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The Calls of Woe

5. Woe unto you who are rich! For you have received your consolation in this life. Woe unto you who are sated, for you will hunger. Woe unto you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe unto you when all men speak well of you, for so did their forefathers with the false prophets. (Chap. 25:5)

Christ explains, corrects
and deepens the word:

“Woe unto you who are rich, for you have received your consolation in this life.”

People who look upon their wealth as their property are poor in spirit. Many who are rich in earthly goods were given in the cradle the spiritual task for their earthly life, to be an example to those rich people who tie themselves to their wealth with hardened, relentless hearts and whose sole thinking and striving consists in increasing this wealth for themselves. A person who is rich in earthly goods and has recognized that his wealth is a gift – which he has received from God only to bring it into the great whole for the well-being of everyone and to administer it in the right way for all – is the one who actualizes the law of equality, freedom, unity and brotherhood. He contributes as a selfless giver, so that the poor do not live in privation and the rich in luxury.

In this way, a balance will gradually be established, an upper middle class for all those who are willing to selflessly fulfill the law “pray and work.” Thus grows very gradually the true humanity of a community whose members do not collect personal earthly riches, but rather consider everything to be common property given to them by God.

If a rich person considers money and property as his own and is esteemed in the world because of his wealth, then – as the effect of his causes – he will live in poor countries in subsequent earthly lives and there, he will beg for the bread that, as a rich man, he once denied the poor. This will happen as long as such incarnations are still possible.

The soul of such a rich person will also find no rest in the spheres of purification. The souls that are poor in light and had to endure suffering and hunger in the earthly garment because of him will recognize him again as the one who denied them what could have helped them out of the entanglement of the human ego. Many will accuse him and then his soul itself will feel how they suffered and hungered. In this way, a soul that was rich and esteemed as a human being in the earthly garment may suffer great need; this need is far greater than if it would have had to beg for bread in the earthly garment.

Recognize that according to the laws of the Eternal, everyone who selflessly keeps the commandment “pray and work” is due the same; for God gives everyone what he needs and beyond that. However, as long as this commandment is not kept by all people, there will be the so-called rich on earth. It is their task to distribute their accumulated wealth and to live just as those who selflessly fulfill the commandment “pray and work.” If, in this way, they think of the welfare of all and not of their own, the inner wealth will gradually turn without and no person will hunger or live in want.

Woe to you, you rich ones, you who call your money and property your own and make your neighbor work so that your wealth may increase! I say to you, that you will not behold the throne of God, but will continue to live where God’s feet are – on earth, in earthly garments over and over, as long as this is still possible. Even if you promote social service establishments, but are yourselves so much wealthier than those who are thereby supported, you are nevertheless servile to the satan of the senses, that wants the differences between rich and poor.

Through these differences, power and subservience, envy and hatred emerge. These give rise to dispute and war. For this reason, even though every now and then they think of the social good, those who cling to their wealth serve the satan of the senses and act against the law of life: against equality, freedom, unity and brotherliness.

According to the law of life, the person who considers money and property as his own and hoards them for himself, instead of letting these material energies flow, is a thief, for he denies his neighbors a part of their spiritual heritage. For everything is energy. The one who ties it up through “me” and “mine” acts against the law, which is flowing energy.

“Woe unto you who are sated, for you will hun­ger.”

The wealthy, sated man who fills only “his” barns is empty of heart. He knows only the mine and thine. His senses and thoughts revolve around “my” property, “my” possessions, “my” bread, “my” food. “All this belongs to me” – this is his world. Such a person will one day hunger and live in want until he realizes that everything is the Being; everything belongs to God and to all people who strive to do the works of God: to fulfill selfless love and the law of life for the earth, “pray and work.”

People who speak only of mine and thine are poor in light, and already in this incarnation are preparing another sojourn on earth or a long pilgrimage in the realm of the souls and, in both cases, in the garment of a beggar.

The soul that is dazzled by material things is uncon­sciously hungering for light, because it is poor in light. It compulsively tries to compensate for this with outer things, such as earthly wealth, greed, gluttony, alcoholism or other cravings and pleasures. It is insatiable.

“Woe unto you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.”

The one who laughs and mocks his neighbor will one day be very sad and will cry over himself – because he failed to acknowledge those whom he ridiculed and mocked. He will have to recognize that, in the end, he had laughed at himself; he had scorned and ridiculed himself. For the one who judges and condemns his neighbor, who laughs at him, who scorns and ridicules him, judges, condemns, laughs at, scorns and ridicules Me, the Christ.

Recognize that whoever sins against the least of My brothers sins against the law of life and will have to suffer from this. At the same time, he has tied himself to the one he held in disdain. Therefore, be on your guard and practice self-control. It is not what enters through your mouth that soils your soul, rather it is what goes out from your mouth that burdens soul and person.

“Woe unto you when all men speak well of you, for so did their forefathers with the false prophets.”

If you flatter your fellow man, so that he praise you and hold you in esteem, then you are like the counterfeiters who, for the sake of their own advantage, pay with false money.

It was and is similar with the false prophets, as well. They were and are esteemed by the people because they flattered the people and because those of high standing among the people were in league with them, having promised themselves personal profit and gain through this.

Recognize, you people in the Kingdom of Peace, that in the sinful world many righteous prophets and enlightened men and women, as well, were slandered and perecuted by the rich and the powerful of this world, by church leaders and their adherents, and many of them were tortured and killed. At all times, the satanic used as tools those who wanted to keep and increase their earthly wealth for themselves, who strove for power and those who were servile to the rich and powerful, as well.

You should know this, so that you can understand why the old, sinful world perished in such a terrible way.

In addition, false prophets were also those who may very well have preached the gospel of love, but themselves did not live accordingly. And they were also all those who called themselves “Christian” and behaved in an unchristian way in their life. They were often lauded for their eloquence and were honored and praised because of their wealth and prestige.

Oh see, nevertheless and over the course of time, all true prophets and enlightened ones contributed to the fact that the crystal of Inner Life, with its many facets of eternal truth, sparkled and shone more and more. In this way, the Kingdom of God on earth was very gradually built up.

It is up to you, dear brothers and sisters in the Kingdom of Peace, to cherish, guard and preserve this now perfect, sparkling and shining crystal, the Inner Life, like a precious flower. It is the law of love and wisdom of God, His order, His will, His wisdom, His earnestness, His kindness, His infinite love-radiation, and His gentleness.

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