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Massimo Coppo: reflections and solutions for our times

What God has operated in the life of Marcello Ezekiel Ciai, "the prophet of Assisi" - to which among other things the Lord gave to write a vibrant and detailed prophecy on the earthquake of 1997 - doesn’t finish to surprise me.As I compare his extremely singular spiritual path  with the life of  St. Francis, I find amazing "similarities", showing how God continues to intervene in a most particular way in the seraphic, mystical and mysterious Assisi, spiritual fortress and bastion of the Church.

Francis signed himself with the "Tau", last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. St. Bonaventura so writes in his biography of St. Francis: "The Saint had great reverence and affection for the sign of the Tau: he often recommended it in his words and wrote it by his own hand in the letters he sent, as if his mission consisted, according to the prophet’s saying, in marking the Tau on the foreheads of those who moan and weep, earnestly converting themselves  to Christ " (see Franciscan Sources, 1079). The biblical "prophet" from which Francis took this sign is Ezekiel, where  one reads that with the "Tau" were marked  those who should escape from the extermination hanging over the idolatrous and rebellious city of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 9.4).

Eight hundred years after St. Francis - it was about thirty years ago -, the Lord began to manifest Himself to Marcello Ezekiel, who lived in a secluded house on the slopes of the Subasio Mountain, with nightly visions. In the first of these visions - quite amazing for its content - he heard a voice telling him he had to follow the revelations of the prophet Ezekiel: "I didn’t know that name and knew nothing about the prophet Ezekiel", Marcello  wrote later in reporting this  irruption of the Supernatural in his life (see the book "Marcello Ezekiel Ciai, Prophecies," published by the Association Iaca in 2010).

So here is mysteriously reappearing,  in Assisi, eight centuries later, the prophet Ezekiel!

But there's yet more!
 

In his "Major Legend" St. Bonaventure sees in St Francis the Angel of whom one reads in the Book of Revelation that, at the opening of the sixth seal, rises from the East carrying the seal of the living God. In my book “From the Land of Assisi the Spirit of prophecy on the collapse of economy” I related what a humble farmer of the land of Assisi, who often went to pray with Marcello, told me that he had dreamed regarding him: that is, in a dream he had met and had asked him: "But you where do you come from?" and there came a voice that replied "He is coming from the Smoking East! ". Therefore even Marcello, as the Angel of the sixth seal, “comes” from the East!

And there is still more. To Francis who certainly hadn’t followed courses in theology - in reality had not even completed the normal studies that his companions were doing - God revealed the Tau, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, as a symbol of his mission of salvation. Today, there are many tourists and pilgrims in Assisi, who in many shops where you can find it, take and also put on their neck a wooden "Tau", perhaps without knowing his last and extremely serious meaning. Yes, because also on this idolatrous world of ours, rebellious to God and his Christ, the extermination hangs over. Jesus spoke about it clearly, in the Gospel: “For in those days there will be suffering, such as not has been since the beginning of the creation that God created until now, no, and never will be. And if the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, ha has cut short those days”. (Mark 13:19-20)
And from this extermination all those who have the Tau in their heart will escape. All those who "moan and cry" for their sins and all those who do not get accustomed to the evil that they see around them.

So there, also to  Marcello Ezekiel - absolutely ignorant to theological things - the Lord reveals some of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet ("HE", "HET", "BETH") that lead him to the Psalm 118 (119), and from there to the reading of the entire Bible. One in particular of these letters remains impressed to him, the 'HE', , a symbol of a man who prays and sings with raised hands - Hallelujah! In the prophecies of Marcello, the call to conversion is reinforced by the knowledge that we are in the last times: the seventh seal by now has been opened and we are experiencing the last events of human history; the day of the Lord, the return of Jesus, is approaching fast. For many, unfortunately, it will be a "Dies Irae” , a day of anguish and affliction, a day of darkness and obscurity; as already announced by one of the oldest prophets (Zephaniah 1:15). But all those who "await with love the manifestation of Jesus" (so Paul to Timothy, 4:8), at the return of the Lord will arise their head towards Him, as Jesus says in the gospel; and exclaim with raised arms, as prefigured in the mysterious "HE" revealed to Marcello: "Hallelujah! Come, Lord Jesus!"

The persecution of Christians is increasing in various parts of the Islamic world, and at this point an explanation about the inter-religious dialogue  is necessary.

The visit of St. Francis to the Sultan of Egypt is invoked by many as an example of this "dialogue" between the various denominations, so much researched as widely unsuccessful.

Reading the writings of St. Francis and the other "Franciscan Sources", it is clear that St. Francis to the Sultan of Egypt didn't go so much for a dialogue, but with the hope of converting him: faithful executor of the mandate of Jesus - whose Words St. Francis wanted to accomplish "sine glossa": "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature: he that believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned" (St. Mark 16:15-18).

