Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/1956

1956 Overcoming matter in the hereafter....

June 17, 1941: Book 28

Coarse matter is the last obstacle which the soul has to overcome in order to finally become free. The change through all forms now comes to an end with the death of the body of man, but the desire in the hereafter is still for the same things as in earth life, as long as the soul on earth has not completely overcome matter. But now a change is taking place. The desire for it is strong.... it therefore has the effect that everything he longs for is before his eyes.... within reach.... and when he wants to satisfy his desire, it has disappeared before his eyes. The agony of being unsatisfied is unimaginable, but it is the only means by which man can learn to overcome matter. As soon as he begins to realize that everything is only reflected before his spiritual eye, he curbs his desire, thus begins to despise earthly things, and only then does he think about his sad situation, and only then can he reach the heights. This battle against matter should be fought as far as possible in earthly life by suppressing the desire for the goods of the world at an early stage and striving for spiritual good. It takes thousands of years before the soul has changed through matter, and its former cover presents itself to it once again in earth life in everything that now surrounds the human being, so that the soul now finally separates itself from that which was its abode for endless times. And it will not pass the test if it allows itself to be captured again by that which it is supposed to give away of its own free will. If it does not succeed in doing so then matter will torment it anew in the beyond, but in a way which means pain and agony for the soul, whereas in earthly life overcoming it only requires its will and can be replaced by spiritual possessions which are likewise offered to it and.... if this is accepted.... the desire for matter is stifled by itself. „You cannot serve two masters“, it says, and this also applies to spiritual and earthly good, i.e. to what is offered to the soul from above and what is accessible to it on earth as matter. He who desires the one forfeits the other, and in order to possess the one, the other must be sacrificed. But if the soul takes the desire for earthly goods with it into the hereafter, the change on earth was in vain. It stands where it stood at the beginning of its embodiment as a human being, and in order to purify the soul from the last dross, painful means are required, and the life in the beyond is only a state of unspeakable agony....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers