Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/3610

3610 Cause, purpose and aim of suffering.... Awareness.... Transience....

November 22, 1945: Book 46

Worldly minded people are so far removed from the truth that they are unaware of how much strength they can draw from faith and a heartfelt bond with God, and thus they only ever take notice of world events and do not realise that this wrong attitude towards God is the cause of every world event which results in human suffering. And as long as human beings lack this insight, the state of suffering cannot change either. Time and again the suffering will merely adopt different shapes, so that the diversity of their hardship and sorrow will eventually make people understand that a power other than human will is behind the sorrow, that human will alone is not the cause but that the will of a higher power simultaneously steps into action, and that they will develop a certain opinion about this higher power. The knowledge of pure truth explains everything; it makes the immense hardship comprehensible because its cause, purpose and objective are identifiable. Change is only possible when people adapt themselves to the purpose and objective, i.e. when they try to solve the cause of sorrow and hardship which, however, is and remains incomprehensible to the worldly minded person as long as the world is his priority, as long as he provides his body with all privileges and starves the soul.

The knowledge of truth can only be given to the person who detaches himself from the world, for if the knowledge is conveyed to the worldly minded person he will not recognise it as truth and reject it. Thus increased suffering will put him into a situation which will make him receptive to truth.... by learning to understand through suffering and hardship the worthlessness of worldly goods and reducing the longing for those same goods.... The desire for truth will increase accordingly, providing he is not influenced by negative forces who completely confuse his reasoning and attempt to divert him from the truth, who incite hatred in the person the more the world and its joys disappoint him. But such people will not find the connection to God on earth anymore, and every means employed by God is in vain. Nevertheless it is an advantage for the human soul to recognise the transience of earthly values while it is still on earth, where it can learn to despise them and is no longer excessively bound by them to earth when it departs, even if it enters the beyond with a low degree of maturity. In that case, overcoming matter in the spiritual kingdom will not be quite so difficult and the process of higher development in the spiritual kingdom can progress faster once it has finally started. The soul will then accept the truth more readily in the spiritual kingdom, it will not oppose God as much as on earth.

Consequently, the fate of the departed souls is not as hopeless if intense suffering on earth had made them aware of the transience of earthly possessions even if they lose their earthly lives as apparent victims in times of hardship. And thus even suffering and hardship caused by evil human will is of benefit for the souls who are still very distant from God, hence God allows human beings to rage against each other of their own free will until He Himself commands an end when it fulfils His plan of eternity. And as long as people live in ignorance, as long as they do not want to hear the truth, He will allow them to mature through their own actions and experience untold perils and suffering, because this is what they want and therefore they are the instigators of their own suffering....

Amen

Translated by Heidi Hanna