Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/7125

7125 Fulfilment of duty is not enough....

May 20, 1958: Book 76

You should not believe that you are justified before Me if you only fill your earthly life with earthly duties which you conscientiously endeavour to comply with but the fulfilment of which does not bring any blessing to your soul. For everything you do earthly is based on a certain self-love if it is done voluntarily.... or demands are placed on you which you comply with again for selfish reasons if you are not forced to do so.... All these 'fulfilments of duty' must not be confused with right, unselfish neighbourly love, which wants nothing for itself but always wants to help and make happy. Fulfilment of duty is a certain instinct of self-preservation, regardless of whether the person himself or his next of kin derive the benefit from it. But it will only ever be an earthly benefit, the soul will gain little or nothing from it.... unless works of duty are also carried out with unselfish love, that the human being thus certainly has to fulfil certain duties professionally which he fulfils with unselfish love. People can easily fall into a kind of complacency if they believe they have faithfully fulfilled their duties; but they don't make any progress in their spiritual development, nor do they usually want to know that their purpose of earthly life is different from merely creating an orderly earthly life for themselves.... even though the human being's way of life appears to be in order outwardly. If only you would consider that you can be free of all your duties as early as the next day, but that you will then be judged according to your maturity of soul.... not according to how you have shaped your earthly life. If you want to consider that every fulfilment of duty can also be done by other people, but that every person has to do the work on his soul for himself during his earthly lifetime.... He cannot be released from this work. Therefore, in addition to fulfilling his duty he must practice unselfish activity of love, he must freely do more out of himself, and love must always impel him to do so, only then will he make proper use of earthly life, then it will correspond to My will, he will change himself again, i.e. his nature, into his original nature. Thus he is by no means a dud in this world, for his soul will progress in its development. Only then will he make proper use of the vitality which is at his disposal during his earthly life but which he has to relinquish at the moment of death and he will pass over into the kingdom of the beyond completely without strength, if he has not previously acquired spiritual strength precisely through an activity of love on earth. As long as he is still in possession of vitality he does not really appreciate it, but having to enter the kingdom of the beyond in a completely dead state will only make him realize what he has forfeited and how miserable he now is compared to earthly life, where he could create and work with his vitality. And therefore he should predominantly use his vitality to work with love, because this is the only way to increase his strength and acquire imperishable possessions.... whereas all earthly possessions are transient and the human being himself cannot even determine the length of time he is allowed to enjoy them. The very next day can take everything away from him.... yet the human being who uses his vitality to work with love never needs to worry about such thoughts and worries.... He can surrender his earthly life every day, he will nevertheless start the actual life in the spiritual kingdom richly blessed and full of strength, he will not have lost anything but only achieve a high gain.... For this reason no human being should ever boast about his fulfilment of duty, for it can also be evidence of wrongly directed love, it can also lead the human being into wrong thinking so that he is satisfied with himself and no longer deems it necessary to do anything more. I demand more of you if you once want to enter into a life you can no longer lose.... You must irrevocably change yourselves into love, and therefore your life on earth must demonstrate an unselfish activity of love, only then will you live in My will, and only then will you acquire everlasting possessions....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers