Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/5949

5949 Afflictions of the righteous....

May 5, 1954: Book 64

The righteous person's fate is therefore often unbearable because the forces of darkness take particular advantage of him, because they recognize him as an adversary who will never join them and whom they therefore want to take away their faith so that he will become unstoppable and surrender to them without resistance. People who devote themselves to God, who live in accordance with God's will, are detested by those dark forces and their lord, and they vent this hatred by filling people in bondage to them with it and spurring them on to deeds of utmost unkindness.... And for the sake of your maturing God allows it.... You humans will not be able to understand it and will also often be inclined to doubt God's love and mercy because of such deeds which are committed against righteous people.... It is the time of the end and the forces of hell are let loose and raging in the most terrifying manner. They are not prevented from doing so, but nothing goes unpunished.... and the punishment that befalls these devils in human form is truly a just recompense, for they are taken captive.... Those who could act freely and without restraint are bound and deprived of their freedom for endless times, and unimaginable torments are their lot.... Yet the human being can only suffer for a short time until death redeems him.... but what his soul gains is incomprehensible to you humans but would make you understand why God allows evil to prevail over good.... For it can only torment and kill the body but has no power over the soul of man, and this benefits: The path to God is shortened, which is otherwise considerably longer. A particularly difficult earthly fate, however, has its reason, which you humans do not know yourselves but which is obvious to God. God's plan of salvation is well-considered, and God's love and wisdom has designed it.... Every wrong, every sin has been taken into account and every possibility of maturing has been foreseen and decided, and therefore everything that comes upon a person can be regarded as good and beneficial for his soul, even though the human being's intellect would like to judge otherwise.... Yet the prize, the success, is inestimable, and every soul thanks its God and father of eternity who found the path to eternal life through most severe suffering as a result.... it thanks Him that it became free of all guilt which its body took upon itself and suffered for it....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers