2548 Renunciation of earthly goods.... equalization of spiritual goods....

November 13, 1942: Book 33

Renouncing the world requires willpower, i.e. divine support, if the human will itself is too weak, i.e. if the world is still tempting for him. It is a grace acquired through suffering and renunciation if man can easily detach himself from the world and its goods, i.e. from matter. But this grace must be striven for, i.e. man must want to remain untouched by the attractions of this world. This can happen consciously; but even then this will is present when the human being abstains from all desire, when he resignedly submits to the renunciations which are intended for him by fate. The temptations will approach him again and again, and then the conscious will must set in to abstain from earthly pleasures, then his willpower will become stronger and stronger and he will have become the conqueror of matter. To the same extent that he renounces the world, he matures in his soul, for he will always try to compensate for the lack of earthly pleasures with spiritual goods.... If he has not yet consciously striven for spiritual good, he will become thoughtful about the world, about the earth, its purpose and the purpose of his earthly life. And he will easily penetrate into spiritual territory, because no earthly fetters hold him back from the flight upwards, into the spiritual kingdom. And what is now offered to him outweighs the earthly joy many times over.... What he previously gave up with renunciation is now no longer attractive to him, and his desire is only for spiritual goods, the possession of which makes him unspeakably happy and lets him dwell in completely different spheres, even though he is still on earth. But both goods can never be received by man at the same time. The earth and the spiritual kingdom are two separate worlds, which can only make man happy by renouncing one of them. The spiritual world demands complete renunciation of what is desirable on earth in order to then lavish man with goods that are incomparably more valuable than earthly goods. As long as the human being is still tempted by things of this earthly world, he is not yet receptive to what is offered to him from the spiritual kingdom. Therefore, he must first detach himself, i.e. free himself, from earthly desires.... he must be still in God, no longer desire anything from his earthly life, he must trustingly surrender to God and receive from His hand what God wants to offer him.... Then he will be able to receive spiritual goods according to the strength of his desire. For as soon as a person is willing to give earthly goods, he is free from self-love, which has changed into unselfish love for his neighbour, he is willing to give because he no longer demands anything for himself. Thus the renunciation of the goods of the world will always result in an activity of love, for as soon as he receives a spiritual gift it urges him to pass on spiritual as well as earthly goods, because he is now in God's activity of love and cannot help but likewise work in love. And therefore the human being must constantly fight against the temptations of the world, i.e. he must try to overcome the attractions of the world, because only then can he establish the bond with the spiritual world, which now brings him goods that will also last in eternity....

Amen

This proclamation is used in the following themebook:

Themebook	Title	Download
136	Unselfish Charity	ePub   PDF   Kindle

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