These words do not sound "ecumenical", and for a false research for "good peace" with other religions, many Christians are ashamed to pronounce them. But Jesus warned: "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth: I didn't come to bring peace but a sword. ... I have come in fact to separate..." (Matthew 10:34-35). Oh yes, the Gospel separates those who accept it from those who do not want to believe. And according to the words of Jesus, "anyone who rejects the Gospel will be condemned".

"I am not ashamed of the Gospel", wrote the apostle Paul to the Romans (1:16), and we ourselves are not ashamed to profess the Gospel in its entirety, according to which Jesus, when he returns, will judge "the living and the dead" (He will judge also Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius, but that's another truth that many would rather not talk about).

"You seek for glory in political and religious alliances; you talk about ecumenism; but  can one put together a rotten pomegranate with unripe lemons to make a sweet?" So the Lord inspired Marcello to write at the end of his first great prophecy ("The Mantle") adressed to Rome and the Church.

"Christian Integralism"? Yes, in a certain way, but professed by those who are willing to offer their lives to martyrdom for the love of those to whom they are proclaiming the Gospel, as it happened to the apostles, who all died martyrs, except St. John, in various parts of the world then known; and how it happened to the first franciscan martyrs in Morocco.

 

Lent

Now that we are in the time of Lent, I felt to write - from here until Easter - some considerations on this unavoidable - and undoubtedly uncomfortable and most unpleasant - reality that is hell, of which the Holy Scriptures speak clearly and at length, and in wich all the saints of our Church have always believed; a truth reaffirmed over the centuries by the Church itself in not less than six Councils.
 

April 2, 2012 – “Holy Week", “different" from all the other 51 weeks of the year: because in this week, in a special way we "announce the death of the Lord and proclaim His resurrection", as the faithful say in the Holy Mass after the consecration of the Host, adding: "Waiting for His coming”. But right this "waiting" for Christ’s return - now always closer - should give a particular tone to this very special week.

Here in Umbria there are so many commemorations of the "passion" of Jesus, in period costume and with great involvement of the crowd: but if we participate without the perception that He, once and for all risen and ascended to heaven, from there searches our hearts and our feelings; and if we do not keep alive in us the expectation of His imminent return so, as it is written: "we will not be humiliated at His coming" but full of love and joy go towards Him in heaven, as St. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians: well, then those commemorations will remain for us only sterile folklore.

To the women who along His "Via Crucis" beat their breasts, the Lord said: "Weep for yourselves and for your children" (how many would have died during the destruction of Jerusalem!),  then projecting his prophetic vision on our times, in which a world castled in his ethical and religious relativism will live His coming with surprise and dismay and, as we read in the Gospel "will beat their breasts", but too late, "all the tribes of the earth."

So that this Holy Week should not elapse in vain: the memory of the passion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus should move us to convert ourselves sincerely with love and fear to Him who will soon return to separate the sheep from the goats, in an indisputable judgment that will destine some to condemnation ant others to eternal joy.

March 12, 2012 - Many are trying to escape in all possible ways the indisputable statements of the Scriptures that there is hell, and unfortunately many are those who you will be imprisoned there forever. And then there are those who, shaking off with conceit their shoulders, say: "Well, no one has ever came back from the afterlife to tell us about it", although almost 2000 Easters have passed in which the Church has celebrated the resurrection of Jesus who from "there" has really returned, and has told us clearly how things are. Others, insisting that God is love, even affirm that in the passages of the Gospel dealing with Hell Jesus is speaking through hyperboles, or maybe He has never said those words, interpolated by someone who has manipulated the texts perhaps to frighten and keep good the people ...

But how many in the Church today have the courage to speak like that?

February  27, 2012 - My eyes fell recently on an old newspaper article that reported an exhortation given by Pope Benedict XVI to the clergy of Rome, that they may speak more of hell, a reality often totally neglected in the homilies of the priests. "You have words of eternal life", said Peter to the Lord Jesus, at a crucial moment of his ministry, when after a very strong speech on what it meant to follow him, most of the disciples had abandoned him. Addressing the twelve apostles, Jesus had provoked their faith and loyalty, asking them: "Do  you also wish go away?" And Peter, speaking on behalf of all, quickly responded: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life ...". Yes, the Gospel proclaimed by Jesus is a "good news" primarily because it promises eternal life to those who follow the Lord, offering salvation from an eternal damnation hanging over a world hostile and rebel against God, "He that believes on the Son has eternal life" - is written in the Gospel of St. John, (3.36) - "whoever disobeys to the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him". If you do not start from the vision of a world that, not having accepted Jesus, is already under the judgment of God, and therefore oriented towards eternal damnation; if you do not acknowledge that "the whole world lies under the power of the evil one" (Ist Epistle of St. John 5:19) and is going to perdition, then the intervention of Jesus in the history, the very words "salvation" and "savior" lose their consistency, their deeper meaning, and the same happens to that "fear of God" that the Bible indicates as "the beginning of wisdom",  starting point to really know God and receive the redemption that He offers us in Christ.

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A wonderful book tells in an involving way, facts that have occurred in the places of Saint Francis:
"From the land of Assisi the Spirit of prophecy on the collapse of economy"
A mysterious story for a future of glory