BD.5024
December 20, 1950

WHOEVER LOVES HIS LIFE SHALL LOSE IT

The will to live means a certain victory over death. On earth however, you cannot prevent bodily death. Death of the body can be a transition to life in the beyond, when the will in man becomes so strong that he gains that everlasting life. This will to live has My approval, however, I spoke the words "whoever loves his life will lose it, and whoever loses it will keep it".

He who thinks only about his physical life and how to preserve it will soon experience man's total helplessness when he is removed from this earth without being able to do anything about it. This kind of will to live is not meant to have victory over death.

There has to be a desire for the true life of the soul, and to that life men have to commit themselves with all the strength they possess, then will they be free from death through all eternity, then shall they live in Light and strength, and are able to be continually active to their own happiness. Then they have truthfully conquered death and the separation of the soul from the body is an awakening to new life, not troubled by the bodily cover, free from all matter and yet filled with unexpected fullness of strength.

The people on earth should yearn for this life, strive for it, and use all their power to possess it. Then they will long for death when they will give up this earthly life for the true life of eternity.

However, people cling to this bodily life too much. They fear losing it, they love this earthly life too much, therefore they will love it, and their fate will be death.

Again this does not mean the death of the body but one in which the soul, who loves this earthly life too much, sinks down into spiritual death. This death is far worse than man can imagine, because his soul is without Light and strength, totally powerless and in deep darkness. Spiritual death is an indescribable torment because the soul is well aware that it is not extinguished at the moment of death but has a fur-ther existence in an agonizing condition. The longing for activity, which is the being's happiness, can only be for the living, because this strength is needed which is present only in a living being, so a being without strength is dead.

What on earth is accomplished by means of the life force that flows to people is only for worldly activities, which increases worldly material goods but has no value for the spiritual kingdom. On the other hand spiritual work bring imperishable treasures and assures a life in eter-nity.

Therefore, the will of man should be directed seriously toward eternal life, and the use of this life force to win spiritual strength. Then, he will become victorious over death, then eternal life is for him certain and he will not taste death forever.

AMEN