Lulu (234 Páginas) As Profecias e Revelações de Santa Brígida da Suécia
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- Chapter 41
- Chapter 42
- Chapter 43
- Chapter 44
Chapter 40The Son speaks: ”Do not be afraid, daughter: This sick woman will not die, for her works are pleasing to me.” When the woman did die, the Son said again: ”Do you see, daughter? What I told you was true: The woman is not dead, for her glory is great. The separation of body and soul is for the righteous no more than a dream, for they wake up to life eternal. That which should be called death is when the soul lives separated from the body in an eternal death. There are many people who, while not mindful of the life to come, do wish to die a Christian death. Now, what does a Christian death mean, if not to die as I died: innocently, willingly, and patiently? Am I then contemptible because my death was contemptible and harsh? Or are my chosen ones foolish, because they had to bear contemptible sufferings? Or was this the will of fortune or did the movement of the stars cause it? Of course not. I and my chosen ones did indeed suffer harshly, but in order to show by word and example that the way to heaven is difficult, and in order to make people realize fully how necessary purification is for the wicked, seeing that the innocent elect suffered so greatly. Know, then, that a person dies a contemptible and evil death when he dies while living a dissolute life and with the intention of sinning, when he has worldly success and desires to live for a long time but does not remember to give thanks to God. A person lives and dies happily who loves God with his whole heart, though he may be struck down by a despicable death or afflicted by a chronic illness, because his harsh death lessens his sins as well as the punishment for sin and increases his reward. Look, I will remind you of two men, both of whom died a despicable and bitter death according to human opinion. Yet, if they had not received such a death through my great mercy, they would not have been saved. However, because the Lord does not twice smite the contrite of heart, both of them attained their crown. This is why the friends of God should not be saddened if they suffer violent temporal pain or die a bitter death. It is a blessed thing to weep for a time and to be troubled in this world so as not to come to the heaviest purgatory, where there will be no escape and no more time for working.” The Mother's words to the daughter about how priests with lawful faculties of absolution, no matter what kind of sinners they themselves are, are able to absolve from sins; the same applies to the sacrament of the Eucharist.
The Mother speaks: ”Go to him who has the faculty of absolution. No matter how leprous the doorkeeper is, he can still open the door as well as a healthy man, provided he has the keys. It is the same with absolution and the sacrament of the altar. No matter who the minister is, provided he has a lawful faculty of absolution, he can absolve from sins. Therefore, no priest is to be rejected. However, I would forewarn you about two things. The first is that he will not get what he so longs for in the flesh. The other is that his life will soon be cut short. Just as an ant that carries its load of grain day and night sometimes falls down and dies right when it gets close to the nest, and the grain remains outside it, so too, right when this man has begun to reach the goal of his efforts, he will die and be punished, and his empty efforts will come to naught.” The Mother's words to the daughter describing good character and righteous works in God's friends as door posts; and about how God's servants should stay away from disparagement.
The Mother speaks: ”God's friends are said to be like two door posts through which others can enter. Therefore, one must guard carefully against anything rough or hard or any other kind of obstacle getting in the way of those going in. These door posts symbolize nothing other than the moral composure and righteous works and edifying words that should be found everyday in the lives of God's friends. One must therefore guard attentively against anything hard, that is, disparaging or coarse speech, being found in the mouths of God's friends, or any worldly tendencies noticeable in their actions that may cause those seeking entrance to run away and shudder to enter there.” The Mother's words to the daughter likening bad pastors to a worm gnawing away at the roots of a tree.
The Mother speaks: ”They are like a worm that sees excellent seed but does not care how much fruit is lost or falls off, so long as it can tear away at the roots or the parts closest to the ground. In the same way, these men do not care that souls are being lost, so long as they can get their profits and earthly possessions. The justice of my Son will therefore come upon them, and they shall soon be taken away.” She replies: ”All the time that for us seems long is no more than the least grain of the balance before God. Your Son's patience with evildoers is great indeed.” The Mother replies: ”I tell you truly: Their judgment shall not be delayed but shall come to them with horror, and they shall be dragged away from pleasure into shame.” Christ's words to the bride likening the body to a ship and the world to the sea, and about how free will can lead souls to heaven or to hell, and the comparison of earthly beauty to a glass.
The Son speaks: ”Listen, you who long for the harbor after the storms of this world. Whoever is at sea has nothing to fear so long as that person stays there with him who can stop the winds from blowing, who can order any bodily harm to go away and the rocky crags to soften, who can command the storm-winds to lead the ship to a restful harbor. So it is in the physical world. There are those who lead the body like a ship across the waters of the world, bringing some people consolation but others distress, for human free will leads some souls to heaven, others to the depths of hell. The human will is pleasing to God when it desires to hear nothing more fervently than God's praise nor to live for anything other than God's service, for God dwells happily in such a will and lightens every danger and smoothes away all the crags by which the soul is often endangered. What do these rocky crags represent if not evil desire? It is delightful to see and own worldly possessions, to rejoice in the elegance of one's body and to taste whatever delights the flesh. Such things often endanger the soul. But when God is on board the ship, all these things grow weak, and the soul scorns them all, for all bodily and earthly beauty is like a glass that is painted on the outside but full of earth on the inside. When the glass gets broken, it is no more useful than the dark soil of the earth, which has been created for no other purpose than to be used, if one owns any, in order to gain heaven. All those people who no more desire to hear of their own or the world's esteem than they do the noxious air, those who mortify every limb of their body and hate the abominable lust of their flesh, all these can rest here in quiet and wake up with joy, because God is with them at all times.” The bride's lamentation before the divine majesty, because the four sisters, Humility, Abstinence, Contentment, and Charity, daughters of Jesus Christ the King, are now, alas, regarded as worthless, and the sisters Pride, Desire, Excess, and Simony, daughters of King Devil, are now called noblewomen.
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