fr-Chapter 44 - Life in the Divine Sense

The Necessary Balance

1. Everyone's destiny is predetermined by their spiritual task and their human task. Both must be in harmony with one another and strive toward a single goal. Truly, I tell you, I will evaluate not only your spiritual works but also your material works. For in them I will discover merits that help your spirit to reach Me. (171, 23)

2. Until now, human pride has led people to disregard the spiritual aspect, and this lack of knowledge has prevented them from achieving perfection.

3. As long as man does not learn to maintain harmony between his physical and spiritual powers, he will not be able to find the balance that should exist in his life. (291, 26–27)

4. Disciples: Although you live in the world, you can lead a spiritual life. For you must not think that spiritualization consists in turning away from what pertains to the body, but rather in bringing human laws into harmony with divine laws.

5. Blessed is he who studies my laws and knows how to unite them with human laws into one, for he will be healthy, strong, generous, and happy. (290, 26-27)

Good and Perishable Joys

6. I am not telling you to turn away from your earthly duties or from the wholesome joys of the heart and the senses. I ask only that you renounce what poisons your soul and makes your body sick.

7. Whoever lives within the law fulfills what his conscience dictates. Whoever spurns the permitted joys to throw himself into forbidden pleasures wonders, even in moments of greatest pleasure, why he is not happy nor finds peace. For from pleasure to pleasure he sinks ever deeper, until he perishes in the abyss, without finding true satisfaction for his heart and his soul.

8. Some must succumb and empty to the last drop the cup in which they sought pleasure without finding it, so that they may hear the voice of Him who ever invites them to the feast of eternal life. (33, 44–46)

9. The scientist cuts a fruit from the tree of science with a hand devoid of reverence, without first heeding the voice of his conscience, in which My Law speaks to him to tell him that all the fruits of the tree of wisdom are good, and that therefore, whoever plucks them may do so solely for the good of his neighbor.

10. The examples I have given show you why humanity knows neither the love nor the peace of that inner paradise which man should have forever in his heart because of his obedience to the Law.

11. To help you find the same, I teach the sinners, the disobedient, the ungrateful, and the proud, to make you understand that you are endowed with a spirit, that you have a conscience, that you are fully cap , and able to judge and evaluate what is good and what is evil, and to show you the path that will lead you to the paradise of peace, wisdom, infinite love, immortality, glory, and eternity. (34, 15-17)

12. People do not always interpret my teachings correctly. I have never taught you to disregard or refrain from enjoying the good fruit that my laws approve and permit. I have only taught that you should not strive for the unnecessary or superfluous, much less love it; that you should not make use of what is corrupting or forbidden as you would of fruits that are beneficial to the soul and the body. Yet all that which is permitted for the soul or the heart and serves its well-being, I have recommended to you, because it is within My laws. (332, 4)

13. Much time had to pass before humanity attained spiritual maturity. You have always succumbed to two extremes: one has been materialism, through which you seek to attain greater worldly pleasures; yet this is in reality detrimental, for it deters the spirit from fulfilling its mission. But you must also avoid the other extreme: the mortification of the "flesh," the complete renunciation of all that belongs to this life; for I sent you to this earth to live as human beings, and I have shown you the right path so that you may live in such a way that you "give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."

14. I created this world for you, with all its beauty and all its perfection. I have given you the human body through which you are to develop all the abilities I have given you in order to attain perfection.

15. The Father does not want you to deny yourselves all the good that this world offers you. Yet you must not place the body above the soul, for the body is transitory, but the soul belongs to eternity. (358, 7-9)

Blessed and Unfortunate Wealth

16. If it is My will to make you possessors of earthly goods, I grant them to you so that you may share them with your needy brothers and sisters—with those who have no wealth or support, with the weak and the sick. Many of those who possess nothing on earth can, however, share their spiritual goods with you. (96, 27)

17. I want everything to be yours, but I want you to make conscious use of what you need; I want you to know how to be spiritually rich and to be able to possess much in material terms, provided you make good use of it and give both their true value and proper place.

18. How can the soul of an immeasurably rich person harm itself if what he possesses is for the good of his neighbors? And how can a powerful person suffer harm if his spirit knows how to withdraw at times to pray, and through his prayer he is in communion with Me? (294, 38)

19. Do not say to Me: "Lord, I have seen poverty among those who follow You. Yet among those who no longer even remember You, nor utter Your name, I see abundance, pleasures, and delights."

20. My people should not regard these cases as proof that whoever follows Me must necessarily be poor in this world. Yet I tell you that the peace possessed by those who listen here and devote part of their lives to doing good is unknown to those whom you so greatly envy, nor could they attain it with all their wealth.

21. Some know how to possess the goods of the world and those of the spirit at the same time. Others are not granted the goods of the world because they forget those of the spirit, and still others are interested only in the goods of the world because they believe that the divine laws are an enemy of earthly riches.

22. Goods are and remain goods, yet not all know how to use them properly. You should also know that not everything that many possess was given to them by Me. Some have what they received from Me as compensation, just as there are others who have stolen everything they possess.

