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"In them is fulfilled the saying of the sweet and
amorous Word, My only-begotten Son, in the gospel
when He replied to Peter's demand, 'Master, we have
left everything for your love's sake, and have
followed You, what will you give us?' My Truth
replied, 'I will give you a hundredfold for one, and
you shall possess eternal life.' As if My Truth had
wished to say, 'You have done well, Peter, for in no
other way could you follow Me. And I, in this life,
will give you a hundredfold for one.' And what is
this hundredfold, beloved daughter, besides which the
apostle obtained eternal life? To what did My Truth
refer? To temporal substance?
"Properly speaking, no. Do I not, however, often
cause one who gives alms to multiply in temporal
goods? In return for what do I this? In return for
the gift of his own will. This is the one for which I
repay him a hundredfold. What is the meaning of the
number a hundred? A hundred is a perfect number, and
cannot be added to except by recommencing from the
first. So charity is the most perfect of all the
virtues, so perfect that no higher virtue can be
attained except by recommencing at the beginning of
self-knowledge, and thus increasing many hundredfold
in merit; but you always necessarily arrive at the
number one hundred.
"This is that hundredfold which is given to those
who have given Me the unit of their own will, both in
general obedience, and in the particular obedience of
the religious life. And in addition to this hundred
you also possess eternal life, for charity alone
enters into eternal life, like a mistress bringing
with her the fruit of all the other virtues, while
they remain outside, bringing their fruit, I say,
into Me, the eternal life, in whom the obedient taste
eternal life.
"It is not by faith that they taste eternal life,
for they experience in its essence that which they
have believed through faith; nor by hope, for they
possess that for which they had hoped, and so with
all the other virtues, Queen Charity alone enters and
possesses Me, her possessor.
"See, therefore, that these little ones receive a
hundredfold for one, and also eternal life, for here
they receive the fire of divine charity figured by
the number of a hundred (as has been said). And
because they have received this hundredfold from Me,
they possess a wonderful and hearty joy, for there is
no sadness in charity, but the joy of it makes the
heart large and generous, not narrow or double. A
soul wounded by this sweet arrow does not appear one
thing in face and tongue while her heart is
different. She does not serve, or act towards her
neighbor with dissembling and ambition, because
charity is an open book to be read by all.
"Wherefore the soul who possesses charity never
falls into trouble, or the affliction of sadness, or
jars with obedience, remains obedient until death."
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