Sunsets Into Sunrises
Bishop Martin - The Progress of a Soul in the Beyond
- Chapter 73 -
BISHOP MARTIN'S REMARKS AND BOREM'S WISE HINTS CONCERNING THE WAYS OF ETERNAL LOVE. - THE BURNING LADIES OF THE SACRED HEART.
1
(Bishop Martin, at the sight of this scene, begins to laugh, and says): "Brother, just look at those silly females! Ah, in their blind fury they are tearing each other to pieces with their daggers! What a sight! A charming witches' Sabbath! If they carry on like that there will not be much left of them and our intervention will become quite unnecessary. Never mind, those tatters would not mean a great loss for heaven!
2
Forgive me, dearest brother, if I appear to gloat over the misfortune of those beings, but I just can't help it. Anything is easier for me to bear than females who are stupid and wicked at the same time. They are particularly hard to bear if they, like these here, come near to destroying themselves in their rage and hatred. I do not really wish them ill, but I feel that a bit of hell would not be at all bad for such beasts as these. I do not mean forever, you know, but just for a little bit - like the Roman Catholic purgatory!"
3
(Says Borem): "Do not be overzealous, brother, and make sure you ban all the calling-fire-from-heaven wishes from your heart! Just keep watching what the Lord is doing here, and you will learn from it the only true way in which such dark, ignorant beings may be turned towards the light once more. If the Lord thought the way you do, there would be desperately little hope for such poor beings ever to attain eternal life. But here you can see clearly that the Lord is kinder than the best men or angels.
4
The Lord's ways are strange, their number infinite. And each way the Lord guides a man is an inscrutable wonder, even to the wisest cherub, and holy whatever its manifestation.
5
Looking at all these manifestations from this angle, you will find nothing in future annoying or ridiculous about them. Eventually, you will be convinced how endlessly loving and wise the Lord guides all to the holy goal, and how, by the simplest and apparently most insignificant means, He, at all times, achieves the most sublime purpose. And, where He is helping one, He is simultaneously helping innumerable other beings.
7
O brother, you will understand only gradually how infinitely sublime all this is, which is at the root of these manifestations; how sacred the existence and activity of even a mite which, on earth, you might have seen crawling across a half-parched leaf!
8
Therefore, be glad about all that you see here! For everything is the result of our Heavenly Father's most holy love - without exception! Do you think hell, with all its indescribable horrors, could be the Lord's revenge based on His wrath from eternity? Not by any means! The Lord is the essence of love also in hell, for eternal love knows neither wrath nor vengeance, and thus all its institutions cannot be founded on anything but love.
9
But now go on watching, and look at everything with different eyes and a different mind. You will find it most educational. For the Lord allows all this to happen mainly for your sake in order to speed up the rebirth of your spirit and the arraying of your soul in celestial garb. So, once more, heed conscientiously all I have told you, and it will be of the greatest advantage to you."
10
Bishop Martin now continues to watch the lady's back of the head, and notices the last two are still fighting, thrusting their daggers into each other's bodies. They then collapse and lie on the ground like dead. Having watched this scene, he says:
11
"Thank God, they have finished each other off! The Lord bless them! It is really miraculous that this is going to aid them towards salvation, as you have just explained. I am really curious to see what will happen now to these amazons, who are now lying on the ground as if they were quite dead.
12
Ah, a new manifestation is commencing! The ladies still seem quite dead, but they are beginning to give off smoke! Here and there even sparks are flying. Dear friend, this is beginning to look rather ominous and I am sure a bit of hell is manifesting itself here.
13
Look, already flames are shooting upwards! It looks like a proper autodafe; the poor things are on fire, but except for the smoke, sparks, and flames, nothing is moving on or around them.
14
Look, the flames are increasing in intensity and the dead ladies are already glowing, all the way through. Good for them that they are dead and insensitive! What a peculiar sight and, strangely, nothing seems to be destroyed by the intense flames. Do tell me, dearest brother, what this strange manifestation means?"
15
(Borem): "It serves the best purpose, for what comes from the Lord is always good! Just go on watching and you will soon see for yourself how right lam!"