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The Voice of Christ
My child, beware of discussing high matters and God's
hidden judgments -- why this person is so forsaken
and why that one is favored with so great a grace, or
why one man is so afflicted and another so highly
exalted. Such things are beyond all human
understanding and no reason or disputation can fathom
the judgments of God.When the enemy puts such
suggestions in your mind, therefore, or when some
curious persons raise questions about them, answer
with the prophet: "Thou art just, O Lord, and
righteous are Thy judgments";(1) and this: "The
judgments of the Lord are true and wholly
righteous."(2) My judgments are to be feared, not
discussed, because they are incomprehensible to the
understanding of men.
In like manner, do not inquire or dispute about the
merits of the saints, as to which is more holy, or
which shall be greater in the kingdom of heaven. Such
things often breed strife and useless contentions.
They nourish pride and vainglory, whence arise envy
and quarrels, when one proudly tries to exalt one
saint and the other another. A desire to know and pry
into such matters brings forth no fruit. On the
contrary, it displeases the saints, because I am the
God, not of dissension, but of peace -- of that peace
which consists in true humility rather than in
self-exaltation.
Some are drawn by the ardor of their love with
greater affection to these saints or to those, but
this affection is human and not divine. I am He who
made all the saints. I gave them grace: I brought
them to glory. I know the merits of each of them. I
came before them in the blessings of My sweetness. I
knew My beloved ones before the ages. I chose them
out of the world -- they did not choose
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Me. I called them by grace, I drew them on by mercy.
I led them safely through various temptations. I
poured into them glorious consolations. I gave them
perseverance and I crowned their patience. I know the
first and the last. I embrace them all with love
inestimable. I am to be praised in all My saints. I
am to be blessed above all things, and honored in
each of those whom I have exalted and predestined so
gloriously without any previous merits of their own.
He who despises one of the least of mine, therefore,
does no honor to the greatest, for both the small and
the great I made. And he who disparages one of the
saints disparages Me also and all others in the
kingdom of heaven. They are all one through the bond
of charity. They have the same thought and the same
will, and they mutually love one another; but, what
is a much greater thing, they love Me more than
themselves or their own merits. Rapt above
themselves, and drawn beyond love of self, they are
entirely absorbed in love of Me, in Whom they rest.
There is nothing that can draw them away or depress
them, for they who are filled with eternal truth burn
with the fire of unquenchable love.
Therefore, let carnal and sensual men, who know
only how to love their own selfish joys, forbear to
dispute about the state of God's saints. Such men
take away and add according to their own inclinations
and not as it pleases the Eternal Truth. In many this
is sheer ignorance, especially in those who are but
little enlightened and can rarely love anyone with a
purely spiritual love. They are still strongly drawn
by natural affection and human friendship to one
person or another, and on their behavior in such
things here below are based their imaginings of
heavenly things. But there is an incomparable
distance between the things which the imperfect
imagine and those which enlightened men contemplate
through revelation from above.
Be careful, then, My child, of treating matters
beyond your knowledge out of curiosity. Let it rather
be your business and aim to be found, even though the
least, in the kingdom of God. For though one were to
know who is more holy than another, or who is greater
in the kingdom of heaven, of what value would this
knowledge be to him unless out of it he should humble
himself before Me and should rise up in greater
praise of My name?
The man who thinks of the greatness of his own
sins and the littleness of his virtues, and of the
distance between himself and the perfection of the
saints, acts much more acceptably to God than the one
who argues about who is greater or who is less. It is
better to invoke the saints with devout prayers and
tears, and with a humble mind to beg their glorious
aid, than to search with vain inquisitiveness into
their secrets.
The saints are well and perfectly contented if men
know how to content themselves and cease their
useless discussions. They do not glory in their own
merits, for they attribute no good to themselves but
all to Me, because out of My infinite charity I gave
all to them. They are filled with such love of God
and with such overflowing joy, that no glory is
wanting to them and they can lack no happiness. All
the saints are so much higher in glory as they are
more humble in themselves; nearer to Me, and more
beloved by Me. Therefore, you find it written that
they cast their crowns before God, and fell down upon
their faces before the Lamb, and adored Him Who lives
forever.
Many ask who is the greater in the kingdom of heaven
when they do not know whether they themselves shall
be worthy of being numbered among its least. It is a
great thing to be even the least in heaven where all
are great because all shall be called, and shall be,
the children of God. The least shall be as a
thousand, and the sinner of a hundred years shall
die. For when the disciples asked who should be
greater in the kingdom of heaven they heard this
response: "Unless you be converted and become as
little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom
of heaven. Therefore, whosoever shall humble himself
as this little child, he is the greater in the
kingdom of heaven."(3)
Woe to those, therefore, who disdain to humble
themselves willingly with the little children, for
the low gate of the heavenly kingdom will not permit
them to enter. Woe also to the rich who have their
consolations here, for when the poor enter into God's
kingdom, they will stand outside lamenting. Rejoice,
you humble, and exult, you poor, for the kingdom of
God is yours, if only you walk in the truth.
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