Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/1425

1425 Hardened hearts....

May 19, 1940: Book 23

Do not harden your hearts and be obliging towards everyone. And if you are asked, do not consider whether you want to fulfil the request but grant it if it is in your power. You must always empathize with the other person's hardship and always consider alleviating it to the best of your ability, then you will practice love and this love will be rewarded to you one day, for 'as you measure out, it will be measured to you again', says the lord.... The person who is lovingly active is close to God, and his spirit is illuminated according to his activity of love. For love is redeeming, therefore it also lifts the state of darkness, which is the result of the banished, unredeemed state. Everything that walks in sin is to be redeemed.... and sin is everything that springs from lack of love. Consequently, works of love must cleanse people from the guilt of sin, as God Himself erases the sins of those who regocnize them and ask for forgiveness. However, recognizing sin and asking for forgiveness will be inconceivable without active love, because the soul of a hardened person does not regocnize its guilt.... it pays homage to self-love, and this is the greatest obstacle to recognizing the truth. Man is strengthened in his self-love by the power of evil and thus becomes insensitive to the suffering of his fellow human being. And there is no other way of salvation for such a soul, both on earth and in the beyond. Without love it cannot become free from the compulsion that torments it. It has to lend a hand itself to make the situation bearable for other beings, only then will its shackles loosen and the first step towards self-redemption will have been taken. If only people would consider that their state of suffering must be increased if they do not prove themselves in the trials of life which the lord imposes on everyone. If only they would realize that the soul must first give before it can receive. It will feel the benefit of love itself, thus it should also contribute towards bringing help to other unredeemed beings, both earthly and spiritually.... Man should not believe that he himself can draw from the source of mercy while denying his fellow human being the same refreshment. Spiritual hardship is very great, and so bodily hardship must also be felt, so that man may feel the bitterness of it in himself and endeavour to alleviate the suffering as far as possible. But to be able to see suffering without sympathy testifies to a hardened state of soul that is still very far from redemption. In order to save such a soul, God must use violent means and increase its suffering even more, so that the heart in it awakens and the will in it becomes active to intervene helpfully in order to alleviate this great suffering. Only then will the spark of divine love have been ignited in him and can become a flame which has a purifying and redeeming effect and suffocates all bad feelings in the heart. Love must become active in the human being so that final redemption may come to him....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers