fr-Chapter 52 - Injustice and Decline of Humanity

The Subjugation and Exploitation of the Weak by the Strong

1. If people would realize that the earth was created for everyone, and if they knew how to share the material and spiritual treasures with which their existence is strewn in a just manner with their fellow human beings—truly, I tell you, even here on this earth you would begin to feel the peace of the Spiritual Kingdom. (12, 71)

2. Do you not believe that the division of humanity into nations and races is something primitive? Do you not consider that, if the progress of your civilization—of which you are so proud—were genuine, the law of violence and wickedness would no longer prevail, but rather that all your actions would be governed by the law of conscience? — And you, people, do not exclude yourselves from this judgment, for even among you I discover strife and divisions. (24, 73)

3. Keep in mind the example of Israel, as recorded in history, when it had to wander through the desert for a long time. It struggled to escape the captivity and idolatry of Egypt, but also to reach a land of peace and freedom.

4. Today, all of humanity resembles that people in Pharaoh's captivity. Creeds, doctrines, and laws are forced upon people. The majority of nations are slaves to others who are stronger. A harsh struggle for survival and forced labor under the lashes of hunger and humiliation are the bitter bread that a large part of humanity eats today.

5. All of this increasingly gives rise in the hearts of people to a longing for liberation, for peace, for a better life. (115, 41-43)

6. This world, which should be the home of a single family encompassing all of humanity, is a bone of contention and a cause for senseless striving for power, for betrayal, and for war. This life, which should be devoted to study, spiritual contemplation, and the effort to attain eternal life by using trials and lessons for the good of the soul, is misunderstood by man, so that he allows his heart to be poisoned by resentment, bitterness, materialism, and discontent. (116, 53)

7. You poor peoples of the earth—some enslaved, others oppressed, and the rest exploited by your own leaders and representatives!

8. Your hearts no longer love those who rule you on Earth, for your trust has been betrayed. You no longer have faith in the justice or magnanimity of your judges; you no longer believe in promises, words, or smiling faces. You have witnessed how hypocrisy has taken hold of hearts and established its realm of lies, falsehoods, and deceit on earth.

9. Poor peoples, who bear hardship on your shoulders like an unbearable burden—that hardship which is no longer that blessed law through which man received everything necessary for his livelihood, but which has turned into a desperate and fear-filled struggle for survival. And what do people receive in return for sacrificing their strength and their lives? A meager piece of bread, a cup full of bitterness.

10. Truly, I tell you, this is not the sustenance I placed upon the earth for your joy and preservation; this is the bread of discord, of vanities, of inhuman feelings—in short, the proof of the lack or absence of spiritual maturity in those who govern your human life.

11. I see that you snatch the bread from one another, that those who strive for power cannot bear that others possess anything, because they want everything for themselves; that the strong seize the bread of the weak and the weak must content themselves with watching the powerful eat and enjoy.

12. Now I ask you: In what does the moral progress of this humanity consist? Where is the unfolding of its noblest feelings?

13. Truly, I tell you, in the era when man lived in caves and covered himself with skins, he likewise snatched food from one another's mouths; the strongest likewise took the lion's share; the toil of the weak also benefited those who subjugated them by force; people, tribes, and nations likewise killed one another.

14. What, then, is the difference between humanity today and humanity of those days?

15. Yes, I already know that you will tell Me that you have made great progress—I know that you will point to your civilization and your science. But then I will tell you that all of this is merely a mask of hypocrisy behind which you hide your true feelings and your still primitive instincts, because you have not made the slightest effort toward the development of your soul or the fulfillment of My Law.

16. I am not telling you not to engage in scientific research—no, on the contrary: Seek, research, grow, and increase your knowledge and intelligence in material life, but be merciful toward one another, respect the sacred rights of your neighbors, understand that there is no law that empowers a person to dispose of the lives of their fellow human beings—in short, People, do something to apply my highest commandment of "Love one another" to your lives, so that you may escape the moral and spiritual stagnation into which you have fallen, and so that when the veil of lies covering your faces falls away, your light may shine through, sincerity may radiate, and truth may take hold in your lives. Then you may rightly say that you have made progress.