23. The best proof that people can receive of their fulfillment of duty in life is the peace of the soul, not the jingle of coins. (197, 24-27)

24. When I tell you, "Ask, and it will be given to you," you ask Me for earthly things. Yet truly—how little you ask of Me! Ask Me above all for all that is for the good of your soul. Do not store up treasures on earth, for there are thieves here! Store up treasures in the Kingdom of the Father, for there your wealth will be secure, and it will serve the happiness and peace of your soul.

25. The treasures of the earth are the riches, the power, and the titles of false greatness. The treasures of the spirit are good works. (181, 68–69)

26. The proud believe themselves to be great without being so, and wretched is he who is content with the unnecessary riches of this life without discovering the true values of the heart and the spirit. How wretched are his desires, his cravings, his ideals! With how little is he satisfied!

27. Yet the one who knows how to live is the one who has learned to give to God what is God's, and to the world what is the world's. The one who knows how to refresh himself in the bosom of nature without becoming a slave to matter knows how to live, and even if he appears to possess nothing, he is master of the goods of this life and is on the path to possessing the treasures of the Kingdom of God. (217, 19-20)

The Law of Giving

28. If people had faith in My Word, if they carried Me in their hearts, they would always keep in mind that sentence of Mine which I once spoke to the crowds who were listening to Me: "Truly, I tell you, even if you give only a glass of water, this will not go unrewarded."

29. Yet people think: If they give something and receive nothing in return, they would rather keep what they possess by keeping it all to themselves.

30. Now I tell you that in My justice there is perfect balance, so that you may never fear giving away anything you possess. Do you see those people who gather and hoard treasures and let no one share in their possessions? Those people carry a dead soul within them.

31. Those, on the other hand, who until their last breath devoted themselves to the task of giving their neighbor everything they possessed, until they found themselves alone, abandoned, and destitute in their final hour—these have always been guided by the light of faith, which has shown them in the distance the nearness of the "Promised Land," where my love awaits them to reward them for all their works. (128, 46–49)

32. Come near, that I may raise you to true life and remind you that you were created to give. But as long as you do not know what you carry within you, it will be impossible for you to give to those who need it.

33. See how everything around you fulfills the mission of giving. The elements, the stars, the beings, the plants, the flowers, and the birds—everything, from the greatest to the imperceptible, has the capacity and the purpose to give. Why do you make an exception, even though you are endowed with the greatest capacity to love through divine grace?

34. How much more must you grow in wisdom, love, virtue, and skill so that you may be a light on the path of your younger brothers and sisters! What a lofty and beautiful destiny has your Father intended for you! (262, 50–52)

The Fulfillment of Duties and Tasks

35. In the "Third Era," My spiritual teaching will give the soul the freedom to spread its wings and rise up to the Father to offer Him true worship.

36. Yet man, as a human being, must also offer a service to God, and this tribute consists in fulfilling his duties on earth by obeying human laws, demonstrating morality and sound judgment in his actions, and fulfilling his duties as a father, child, brother, friend, master, and servant.

37. Whoever lives in this way will honor Me on earth and will enable his soul to rise up to glorify Me. (229, 59-61)

38. Whoever shirks the burden of his duty, whoever strays from the right path or disregards the obligations his soul has undertaken toward Me, in order instead to assume obligations according to his own taste or will, will not be able to have true peace in his heart, for his soul will never be content or at rest. These are the ones who constantly seek pleasures to forget their pain and restlessness, deceiving themselves with false joys and fleeting satisfactions.

39. I let them go their own way, for I know that even if they turn away from Me today, forget Me and even deny Me, they will soon grasp the insignificance of the world's riches, titles, pleasures, and honors when reality awakens them from their dream of greatness on earth, when man must face spiritual truth, eternity, and divine justice, from which no one can escape.

40. This is not unknown to anyone, for you all possess a spirit that reveals to you, through the gift of intuition, the reality of your life—the path laid out for you, and all that you are meant to accomplish upon it. But you are determined to free yourselves from every spiritual vow in order to feel free and to be masters of your own lives. (318, 13–15)

41. Before your soul was sent to this planet, it was shown the "fields"; it was told that its task was to sow peace, that its message was a spiritual one, and your soul rejoiced in this and promised to be faithful and obedient to its mission.

42. Why are you afraid to sow now? Why do you now feel unworthy or incapable of carrying out the work that so delighted your soul when it was entrusted to it? Because you have allowed your passions to block your path and thus deny the soul passage, while you seek to justify its indecision with childish excuses.

43. Do not return empty-handed to the "valley" from which you came. I know that your suffering would then be very great. (269, 32–34)

44. Each person is assigned a number of souls to guide or care for, and this task does not end with physical death. The soul continues to sow, cultivate, and reap, in the Spiritual World just as on Earth.

45. The greater souls guide the lesser ones, and these, in turn, guide others with an even lower degree of development, while it is the Lord who leads them all to His fold.

46. When I have now told you that the greater souls guide the lesser ones, I do not mean to say that these souls have been great from the very beginning and that the latter must always remain small in comparison to their brothers and sisters. Those who are great now are so because they have developed and unfolded upward in the fulfillment of the noble task of loving, serving, and assisting those who have not yet reached this level of spiritual development, who are still weak—those who have gone astray, and those who suffer.

47. Those who are still small today will be great tomorrow because of their perseverance in (131, 19-21)