O mighty divine love, you have inflicted such sweet anguish on me that my soul languishes in wonder. When I consider that my body shall so fade away at death that I shall no longer suffer or praise my beloved Jesus, then I feel such pain that I desire, if that were possible, to live till the last day. Faithful love that is from God and does not have its source in me forces me to long for this. This is why our Lord said: "If you die, let your days fill you with sorrow, however holy you may be."
"Truly, Lord, I beg you that my longing not die when I can no longer serve you with my body."
Our Lord said: "Your longing shall live. It cannot die because it is eternal. If it keeps striving for my sake till the last day, then soul and body shall be reunited. When I put them together again, she shall praise me without end. Also, she has served me since the very beginning, for you wanted to exist from the time of Adam until now for love of me, just as you wanted to experience all human suffering and serve in all human labor for love of me. Moreover, I declare that your being shall remain until the end of humanity."
"Ah, my Dearest, who shall be the last human to whom my being might be joined? The life of religious people at the end of the world shall be precious."
Our Lord responded thus: "Enoch shall be the last human being to cultivate the spiritual life."
Thereupon God again showed me the end of this world, when the last brothers shall be martyred. Their hair, that they shall never cut, has a specific purpose in God's will: The Antichrist shall command that they be hung up by it onto trees. There they shall hang and nobly die, for their heart burns within them with the sweet fire of heaven as intensely as the body languishes in distress. And so, in the midst of the solace of the Holy Spirit and the pain of the miserable flesh, their soul shall depart from their body with no terror of these sufferings.
Elijah and Enoch shall travel from India to the sea, and a great throng shall follow each of them-all of them Christians fleeing to them from the Antichrist. They shall all be clubbed to death like rabid dogs that one chases down on the street, that have been poisoned and can live no longer. These are then followed by others who are secretly Christians. For they know well from God that they can escape heathenism no other way.
Elijah will be the first to be martyred. He shall be bound to a lofty cross, his hands nailed through.
That wretched man, the Antichrist, does not allow God's intimate friend to be buried, for he wants all Christians to abjure their faith. In that he is deceived, for all who gaze upon the body are moved to Christian faith, and they desire to worship it. So filled with sweetness are they by the presence of the holy body that they forget all the agony of death and all earthly goods.
Enoch is still alive, for the Antichrist desires to hear all the wisdom that Enoch knows from God so that he can twist it publicly with his false teaching and perhaps draw Enoch to himself. The whole world would then be his in great honor.
Meanwhile so many of the wicked are drawn away from the Antichrist that he attacks Enoch with fierce words. Not till then does Enoch tell the Antichrist the truth:
Sullenly the Antichrist says:
Enoch recites his holy prayer in his pure heart thus:
The response that God will give to his thanksgiving and his entreaty has been written here. I saw it and read it as written in the Holy Trinity:
16. How the Soul of Our Lord Dwells in the Trinity and What Its Task Is; How It Speaks for the Sinner and Concerning the Task of Our Lady
Then, with proper restraint, as is the custom at court, I asked to speak to the soul of our Lord for his glory, because it seemed to me that it worked special miracles. I hovered so close to it that I greeted it thus: "May you be blessed, dear One. What marvels do you perform in this eternal mirror,22 in which all the blessed gazed upon themselves in wonder? You have a delightful labor in blissful restlessness."
The soul of our Lord replied to the pitiful creature: "Welcome, my likeness,23 for I, too, am a soul as you are; and I carried the burden of all souls with my guiltless body. This is my task: I constantly move the limitless Godhead, thereby recalling to the heavenly Father the infinite love he has for the human soul. I greet my divine humanity as well and thank it for my blessedness; and I call to mind its bond-for he24 was himself an earthbound human-that he remember where he came from, how great and how noble is man's kinship to him,25 and that he should never let man perish. For no one ever begot or gave birth to himself. Because of this you overcame all your sufferings without sin. Thus do I urge God's humanity to special mercy and that he remember how weak man is, and that he was not created free of his enemies, and that man must ever and again fight as one well-armed but whose eyes are bound. It is dark humanity that binds them. Remember, noble Son of God, how wretchedly sad I was on earth within you, and continue to help like a father all those who carry my likeness within them; for I am your soul. I must also wrest from the Holy Spirit his gift, for he shall bring to earth all blessedness to humankind from heaven."
"Heavenly Father, did you thrust the bolt of your justice so firmly across the gate of heaven that poor sinners can never enter? I shall take my complaint to Jesus, your dear Son, who holds the key to your kingdom2fi in his human hand with your almighty power."
This very same key was fashioned in the same land by Jewish hand. When Jesus turns the key, the outcast sinner shall come into your favor.
This is the word of the heavenly Father: "My soul cannot endure that I banish the sinner from me. And so I pursue many of them on and on till I have them in my grasp, and I save them a place so narrow that no one, no matter how clever, can follow me there."
And then the soul of our Lord speaks again:
17. God Considers the Sinner Good, What a Good Right Will Is, Concerning a Good Burden27
This is incomprehensible: that God considers the sinner as a converted person. And that is right will in serving God, that one swiftly hurry to me and not look back; and I carry all burdens that are accepted for love of me.
18. You Should Scrutinize Your Heart at All Times
19. Good Intentions That One Cannot Turn into Deeds
20. This Book Came About out of a Threefold Favor; Love Flows, It Is Rich and Full of Desire, It Becomes Sick; Who Possesses Heaven; God Bestows Suffering and Consolation as Well
God bestowed upon me the favor that is written down in this book in a threefold manner. First and foremost, with great tenderness; then, with sublime intimacy; and now, with intense suffering. I much prefer to remain in this state than in the other two. This is why: although God's tenderness and intimacy are in themselves eternal and noble, they are unfortunately so foreign in this world that all who truly grasp them are not at all able to describe them. And so I have the greatest fears when enjoying pleasure, because Christ suffered much intense pain in this world. But the nature of love is such that it flows in sweetness; then it becomes rich in knowledge; thirdly, it becomes full of longing in rejection.
Oh, you are terribly inconstant. And, alas, sometimes true love of God becomes so weak from the base sweetness of empty honor, from swollen pride and from the loathsome frenzy of anger and from the unchecked desires for the things of this world that it becomes paralyzed in all its members. This is the way it works from the very beginning; this is its nature.
Further, no one possesses the whole of heaven in his heart but he alone who has removed himself from all consolation and all favors in this world. For pleasure has cut us off from God. And so we must return to him through suffering. And yet God cannot restrain himself-and we cannot do without it-from giving us his abundance and his favor for everything we do, refrain from doing, and suffer.
21. How Bad Priests Shall Be Humiliated; [How Preachers Alone Should Preach and Be Bishops;]28 Concerning the Last Brothers
Woe, Crown29 of Holy Christianity, how greatly have you been sullied. The jewels have dropped from you, for you are undermining and violating the holy Christian faith. Your gold lies tarnished in the foul pool of carnality, for you have become
shabby and do not have the least bit of true love. Your purity has been consumed in the lustful fire of gluttony. Your humility lies buried in the swamp of your flesh. Your truthfulness has been reduced to nothing amid the lying of this world. Your blossoms of all virtues have fallen away from you.
Woe, Crown" of the holy priesthood, how utterly have you disappeared. You have nothing left but your trappings; that is, ecclesiastical authority with which you war against God and his chosen intimates. For this God shall humiliate you before you know it, and our Lord speaks thus: "I shall touch the pope in Rome in his heart with great misery, and in this misery I shall tell him reproachfully that my shepherds of Jerusalem have become murderers and wolves. Before my very eyes they murder the white lambs, and the old sheep are all sick in the head because they cannot eat from the healthy pasture that grows in the high mountains, which is divine love and holy teaching.
"He who does not know the path to hell, let him look at the corrupt clergy, how their lives go straight to hell with women, children, and other public sins. This is why it is necessary that the last brothers come.
And so I must give my bride, Holy Christianity, a new cloak." These shall be the last brothers that were mentioned earlier."
"Son Pope, this is what you should bring about; then you shall be able to live a long life. The reason your predecessors did not live long is that they did not bring about the hidden intentions of my will. "32
Thus did I see the pope at prayer and heard God give him this message.
22. Seven Things, Five of Which One Finds in Heaven and Two on Earth"
23. How God Speaks with the Soul in Three Places
At the first place the devil often speaks to the soul. At the other two places he cannot do so. The first place is a person's senses. This place is equally accessible to God, the devil, and all creatures. They can speak here as they wish.
The second place where God speaks with the soul is in the soul. No one can enter this place but God alone. But when God speaks in the soul, it happens without any kind of awareness by the senses, in a great, mighty, swift union of God with the soul. Thus the senses cannot hear this delightful conversation. They become so humble that they cannot bear any creature beneath them. Should a person humble himself beneath the devil? Certainly, with this in mind: it should seem to him who has caused God such great insult with his life that he has often painted the devil's likeness onto his soul through his daily sins and sometimes inflicted large wounds on his soul with mortal sins. The soul that is in the embrace of the Holy Spirit cannot contain herself. She must ever sink away from all earthly comfort and from the pleasure of this comfort. But the soul that is in the embrace of its own selfish will inclines with much pleasure to earthly things.
The third place where God speaks to the soul is in heaven, when God raises up the soul in the pleasure of his will and suspends her there where she may take pleasure in the wonder of him.
24. How Christ Reveals His Wounds in Days of Suffering. Four Things Knock on Heaven's Gate
In my days of great suffering, God revealed himself to my soul, showed me the wounds of his heart, and said: "See how they have hurt me."
And my soul said: "Alas, Lord, why did you suffer such distress? From that time when so much of your pure blood was shed from your pure heart the whole world should rightfully have been redeemed by it.""
"No," he said, "that did not satisfy my Father. For all the poverty, all the toil, and all the suffering and humiliation are just a knocking at the gate of heaven up to the time when my heart's blood poured onto this earth. Only then was heaven opened."
The soul said: "Lord, when this happened, you were dead. I am confused. How can someone dead still bleed?"
