Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/6299

6299 Transience.... destructions....

June 30, 1955: Book 68

Everything earthly is transient.... There is no human being who does not know this, and yet there are only a few people who take this fact to heart and do not strive for earthly goods, there are only a few people who strive for the imperishable.... but the majority use all their strength just to gain possession of earthly goods despite the knowledge of their transience. And this justifies the question as to how the desire for them could be taken away without curtailing their free will. The knowledge of transience alone is not enough as long as the human being can only enjoy his possessions for the duration of his life. And there is only the possibility to repeatedly make him aware of transience by making him lose his own possessions through human influence or through expression in nature. Only when man recognizes the hopelessness of his endeavour, only when he recognizes that he himself has no power to secure his possessions, can his striving slowly change and turn to other aims.... Yet some people take a very long time to realize this until they tire of the hunt for earthly possessions, and they waste, as it were, the precious earthly lifetime which they should use to acquire spiritual goods. And therefore destructions of all kinds are also a blessing in a certain sense, because people thereby lose their material possessions and again and again are reminded of the transience of earthly things, and the most severe misfortunes or natural disasters can result in an overwhelming spiritual advantage for people, for God helps them, albeit in a painful way, to separate from that which chains them to earth, so that they will more easily find the path upwards.... Again and again God clearly and unmistakably shows people that it makes no sense to strive for earthly goods, and He instructs them to set themselves a spiritual aim.... Again and again He allows works of destruction to be carried out by human will which harm their fellow human beings, just as He Himself also intervenes directly and takes away from people what their heart is attached to.... always only for the purpose that they should direct all their striving towards what will remain and follow them into eternity. As long as the human being does not come to terms with the fact that he is using his strength wrongly.... as long as he only pays attention to the earthly-material, as long as he chases after dead aims, as long as his earthly life is an idle run and completely unsuccessful for his soul.... And therefore the decay of earthly things will become ever more apparent, ever more painful events will startle people and the destruction to which human life and earthly possessions will fall victim will be ever more immense, and the ultimate purpose of this is that people will be made aware of their transience.... so that they will reflect and strive to acquire imperishable possessions which can never be taken away from them.... For it is the time of the end when nothing will remain as it is, when only those imperishable goods will be valued which every person can still acquire....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers