The Great Gospel of John
Volume 4
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi (cont.)
- Chapter 83 -
Education for humility.
1
(The Lord:) "But how can a person protect himself against this most evil passion, since the seed for it is present in every soul and quite often has already reached an usury climax in children? Only through humility is this possible!
2
And therefore poverty is so predominantly large in comparison with richness of the people, to keep haughtiness always on a sharp rein. Just try to put a king's crown on the poorest beggar, and you will soon be convinced, how his earlier meekness and patience has evaporated with lightening speed. And therefore it is a very good thing, that there exists only a very few kings and a great number of modest beggars.
3
Every soul has, hereditary from God, whose idea and will she is, a feeling of highness, which presence one can already notice by the shyness of children.
4
The feeling of shyness of children is a sensation of the soul, when she begins to feel herself, by the mute expression of discontent, since the soul as something spiritual sees herself trapped in an ungainly and unpliant flesh, which she cannot get rid of without pain; the more tender and sensitive the body of a soul, the stronger will be her feeling of shyness. If a right educator understands to lead this inexterminable feeling to the right modesty, he creates from this feeling a protective spirit and places it on the way, on which to continue it easily can reach an early spiritual perfection; but only a little skew guidance of this hereditary feeling, can immediately transfigure into haughtiness and pride.
5
To guide the feeling of shyness into the so called child-ambition, is completely wrong; since then a child immediately begins to think he is better than others. It is easily offended and hurt and therefore cries bitterly; with this crying it expresses clearly that its feeling of highness is violated by someone.
6
If now weak and very shortsighted parents of the offended child try to calm it by, even if only apparently, call for accountability and punishment of the offender against their child, they have already placed the first seed in the child for quenching its thirst for revenge; and if the parents continue to calm the child in the same manner, they not seldom create a devil for themselves and for many other people. But if the parents are clever and from early on show the child always the greater value in other people and children and in so doing guide the feeling of shyness into a right modesty, they will raise their children into angels, who will later serve as true examples of life for others, similar to the most beautiful stars shining in the night of the earthly life, and will revive them with their gentleness and patience.
7
Since children only very seldom receive such upbringing, by which their spirit will be awaken in their soul, the adult person reaching a purer recognition must above all attend to it, that he with all his strength makes the true and right humility his own. Before not eradicating the last drop of the feeling of highness, he cannot either here nor in the beyond pass over into a complete perfection of a purely spiritual heavenly life.
8
Who wants to examine himself, if his meekness is completely perfected, should ask his heart if he still can be offended by anything, and if he can easily forgive his greatest offenders and pursuers from the bottom of his heart, and do good to them who harmed him, and if he does not have from time to time any desire for any worldly magnificence, if he feels good about to be the smallest among the smallest, to serve everyone with everything. Who can do all this without sadness and grief, is already here an inhabitant of the highest heaven of God and will remain as such forever; because through such just humility, a soul does not only becomes one with her spirit, but also to the greatest part the body.
9
Therefore such a person will not feel nor taste the death of the body, since the entire ethereal part of the body - as the actual living natural body - has already here become immortal with his soul and her spirit.
10
By the physical death only the feeling- and lifeless shadow-part will be separated from the soul, which cannot cause the soul any fear and no further pain, because everything with an alive feeling of the body has long since become united with the soul; and therefore can such a perfected person after the separation of the anyway always feelingless and therefore dead, outer shadow-body feel not anything, just as someone cannot feel anything when cutting his hair or fingernails of his body when still alive, and where it grows out of the flesh, or losing a scute of the skin, which separates from the anyway feelingless upper surface of the skin. Since what in the body never had a sense of feeling, can also not have a feeling when the soul completely exits the body, because everything of the body alive and with a sense of feeling, has already earlier become completely united with the soul and now forms one being with her, which will never be separated from her.
11
You have now seen what the right humility is, and what it is able to do, and therefore you will in future give a lot of attention to this virtue! Who now with great loyalty follows what I have said to you, will convince himself, that these easy understandable words, however given without any oratorical, empty splendour, are not originating from man but from God. And who lives and acts accordingly, walks on the right path to the true most inner, spiritual life's perfection. - but now, tell Me also, if everything has become absolutely clear and insightful for you!"