such a way that nothing may leak out about your ruin. Pick up those coins and put them back into Johanna’s bag… I will try to close the coffer… with the tool you used to open it…»

And while Judas with a bad grace picks up the coins that had rolled everywhere, Jesus leans on the open coffer, as if He were tired. The light is fading in the room, but not so much as to prevent one from seeing Jesus weep silently, looking at His apostle stoop to pick up the scattered coins.

Judas has finished. He goes towards the coffer. He takes Johanna’s large heavy bag, puts the coins in it and closes it saying: «There it is!» He moves aside.

Jesus stretches out His hand to take the coarse picklock made by Judas, and with a trembling hand He gets the spring-lock to work closing the coffer. He then rests the iron bar on His knee and bends it in V shape, pressing it down completely with His foot, making it unserviceable. He then picks it up and hides it in His chest. In doing, so some tears fall on His linen tunic.

Judas at long last has a gesture of resipiscence. He covers his face with his hands and bursts into tears saying: «I am cursed! I am the opprobrium of the Earth!»

«You are the eternal wretch! And to think that, if you wanted, you could still be happy!»

«Swear it to me! Swear that no one will be told… and I swear to You that I will redeem myself» shouts Judas.

«Do not say: “and I will redeem myself”. You cannot. I alone can redeem you. He who was speaking through your lips a short while ago, can be defeated only by Me. Tell Me the words of humility: “Lord, save me!”, and I will free you from your ruler. Do you not understand that I am waiting more for that word of yours, than for a kiss of My Mother?»

Judas is weeping, but he does not say that word.

«Go. Go out of here. Go up to the terrace. Go wherever you wish, but make no noisy scene. Go. Go. No one will find you out, because I shall be watching. As from tomorrow you will keep the money. Everything is quite useless now.»

Judas goes out without replying. Jesus, now all alone, drops on a seat near the table and with His head resting on His arms folded on the table He weeps distressingly.

Maria Valtorta, The Poem of the ManGod, chapter 565.Parable of the Torn Cloth and Miracle of the Woman in Childbed. Judas of Kerioth Is Caught Stealing.

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