EAGLE WINGS

“There was a rich man who dressed in purple garments and fine linen and dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores.

When the poor man died, he was carried away by Angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.

And from the hell, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’

Abraham replied, ‘My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go from our side to yours or from your side to ours.’

He said, ‘Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.’

But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’

He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

Then Abraham said: ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead’.”

Yes, a vertiginous race and people who ran as a crowd hastily… And when they reached the deep mouth of the open volcano of perdition, some fell into the profundity of that Abyss that swallowed them with the force of a hurricane, being lost forever, forever! and as though by surprise before my spiritual gaze.

Others, stopped suddenly; maybe they still had time to think over…

Was this second group capable of passing above the Abyss? I do not know how; because, to pass above it, wings were necessary and large, strong and wings of eagle, accustomed to flying very high and to surmount immense Abysses and great dangers… because God cannot be possessed if one does not come with eagle wings that, raising us towards Him, make us capable of living by participation on His very life, being His children, and heirs to His glory.

How then would this second group pass above without being provided with their wings…? Who would give them eagle wings to fly…? Perhaps the Sacraments… an act of pure love… a ray of light to transform them, like the good thief, making them react to the dramatic reality of their situation so they can cross over the Abyss…

“As I live, says the Lord God, I swear I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, but rather in the wicked man’s conversion, that he may live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! Why should you die, o house of Israel?

And though I say to the wicked man that he shall surely die, if he turns away from his sin and does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of the sins he committed shall be held against him; he has done what is right and just, he shall surely live. Yet your countrymen say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair!’; but it is their way that is not fair. When a virtuous man turns away from what is right and does wrong, he shall die for it. But when a wicked man turns away from wickedness and does what is right and just, because of this he shall live. And still you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair!’ I will judge every one of you according to his ways.”

Even though the immense majority, even after crossing over the Abyss, will have to purify themselves to be able to come to possess God. Because, in the course of the journey through the quagmire of this life, their tunics are not completely washed and purified with the blood of the Lamb, by means of which, “though your sins be like scarlet, they may become white as snow; Though they be crimson red, they may become white as wool.”

So, in order to participate in God according to the model of the One who, looking at Himself in that which makes Him be God, He created us in His image and likeness to introduce us into the familial intercommunication of His own divine life; we must become like Him. Because, “in His light we see light,” transformed from glory to glory into that which we contemplate; being overwhelmed by the glare of His glory, and being, with all the Blessed, a response of reverent adoration, in an act of pure love, to the untouchable Holiness of the God thrice Holy; whom one cannot possess entering into the eternal Banquet without a Wedding gown.

And this is such, that the soul, once released from the slavery of the body, penetrated by the divine thought, not being prepared and enabled to possess God, instinctively would seek its own purification, in its cry of: Who like God?! owing to the need for fulfilling the purpose for which it has been created.

Embracing lovingly that new present that the Eternal gives it by means of Purgatory, in order to be able to come to possess Him forever, become one with Christ, and This One crucified, who, through the glorious triumph of His resurrection, introduced us into the thresholds of Eternity.

That is why Purgatory is a new gift from God overflowing with mercy, full of compassion, love and tenderness; so that the creature be able to purify all that in its journey, for lack of love and correspondence, carried away by its own passions, full of distortions, disfigure it so much, that prevent it from its definitive encounter with God.

Purgatory being as though the “place of lovelessness” where lie those who, for not having tried to do God’s will, went astray and, even without losing their way completely, did not respond in loving return to the infinite donations from the One who, “loving His own in the world, He loved them to the end.”

I do not know how this group, that stopped suddenly at the Abyss, secured their wings to cross over it… since, without wings of golden eagle, one cannot cross over the unfathomable Abyss that separates this life from the luminous day of the Light.

And the third group, which walks through the exile without soiling themselves in the quagmire of sin, who pass over it rapidly, with their eyes fixed on God, with their heart possessed by the Infinite One, with their mind enlightened by the Eternal Wisdom and with their soul taken over by the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit; in a word: with a supernatural outlook that shrouds and penetrates all the ways of their ascent towards the encounter with the Father and that makes them live a life of faith that expects tireless, driven by love, the promise of the children of God; these are the ones who pass triumphantly, above the insurmountable Abyss of perdition.

