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The Fifty-Eighth Chapter
HIGH MATTERS AND THE HIDDEN JUDGMENTS OF GOD ARE NOT TO BE SCRUTINIZED
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";[40] and this: "The judgments of
the Lord are true and wholly righteous."[41] 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 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."[42]
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.
