Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/5791

5791 Way to Golgotha.... following Jesus....

October 16, 1953: Book 63

Walking the path to Golgotha is the true following of Christ.... You will not understand this if you believe that Jesus Christ went this way for you, that He took upon Himself all the agonies of this way of the cross because of your sins, and that He therefore took away your suffering and bore it Himself for you. And you are also in right faith about this.... He has redeemed the guilt for you through His suffering and death on the cross.... But the crowning glory of His earthly life was His union with His father from eternity.... He joined Himself to Him eternally.... He and the father became one.... And in order to reach this aim, following Jesus is the only way.... in order to reach this aim, man must also take upon himself a sorrowful earthly life, he must patiently go the earthly way to the end, no matter how great the suffering, how great the afflictions and hardships it brings.... He must drink the cup to the full and only ever keep the divine lord and saviour in mind, Whom he strives to follow and Whom he also wants to be united with for all eternity.... From Him the human being will also receive strength, and if the human being becomes weak, the saviour Jesus Christ will stand beside him and support him, He will help him carry the cross until he has reached his aim.... And now you will understand why devout, God-surrendered people are often pursued by suffering and illness, why they have been burdened with a cross that seems almost unbearable to them.... It concerns God's childship, the union with Him in such a way that they - as being closest to the father - can receive unlimited strength and light and feel unlimited bliss, which only the complete union with Him can trigger, and this state is therefore the most delicious thing that can be achieved on earth, yet at great sacrifice, at the sacrifice of everything that on earth the human being finds pleasant.... He must in truth take the path to Golgotha.... He must no longer see the world, he must cover it step by step with his eyes turned away from it in misery and agony. He must know that his body only suffers for the soul so that it can then come before the face of God as completely purified in order to be accepted by the father with deepest love, as His child which followed Him for His sake, which walked the path of the cross on earth for His sake and which He now introduces into all the rights of a child.... for it has - having already returned to the father - now also taken and passed the test on earth which every created angelic being has to pass for complete fusion with its creator and father of eternity in order to be able to create and work as perfected in the kingdom of light....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers