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"Why did I say to you that they received the earnest
of eternal life? I say that they receive the
earnest-money, but not the full payment, because they
wait to receive it in Me, the Eternal Life, where
they have life without death, and satiety without
disgust, and hunger without pain, for from that
divine hunger pain is far away, and though they have
what they desire, disgust is far from satiety, for I
am the flawless Food of Life.
"It is true that, in this life, they receive the
earnest, and taste it in this way, namely that the
soul begins to hunger for the honor of the Eternal
God, and for the food of the salvation of other
souls, and being hungry, she eats, that is to say,
nourishes herself with love of her neighbor, which
causes her hunger and desire, for the love of the
neighbor is a food which never satiates him who feeds
on it, the eater being insatiable and always remains
hungry.
"So this earnest-money is a commencement of a
guarantee which is given to man, in virtue of which
he expects one day to receive his payment, not
through the perfection of the earnest-money in
itself, but through faith, through the certitude
which he has of reaching the completion of his being
and receiving his payment.
"Wherefore this enamored soul, clothed in My
Truth, having already received in this life the
earnest of My love, and of her neighbor's, is not yet
perfect, but expects perfection in immortal life. I
say that this earnest is not perfect, because the
soul who tastes it has not, as yet, the perfection
which would prevent her feeling pain in herself, or
in others.
"In herself, through the offense done to Me by the
law of perversity which is bound in her members and
struggles against the spirit, and in others by the
offense of her neighbor. She has indeed, in a sense,
a perfect grace, but not that perfection of My
saints, who have arrived at Me, Eternal Life, for, as
has been said, their desires are without suffering,
and yours are not.
"These servants of Mine, as I have said to you in
another place, who nourish themselves at this table
of holy desire, are blessed and full of grief, even
as My only-begotten Son was, on the wood of the holy
Cross, because, while His flesh was in grief and
torment, His soul was blessed through its union with
the divine nature.
"In like manner these are blessed by the union of
their holy desire towards Me, clothed, as has been
said, in My sweet Will, and they are full of grief
through compassion for their neighbor, and because
they afflict their own self-love, depriving it of
sensual delights and consolations."
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