Sunsets Into Sunrises
Bishop Martin - The Progress of a Soul in the Beyond
- Chapter 22 -
BISHOP MARTIN'S HUMBLE REPENTANCE AND THE AWAKENING OF HIS LOVE. - THE CHANGED LANDSCAPE, AND THE PALACE AND ITS DIRTY INTERIOR.
1
(Bishop Martin): "You are quite right, dearest friend. Only now do I seem to understand! I also feel love within me - yes, I now love you with all my heart! Oh, let me embrace you, for I now see how terribly stupid I have been and how truly noble your intentions are. Oh, you wonderful friend, and also you, my first guide, do forgive me my gross blindness!
2
But what is this? The sea has vanished and so has our boat. Everything is dry, beautiful land! What lovely meadows, and that beautiful garden and over there where the hut once stood, now stands a magnificent palace! How did this happen?"
3
(Say I): "Look, brother, a tiny spark of true love for us, your brothers and friends, created all this. It dried out the sea of your sins with all its evil effects, and it converted the mire of your heart into fertile land. The poor hut of your cognition was turned into a palace by that spark of love.
4
However, notwithstanding the beauty of all this, no ripe, eatable fruit can be found anywhere. Everything is still very much like the fig tree which bore no fruit at a time when the Lord was hungry for its fruit.
5
Therefore, it is now important to become active and let the newly awakened love have its way; as a result, these trees will soon bear fruit. As in the world everything grows and ripens in the light and warmth of the sun, here it does the same in the light of the love of a human heart. Man's heart is forever the sun of this world!
6
Soon many opportunities will present themselves to keep your heart active, expand and increase its strength. The more kind acts you let it perform, the greater will be the blessings you will notice in this area.
7
But now let us enter the palace, where we shall discuss the details of your present state. There you will also find many opportunities to occupy your heart. So be it!"
8
We are already inside the palace, where it does not look by far as magnificent as it did from the outside. Bishop Martin is also rather struck by what he sees, and cannot refrain from making a satirical remark:
9
Appearances are deceptive! Whoever built this palace has planned badly. It looks as if the interior of this building has not been completed at all, but just superficially done up for appearance's sake.
10
Dear friends, I must admit that I would prefer the former hut a million times to this. Look at all the dirt here. I couldn't bear to stay here for very long.
11
I beg you, dear friends, let us go outside again where it is so beautiful. In these filthy rooms I wouldn't be capable of one good thought. I find these rooms singularly repugnant!"
12
(Now I speak again): "I can see that you do not like the interior of this palace, dear friend. But you will understand that the interior of your heart, which corresponds to this palace in every detail, is quite as offensive to the Lord as these filthy rooms are to your eyes.
13
In the world, you surely heard the fable about Hercules, who had to perform twelve hard tasks in order to be admitted into the community of the gods. One of those tasks was the famous cleaning of the stable.
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And what did Hercules do? He diverted a whole river through the stable, and all the manure was lifted and washed away in the shortest time.
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In the same way, you should conduct a whole stream of love through the sin-filled chambers of your heart, to quickly clear away all the dirt.
16
While we were still at sea - the sea that arose from the deluge of your sins - a tiny spark of true love was sufficient to dry it up and change the mud into fertile soil.
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This little spark, the result of My words, an outward stimulant, could only stir up the surface of your heart and purify it, but the core remained unchanged, a regular Augean stable, which only you yourself can clean up. And, as already said, this can be done by means of a stream of true love for us, your brothers and greatest friends, as well as for those whom you will soon be meeting and who will be needing you.
18
Look out through this window. What do you see in the distance, towards the north?"