17. Become spiritually strong in following My teachings, so that in the future your words may always be confirmed by genuine works of mercy, wisdom, and brotherhood. (325, 10-20)

18. I send you My peace; but truly, I tell you: as long as there are people who possess all that is necessary and forget those who are dying of hunger, there will be no peace on earth.

19. Peace is not founded on human glories nor on riches. It is founded on good will, on mutual love—on serving and respecting one another. Oh, if only the world would understand these teachings! Hostilities would vanish, and love would blossom in the human heart. (165, 71-72)

The Depravity of Humanity

20. Humanity is shipwrecked in the midst of a storm of sins and vices. It is not only the adult who defiles his soul by allowing his passions to develop; even the child, in his childhood, experiences the capsizing of the boat in which he sails.

21. My Word, full of revelations, rises up in the midst of this humanity like a giant lighthouse, showing the shipwrecked the true course and reviving hope in those who were close to losing their faith. (62, 44)

22. As humanity has multiplied, so too has its sin. The world is not lacking in cities like Sodom and Gomorrah, whose wickedness echoes across the entire earth and poisons hearts. Not even traces remain of those sinful cities; yet their inhabitants were not hypocrites, for they sinned in broad daylight.

23. But this humanity of today, which hides in the darkness to indulge its passions and then feigns righteousness and purity, will face a stricter judgment than Sodom.

24. It is the calamitous legacy of all past generations, whose addictions, vices, and diseases are bearing fruit in this age. It is the tree of evil that has grown in the hearts of men—a tree made fertile by sin, whose fruits continue to tempt both women and men and bring new hearts to ruin day by day.

25. Under the shadow of this tree lie men and women without the strength to free themselves from its influence. There remain shattered virtues, tarnished human dignity, and many lives left in ruins.

26. It is not only adults who are drawn to the pleasures of the world and the flesh and run after them; young people and even children as well—the poison that has accumulated over time has reached them all; and those who have managed to escape the evil influence of the wicked—what do they do for those who have gone astray? They judge them, condemn them, and are outraged by their actions. Few are those who pray for those who have strayed from the path, and even fewer are those who devote part of their lives to fighting evil.

27. Truly, I tell you, My Kingdom will not be established among men as long as the tree of evil still has life. This power must be destroyed; for this, it is necessary to possess the sword of love and justice—the only thing that sin cannot resist. Understand that it is not judgments or punishments, but love, forgiveness, and mercy that are the very essence of My teaching—the light that will illuminate your paths and the instruction that brings salvation to humanity. (108, 10–14)

28. Your materialism has turned the Eden that I entrusted to humankind into a hell.

29. The life that people lead is false; their pleasures, their power, and their wealth are false; their learning and their science are false.

30. Rich and poor alike, you are all preoccupied with money, the possession of which is deceptive. You worry about pain and illness and are terrified at the thought of death. Some fear losing what they have, while others long to obtain what they have never possessed. Some have everything in abundance, while others lack everything. But all these efforts, passions, needs, and ambitious goals concern only material life, the hunger of the body, base passions, and human desires, as if man actually possessed no soul.

31. The world and matter have temporarily defeated the soul, gradually leading it back into bondage, and ultimately thwarting its mission in human life. Why do you not gradually realize for yourselves that the hunger, misery, pain, and fear that weigh down your lives are nothing other than the faithful reflection of the misery and pain of your souls? (272, 29–32)

32. The world needs My Word; the peoples and nations need My teachings of love. The ruler, the scientist, the judge, the pastor, the teacher—they all need the light of My truth, and that is precisely why I have come in this time to enlighten humanity in its soul, its heart, and its mind. (274, 14)

33. Your planet is still not a place of love, virtue, or peace. I send pure souls to your world, and you return them to Me impure, because human life is permeated by sin and corruption.

34. I see virtues as small, scattered lights among the souls that are lashed by the storms of selfishness, vengeance, and hatred. This is the fruit that humanity offers Me. (318, 33-34)

The upside-down world of an immature humanity

35. You have rulers in whose hearts there is neither the justice nor the magnanimity required to govern their people, for they pursue the petty goal of power and wealth—people who claim to be My representatives yet do not even know love for their neighbors — doctors who do not know the essence of their mission, which is mercy — and judges who confuse justice with vengeance and abuse the law for corrupt purposes.

36. No one who walks crooked paths and turns his gaze away from that light which he has within himself as the beacon of his conscience has any conception of the judgment he is bringing upon himself.

37. There are also those who have seized upon tasks that do not belong to them, and who, through their errors, provide proof that they absolutely lack the necessary abilities to carry out the task they have taken upon themselves.

38. Likewise, you may find servants of God who are not truly such, for they were not sent for this purpose—people who lead nations yet are not even capable of guiding their own steps — teachers who lack the gift of teaching and who, instead of spreading light, confuse the mind — doctors in whose hearts no feeling of compassion has stirred in the face of another's pain and who do not know that he who truly possesses this gift is an apostle of Christ.

39. All My fundamental principles have been desecrated by men, yet now the hour has come when all their works will be judged. This is My judgment, for it is My right to carry it out. Therefore I say to you: Watch and fulfill My commandments of love and forgiveness. (105, 16-19)

40. Look at this world—proud, defiant, and conceited about all the works of men with which they astonish the generations of this century. For the most part, they do not believe in the spiritual, nor do they love it. Therefore, they do not pray, nor do they follow My law. Yet they are content and proud to be able to present a world filled with marvels, which they have created with the help of their science.

41. Yet this astonishing world of men, which they have built over centuries of science, struggles, wars, and tears, they will still destroy with their own hands and weapons. The time is already approaching when humanity will become aware of the unsustainability and fragility of its works, which lacked love, justice, and the genuine desire for perfection.

42. Soon you will learn that without God you are nothing, that only from Me can you receive the strength, life, and intelligence to create a harmonious existence between the spirit and the human part of man. (282, 9-11)

43. People speak of times past, of antiquity, of long centuries and endless ages, yet I still see you as small. I see that you have matured very little spiritually. In My eyes, your world is still in its infancy, even though it may seem to you that you have reached maturity.

44. No, humanity, as long as it is not the soul that provides those proofs of maturity, upward development, perfection, and progress in the various spheres of your life, you will inevitably present Me with human works that are great only in appearance, but which, due to a lack of love, lack moral substance and are not lasting. (325, 62-63)

45. Now is a decisive time for souls, truly a time of struggle. Everything is strife and conflict. This war takes place in the heart of every human being, within families, within all institutions, among all peoples, and among all races.

46. The battle is being waged not only on the earthly plane, but also in the Spiritual Realm. It is the Great Battle that was foreseen in symbolic form by the prophets of other times and that is also beheld in the visions of the prophets or seers of this age.

47. Yet this battle, which is being fought and which shakes everything, is not understood by humanity, even though it is a part of and a witness to this very battle.

48. The pace of humanity has accelerated in these days—but where is it going? Where is man going in such haste? Does he perhaps find his happiness on this dizzying path, does he attain the longed-for peace, the glorious life that every heart selfishly desires?

49. I tell you that what man actually achieves with his frantic rush is total exhaustion. The human spirit and heart are heading toward weariness of life and exhaustion, and this abyss was created by man himself.

50. Into this abyss he will plunge, and in this total exhaustion, in this chaos of feelings of hatred, of pleasures, of unsatisfied lusts for power, of sin and adultery, of the desecration of spiritual and human laws, his soul will suffer an apparent "death," his heart a temporary "death."

51. But I will cause man to rise from this "death" to life. I will ensure that he experiences his resurrection and, in that new life, fights for the rebirth of all ideals, for the revival of all principles and all virtues, which are the qualities and heritage of the spiritual soul, of which he is the origin. For the spiritual soul came forth from Me, from Me it received life, from My perfection it drank, and by My grace it was satisfied. (360, 6-8)