The cross was prepared, lacked the victim

In the colloquy of 5th December 1947, Jesus spoke to Bld. Alexandrina as follows: 

You are my victim, to you I have entrusted the highest mission.  And as proof of this listen carefully to what I say to you and understand it well. 

Almost a century ago I sent to this parish the cross as signal of your crucifixion.  I did not send a cross of roses, because the cross didn’t grow roses, only thorns; nor was it of gold, because your virtues and your heroism would be the precious stones that would decorate it.  The cross was of earth, because it was from the earth that the cross grew. 

The cross was prepared; it lacked the victim, but already in the divine mind it had been chosen; that victim was you. 

Evil has increased, the wave of sin has reached its high point, the victim must be immolated; you came, the world’s sacrificial lamb. 

And now you will leave earth for Heaven, but the cross will remain until the end of the world, and it will always be mine. 

It was the human perversity that prepared mine, and it was the same human perversity that prepared yours. 

Oh, how admirable are the designs of the Lord!  How they are great and admirable!  How many enchantments they have! 

Eight years later, on 21st of January 1955, He insisted: 

More than a century ago I showed a cross to this beloved land, a cross awaiting a victim.  Everything is proof of love! 

Oh, Balasar, if you do not respond to me... 

Cross of earth for the victim who was taken from nothing, the victim chosen by God and who always existed in the eyes of God!

The victim of the world, but so enriched with celestial graces, who has given all for Heaven and who, for love of souls, accepts all!

Trust, believe, my daughter!  I am here.  Repeat your "I believe".  Trust! 

The Signoriles, in the prologue of their book Figlia del dolore, madre di amore, in a chapter headed, "The Cross and the Crucified", first give a full description of Balasar, then write: 

For some years after 1832, Balasar was place of pilgrimage to honour a Cross which had appeared mysteriously in the earth, a few meters from the actual church.  To protect this Cross a Chapel, which still exists, was built. It has the date 1832 carved into the rock lintel of the door. During these years a Brotherhood was formed to promote a feast of the Holy Cross of Balasar. 

Little more than a century later, Balasar has come to be the object of numerous pilgrimages:  the people are attracted by the fame of Alexandrina Maria da Costa, who lived here, "crucified", for many years. 

In the writings of the Bld. Alexandrina there are some polemical texts, apparently even heretical.  The following, which occupies a prominent place among them and which has deep bearing on the Cross, was written on All Saints Day, 1944: Write everything, write, my daughter. 

If what I say you remained hidden, it would have no value to the world. 

Mother of the sinners, new redeemer, save them, save them. 

You are the new redeemer chosen by Christ. 

There was never nor will there ever be a victim immolated in this way, because there was never so great need as today. The world has never sinned so profoundly. 

Nineteen centuries have passed since I came to the world and I bring now the new redeemer chosen by Me to remind the world what Christ suffered, what pain is, what love is and how intensely love thirsts for souls. 

You are the new redeemer that comes to save them, you are the new redeemer that inflames in humanity the love of Jesus, the new redeemer that will be spoken of as long as the world remains.

Jesus calls her ‘redeemer’ six times in this passage.  The great student and recognised interpreter of the Beata, Fr. Umberto Pasquale, when translating her writings into Italian, substituted ‘co-redeemer’ for this word.  And in a note to the text that we have given here, explains the substitution thus: 

The word "redeemer" is used in the original.  To understand exactly what is meant, it must be seen in the context.  You see, it is Jesus himself who operates in Alexandrina:  He affirms this many times. 

As Head of the mystical body He acts in each one of His members; He makes proper their acts and enriches them with His infinite merits; He offers them to Eternal Father as if they were His own to attract grace for their souls. "It is God who gives the increase... we are useless servants", as St. Paul teaches.  That is so true that the mystical soul knows, by experience, that it does not do anything; it feels itself without proper will; it is not the owner of anything; it does not count except in union with Jesus. 

Its life is a perpetual abandonment to Him; it feels itself unable to do anything whatever, except sin, if it lacks the aid of the Most High. 

The whole of Alexandrina’s diary speaks about this, and confirms it.

And so it is; there is no doubt that those words - and there are others similar – make a great impression.  Fr. Uumberto quotes them in the preface of Cristo Gesù in Alexandrina. 

The Holy Cross of Balasar did not appear by chance.