Terribly impressive is the sight of those who fell into the Abyss…! But no less impressive that of those who, coming to the frontiers of Eternity, at the end of their life, behind the Abyss, glimpse a sparkling light that, with the magnet of its burning flames, attracts towards itself irresistibly men who, with penetrating eyes of divine wisdom, discover the light of the eternal Day of the Love…

What a joy to see that glorious multitude of those “who have come out of the great tribulation,” living as though flying through the exile neither getting stained nor crawling on the quagmire of life, and stretching out their large wings, almost unwittingly, soar up and pass in a lordly manner through and above the Abyss; and in the end are introduced by Christ into that burning and infinite Light of joy, happiness, bliss and eternal possession…!

The Gates of Eternity opened up to the golden eagle that comes from the exile to introduce itself into the bridal chamber of the Bridegroom…! The Gates opened up which introduced it forever, forever! into the infinite joy which the Blessed possess by participation…!

What a contrast…! Among those too, who fall into the Abyss, one perceives a “forever,” without end, unfathomable, horrifying; a “forever” known only by those who, dragged into the depth of its bosom, find themselves, as though by surprise, in that endless ditch of terror…

Two different “forever,” to which a single way leads us: the way of Eternity. Because, when God created us for Him and placed us in the exile, He made us walk in the same journey through the footpath that leads us to His possession. But sin built a ditch and opened an Abyss between creature and Creator, between Heaven and earth, between God and men; an Abyss of wickedness, which can be crossed over only with eagle wings and burning eyes of ardent wisdom…

I want eagle wings for me and for all of mine; a heart of Church with wings of Holy Spirit for all men on earth…! I want wings of golden eagle to bring me to the Mansions of the eternal happiness; and I seek to walk through my exile with my wings stretched out to cross gracefully the frontiers of Eternity and to save myself from the Abyss that sin opened up between God and men…!

I am being consumed in yearning to cry out with Christ and together with Him to all men: “Come to Me.” I need, because I am Church and a pilgrim among my brethren with whom I go at the same speed through the same road, to discover and to show them that burning Light full of life and happiness. And that is why I cry out with dead throes in songs, that due to the tragedy of my spirit have turned into yells, in order to show men the safe way to live in our journey towards the Kingdom of Light and Love.

My soul is deeply impressed by this dogmatic truth, ever ancient and ever new, of life, of death, of Heaven and hell… But the impression on me of those who fell into the Abyss is so hard for me, that it almost does not allow me to take pleasure on the ones who crossed the glorious and sumptuous frontiers of Eternity.

They fell…! They fell…! They fell into the Abyss…! I have seen them fall!! And they fell forever with the speed of lightning in stormy days, with the swiftness of a hurricane in windy nights, with the chilling sensation of death, disappearing into the unfathomable depth of the “open volcano”…!

I hear guffaws in the distance… mockery… gibes… snubs… incomprehensions, calumnies and martyrdoms against the soul-Church who, with eagle wings, passes through the exile his vertiginous progress…

How impressive, how magnificent and terrible the vision of the multitude of men of all times, running through the life’s journey in vertiginous race…!

And what a contrast at the end of the exile…! What a different end! what a different finish! consequences of a different going through the land of life…

“…So will it be at the end of the age: The Son of Man will send His Angels, and they will collect out of His kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear.”

What a terrible foolishness that of the confused minds, going through such a short, quick and such an uncertain path, in such an absurd and such a mistaken unconcern…!

Everyone who runs is seeking love, happiness, peace, joy, and possession. But not all are seeking it according to God’s will and, that is why, many are dragged, in the twinkling of an eye, into the unfathomable Abyss of perdition.

Dear soul, provide yourself with eagle wings, widen the caverns of your heart, go through the path of love, faith, hope, open your eyes to the truth, so that you may be capable of stretching out your wings and getting into the blissful happiness of the joy of God!

Mother Trinidad de la Santa Madre Iglesia

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