Reasons for Resigning Oneself

With the words, “Blessed are the afflicted, for they shall be consoled,” Jesus indicates simultaneously the compensation that awaits those who suffer and the resignation that leads one to bless suffering as a prelude to healing.

These words could also be translated like this: You should consider yourselves fortunate to suffer, because your pains in this world are the debt of your past wrongs. And these pains, if borne patiently while you are on earth, will save you from centuries of suffering in the future life. Hence, you should be happy because God has reduced your debt by permitting you to repay it now, which will guarantee you tranquility for the future.

The one who suffers is like a debtor who owes a large sum, and to whom his creditor says, “If you will pay me today even a hundredth part of your debt, I will release you from the rest and you will be free. But if you don’t,  then I will hound you until you pay the very last cent.” Would that debtor not be happier bearing all kinds of hardships in order to free himself by paying only a hundredth of what he owes? Instead of complaining to his creditor, would he not be thankful?

Such is the meaning of the words, “Blessed are the afflicted, for they shall be consoled.” They are blessed because they are releasing themselves from their debt, and after they have done so they will be free. However, if upon being released on the one hand, they go into debt on the other, they will never attain their freedom. Consequently, each new wrong increases the debt, for there is not even one, whatever it may be, that does not entail its obligatory and unavoidable punishment – if not today, then tomorrow; if not  in this life, then  in another. Among these wrongs, one must put in first place the lack of submission to God’s  will; therefore, if we complain in our afflictions and do not accept them with resignation and as something deserved, if we accuse God as unjust, we contract a new debt that causes the loss of the benefit that we could have gotten from suffering. That is why it is necessary to start over, exactly as if you were to pay a creditor who has been hounding you, but then asked for the money back as a new loan.

Upon  reentering the  world of spirits, humans are like laborers who show up on payday. To some the Lord will say, “Here is your pay for the days you worked”; to others, the fortunate ones of earth, those who lived in idleness, who placed their happiness in the satisfactions of self-centeredness and in worldly pleasures, he will say, “Nothing is owed to you since you received your pay while on earth. Go and begin your task again.”