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"Now I want to show you to whom the thorns and
tribulations, that the world germinated through sin,
do harm, and to whom they do not. And as, so far, I
have shown you the damnation of sinners, together
with My goodness, and have told you how they are
deceived by their own sensuality, now I wish to tell
you how it is only they themselves who are injured by
the thorns.
"No one born passes this life without pain, bodily or
mental. Bodily pain My servants bear, but their minds
are free, that is, they do not feel the weariness of
the pain; for their will is accorded with Mine, and
it is the will that gives trouble to man. Pain of
mind and of body have those, of whom I have narrated
to you, who, in this life, taste the earnest money of
hell, as My servants taste the earnest money of
eternal life.
"Do you know what is the special good of the blessed
ones? It is having their desire filled with what they
desire; wherefore desiring Me, they have Me, and
taste Me without any revolt, for they have left the
burden of the body, which was a law that opposed the
spirit, and came between it and the perfect knowledge
of the Truth, preventing it from seeing Me face to
face.
"But after the soul has left the weight of the body,
her desire is full, for, desiring to see Me, she sees
Me, in which vision is her bliss; and seeing she
knows, and knowing she loves, and loving she tastes
Me, Supreme and Eternal Good, and, in tasting Me, she
is satisfied, and her desire is fulfilled, that is,
the desire she had to see and know Me; wherefore
desiring she has, and having she desires. And as I
told you pain is far from the desire, and weariness
from the satisfaction of it.
"So you see that My servants are blessed principally
in seeing and in knowing Me, in which vision and
knowledge their will is fulfilled, for they have that
which they desired to have, and so are they
satisfied. Wherefore I told you that the tasting of
eternal life consisted especially in having that
which the will desires, and thus being satisfied; but
know that the will is satisfied in seeing and knowing
Me, as I have told you. In this life then, they taste
the earnest money of eternal life, tasting the above,
with which I have told you they will be satisfied.
"But how have they the earnest money in this present
life? I reply to you, they have it in seeing My
goodness in themselves, and in the knowledge of My
Truth, which knowledge, the intellect (which is the
eye of the soul) illuminated in Me, possesses. This
eye has the pupil of the most holy faith, which light
of faith enables the soul to discern, to know, and to
follow the way and the doctrine of My Truth -- the
Word Incarnate; and without this pupil of faith she
would not see, except as a man who has the form of
the eye, but who has covered the pupil (which causes
the eye to see) with a cloth. So the pupil of the
intellect is faith, and if the soul has covered it
with the cloth of infidelity, drawn over it by
self-love, she does not see, but only has the form of
the eye without the light, because she has hidden it.
"Thus you see, that in seeing they know, and in
knowing they love, and in loving they deny and lose
their self-will. Their own will lost, they clothe
themselves in Mine, and I will nothing but your
sanctification. At once they set to, turning their
back to the way below, and begin to ascend by the
Bridge, and pass over the thorns, which do not hurt
them, their feet being shod with the affection of My
love. For I told you that My servants suffered
corporally but not mentally, because the sensitive
will, which gives pain and afflicts the mind of the
creature, is dead. Wherefore, the will not being
there, neither is there any pain.
"They bear everything with reverence, deeming
themselves favored in having tribulation for My sake,
and they desire nothing but what I desire. If I allow
the Devil to trouble them, permitting temptations to
prove them in virtue, as I told you above, they
resist with their will fortified in Me, humiliating
themselves, and deeming themselves unworthy of peace
and quiet of mind and deserving of pain, and so they
proceed with cheerfulness and self-knowledge, without
painful affliction.
"And if tribulations on man's account, or infirmity,
or poverty, or change of worldly condition, or loss
of children, or of other much loved creatures (all of
which are thorns that the earth produced after sin)
come upon them, they endure them all with the light
of reason and holy faith, looking to Me, who am the
Supreme Good, and who cannot desire other than good,
for which I permit these tribulations through love,
and not through hatred. And they that love Me
recognize this, and, examining themselves, they see
their sins, and understand by the light of faith,
that good must be rewarded and evil punished.
"And they see that every little sin merits infinite
pain, because it is against Me, who am Infinite Good,
wherefore they deem themselves favored because I wish
to punish them in this life, and in this finite time;
they drive away sin with contrition of heart, and
with perfect patience do they merit, and their labors
are rewarded with infinite good. Hereafter they know
that all labor in this life is small, on account of
the shortness of time. Time is as the point of a
needle and no more; and, when time has passed labor
is ended, therefore you see that the labor is small.
"They endure with patience, and the thorns they pass
through do not touch their heart, because their heart
is drawn out of them and united to Me by the
affection of love. It is a good truth then that these
do taste eternal life, receiving the earnest money of
it in this life, and that, though they walk on
thorns, they are not pricked, because as I told you,
they have known My Supreme Goodness, and sought for
it where it was to be found, that is in the Word, My
only-begotten son."
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