Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/8084

8084 Proof of love of God: love for the neighbour....

January 21, 1962: Book 85

You should prove your love for Me through unselfish love for your neighbour.... Whatever you do to the least of My brothers, you have done to Me. Love for God without love for your neighbour is therefore not possible, for feelings which you then feign for yourselves cannot be judged by Me as 'love', because love will always express itself in works which serve the well-being of the neighbour in need. Love without works is likewise impossible, for love is strength and strength always wants to be active. And therefore you will always have the yardstick for your love: whether it impels you to work, whether your will is stimulated to do works of love. You should seriously give account of this, and you should never pass by your fellow human being's need.... you should only ever seek to alleviate hardship, to give pleasure, to comfort and to help, for you will always recognize hardship around you.... And in particular you should take care of people who are in spiritual hardship. Admittedly, such help is not often accepted, for very few people are open to help for their soul. Nevertheless, again and again you should try to distribute spiritual food and drink wherever possible. Only then will you prove your love for Me when you take care of your fellow human being's spiritual and earthly hardship, who is also My living creation whose soul I want to win. And only such love, which expresses itself in works, will earn you a living faith, which I require in order to grant you eternal beatitude.... "He who believes in Me will be blessed...." But what do you mean by faith which is to earn you this beatitude? I am not satisfied with words by which you want to confirm a "faith".... I first require loving activity, evidence of your love for Me through unselfish neighbourly love. For only this can give birth to a living faith which alone is of value before Me. And as long as your love for your neighbour is still small, as long as you don't behave like a brother towards him, as long as you lack works of love, you should not feel too certain that you will become blessed through 'faith' alone.... For then your faith is only a form.... you just don't contradict it, but you are still far from being alive. And will you then ever awaken the spirit in you to life, which can only come to life through loving activity?.... You are constantly demanded to work with love, yet you only rarely comply with this demand and therefore only living faith can rarely be found. How serious will this error be in the beyond one day, that you believe you don't need works?.... Yet only 'works' follow you, and you can only show a few of them because there was too little strength of love in you which would have been active in works.... Your beatitude will correspond to your degree of love, because only love results in true faith.... But faith without love is dead and will therefore never lead to beatitude. And you should not confuse 'love' with 'feelings' which can easily arise in a person but which nevertheless do not cause him to perform works of love for his neighbour.... And you will truly be offered many opportunities to be lovingly active, and you should never close yourselves off to the requests of your fellow human beings who are in need. You should sincerely want to help them and then you will also be able to do so, because love enlightens your spirit and also shows you the right ways and means, be it earthly or spiritual hardship which you then try to remedy. But don't rely on words which are dead as long as you don't give them life through loving activity.... You will never attain the right understanding of the words which the scriptures contain if you do not awaken the spirit within yourselves through loving activity.... And therefore "works" are demanded of you.... for "whatever you do to the least of My brethren, that you have done to Mean...."

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers