Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/3230

3230 Helping or fighting.... Different purposes for suffering....

August 24, 1944: Book 42

In the state of freedom of will the being would not have to fear God's adversary if only it would live in love. Then it will have defeated him, because God's adversary is utterly defenceless against love. Hence, the human being would also be able to free himself from temptations and challenges, for they have no influence on him as soon as he acts with love. The latter, however, depends on a person's free will, and therefore the human being himself is the reason for an earthly existence which is either a constant battle or helpful love.... God knows every person's heart and gives the human being what he needs, but He also lets a person go short if he does not require His help, His comfort and His counsel because he inwardly opposes Him and therefore does not exercise love, which demonstrates his God-devoted will.... God and love are one and the same, and therefore a loving human being is also united with God and thus has to be superior to God's adversary. If the human being is willing to actively engage himself in neighbourly love he will not be quite so besieged by the temptations of the world; he effectively has already overcome them which, however, does not rule out that he will have to endure suffering, because suffering is not only intended to lead a person to God whose will is still turned away from God but it shall also purify the person who strives towards God. However, the suffering in these two stages is experienced differently. The former revolts against it because he does not want to bow down to a Power Which restricts his enjoyment of life.... He still desires the world and experiences all suffering as disadvantage, as an inadequate enjoyment of life and thus a constraint he refuses to accept. And it can require a lot of suffering before he has surrendered, and this kind of battle is the adversary's work, who still uses the world and its pleasures to gain the human being for himself, who continues to place all these before his eyes in order to intensify his desire and thereby alienate him from God. But if the human being is actively helpful, then the suffering will merely serve him to become perfect, to achieve maturity of his soul, then God's adversary will have little control over him, then he will turn away from the world and due to his suffering join God ever more closely.

This difference has to be recognised when the disparity of suffering is being considered, when good and bad people are affected by it.... people, who are still completely averted from God and those who seemingly no longer require suffering in order to find Him.... Each time the suffering serves a different purpose, yet the final purpose is the complete union with God. The greatest danger for the human being is his inclination towards the world and his lack of love, for then he will still be wholly enslaved by the one who wants to ruin him. And then he will need strict teaching methods in order to change. Only when his inclination towards the world subsides can love ignite in him, and then the suffering can take on different characteristics, yet it cannot be entirely spared to him as long as the soul is not totally purified. Practising neighbourly love is therefore a decisive factor for his degree of development, it is a decisive factor for the intensity of his suffering, for wherever love is practised, and thus where God is present Himself, the suffering will be more bearable because the human being will be able to receive God's emanation of strength and therefore the suffering will not depress him as much. He need not fight anymore but only bear it and wait for God's help which will remove all suffering from him when the time is right. The human being must be helpful or fight, and namely in accordance with his will and his ability to love.... Being helpful will come easily to him, yet fighting will require great strength if he does not want to succumb to the power which will use whatever it takes to pull him into darkness and which will continue to exert an influence on the human being as long as he lives without love, for then he is still far removed from God. Only love sets him free from this power, only love makes him strong, for the loving human being is united with God and receives his strength from Him in order to defeat the adversary....

Amen

Translated by Heidi Hanna