Our Lord said: "My body was then in a human manner dead when my heart's blood flowed with a beam of the Godhead through my side. The blood issued forth by grace, just as did the milk that I drank from my virginal mother. My divinity was present in all members of my body while I was dead, just as it was before and afterward. After its long sadness, my soul rested the while in my Godhead. And a spiritual image of my humanity has always existed without a beginning suspended in my eternal Godhead."
25. Concerning Burned Love
"Ah, dear Lord, have mercy on one who has been consumed here in the fire of your love and has been absorbed in your humility and has been annihilated in all things."
God speaks:
26. Thinking About Death and Living Long Are Good
I am very surprising, and I am surprised in my human way of thinking that my soul is so surprising. Whenever I think of death, my soul looks forward to her leaving with such intensity that my body floats in great superhuman delight and my senses recognize ineffable wonders in the departure of the soul. Thus I would most of all like to die at the time God has foreseen. And yet, on the other hand, I say I want most of all to live until the last day. Then again my desire reaches back to the time of the martyrs, that I might shed my sinful blood in true Christian faith for the sake of Jesus whom I love. A special gift forces me to dare to state this: that I love God. For whenever vice and suffering come my way, my soul begins to burn in the fire of true love of God with such sweetness that my body floats suspended in divine pleasure. But a sadness remains in my senses, and I pray to God for all who slander me or revile me, that God preserve them from sin.
27. How You Should Thank and Ask
28. When You Are to Die, Take Leave of Ten Things
When I come to die, I shall take leave of all those things from which I am departing.
I shall take leave of Holy Christianity and I shall thank God that I bear the name of Christian and that I came to true Christian faith. And if I were to remain here longer, I would strive to be a help to Holy Christianity that is afflicted with many sins.
I shall take leave of all the poor souls who are now in purgatory. If I were to remain here longer, I would eagerly help you atone for your guilt, and I thank God that you have found grace.
I shall take leave of all those who are in hell, and I thank God that he has exercised his justice in regard to them. If I were to remain here longer, I would never wish them anything good.
I shall take leave of all those sinners who are in mortal sin. I thank God that I am not one of them. And if I were to remain here longer, I would eagerly carry their burden before God.
I shall take leave of all those penitents who are engaged in doing their penance. I thank God that I am one of them. If I were to remain here longer, I would have to hold them dear.
I shall take leave of all my enemies. I thank God that they did not get the better of me. If I were to remain here longer, I would lay myself under their feet.
I shall take leave of all earthly things. I lament to God that I never made use of them according to his holy determination.
I shall take leave of all my dear friends. I thank God and them that they were my help in need. If I were to remain here longer, I would have to feel shame for the failings that they noticed in me.
I shall take leave of all my baseness. I lament to God that I so ruined his holy gift to my soul that there was never a shortcoming so trivial that it was not noticed by heaven in my soul. No matter how penance was done for it, there was always some damage involved. Lord Jesus, I make my complaint to you, but the shame is all mine.
I shall take leave of my wretched body. I thank God that on many occasions he preserved me from many a sin. If I were to remain here longer, its baseness is of so many kinds that I would never get to like it.
29. Ten Parts of Divine Fire out of God's Nobility
An unworthy person pondered in her simplicity God's nobility. And God let her recognize in her senses and see with the eyes of her soul a fire that burned unceasingly in the heights above all things. The fire had been burning without a beginning and shall keep on burning without end. This fire is God eternal, who holds within himself eternal life and from whom all things have come forth. The sparks of the fire that have shot forth are the holy angels
. The bright flickerings of the fire are all the saints of God. For their life has given Christianity many a fine sparkle. The ever-glowing coals of the fire are all the blessed here on earth who are on fire with heavenly love and shine with good example. All those who have grown cold in sin can warm themselves on the coals. The embers of the fire have been scattered and extinguished. These are the bodies of the blessed waiting in the earth for their heavenly reward. The rule of the fire is yet to come. That is Jesus Christ, to whom his heavenly Father has entrusted the first redemption and the last judgment. On the last day, out of the embers, he shall fashion for the heavenly Father the most exquisite chalices from which at his eternal wedding feast he himself shall drink all the holiness that, together with his dear Son, he has poured into our soul and into our human understanding.
The smoke of the fire is all earthly things that one often makes use of with improper pleasure. How beautifully they shine in our eyes. How wantonly they play in our hearts. And yet they bear hidden within them a great amount of bitterness, for they disappear like smoke and blind the best. They make even the holiest persons bleary-eyed.
The comfort of the fire is the delightful pleasure that our soul receives inwardly from God through the warmth of the divine fire, so sacred that we, on fire, reflect back toward the heavenly fire, and we persevere in virtue so that we are not extinguished.
The bitterness of the fire is the word that God shall speak on the last day: "Go from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!""
The radiance of the fire is the gleaming sight of the divine countenance of the Holy Trinity that shall flood our body and soul with light, so that we shall see and know there the marvelous bliss that here we cannot even name.
The Flowing Light of the Godhead Page 22