Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/3436

3436 Path to perfection.... earth.... beyond....

February 15, 1945: Book 44

There is a long way to go until perfection for the spiritual, which has distanced itself so far from God that it has to cover this path in the bound state to approach God. However, it can shorten this path considerably through its willingness to comply with God's will, and this especially in the last stage as a human being, where it can also, in contrast to its embodiment before, bring its will to fruition. However, the last period of earthly life, life on earth as a human being, can bring the spiritual to the highest perfection if the human being's will is active itself, if he seriously strives to come close to God and does everything that earns him the final union with God. The opportunity to do so is offered to him but it is entirely up to him how he uses it. No external means can bring about this final perfection, but only a life of love for God and neighbour.... unselfish neighbourly love and constant desire for God, which the human being demonstrates through the former and through heartfelt prayer, through striving for perfection, through fulfilling the divine commandment of love and thus shaping himself into gentleness, peaceableness, patience, mercy and humility. Nothing else earns the human being spiritual progress, and if he does not seriously strive towards these aims then his path is very long until perfection, for then life on earth is not enough but he has to continue it in the beyond, however under far more difficult conditions....

Then the soul has to travel a path of suffering in the beyond which is extremely difficult because it lacks the strength it had at its full disposal on earth. And in order to spare it this God gives it every opportunity to perfect itself while it is still on earth, and He helps where the human being does not seriously strive. And therefore the great suffering which is intended to change people into God-turned, loving beings.... God wants to shorten their path because He knows about the agonizing upward development in the beyond. Life on earth as a human being is so short compared to the infinitely long time before and also in the beyond that even an earthly existence filled with suffering is easy to name against it if the human being thereby reaches his final perfection.... to be able to enter eternity as a being of light. Earthly life is a short phase which the human being will look back on gratefully one day if it has helped him to transform his nature through suffering. But if the human being is active in love, that is, if he fulfils his actual task in life, then suffering will not oppress him so much, for then he will come closer to his aim, and he will not need the suffering means of education to the same extent as people who do not recognize God, who are far from Him because they live without love. And this explains the great suffering which is going over the earth, which seems unbearable for all those who are not God-connected and draw strength from this connection. It is still God's last means of mercy, Who can no longer change people in any other way because they are hard-hearted and do not want to bow down before Him. It is the only means which can determine them to voluntarily return to Him if they are thereby driven from within to prayer, thus they seek contact with God through hardship of their own accord. For God will not compulsorily direct people's mind to Himself, because then every becoming perfect would be excluded, for only striving of free will leads to this aim. But people's will is still too much turned away from God....

And He seeks to transform this will through suffering.... If suffering brings about the change of will then the soul will have gained an unspeakable amount, for even the most severe suffering on earth can be called small compared to the suffering in the beyond, because earthly life is only a very short phase, whereas the state of suffering in the beyond can last for eternities if the soul is too weak or hardened of will. For its final aim always remains perfection, only this can take eternal times, but it can also be achieved in the short time of earthly life. And God constantly stands by the human being's side to help, and He seeks to stimulate him into the right use and, if he fails, to guide him onto the right path through painful events. And thus the time on earth always remains a time of grace because it enables the liberation from every form. But the human being will never be forcibly transferred into the state of perfection because this would be against God's order and could not result in anything perfect. And depending on the human being's will, which is turned towards or away from God, events will approach the human being. And therefore there will be suffering on earth as long as people's will is turned away from God and they do not change this will despite admonitions and warnings. Then God will resort to painful means to spare the souls the far more agonizing state in the beyond or to shorten it. For His love is eternally meant for His living creations, whom He wants to lead upwards, whom He wants to make happy with eternal life, whom He wants to receive into His kingdom as perfected....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers