Mysticism & Gospel of Thomas – No. 58 – Lightward Leading Suffering
Verse - Lightward Leading Suffering
Jesus said, “Praise the one who suffered and found life.”
Comment
Nothing makes a person more likely to lose faith than suffering. How can God, the spirit of love and goodness, want my suffering - something bad and evil! Anyone who thinks like that looks at the outside, not the inside, sees only a part, not the whole of the path of life, and sees two things in God: the spirit of light and the spirit of darkness. In truth, this conflict is not in God, but in man and his image of God. And as long as he remains blind to reality, he remains subject to the darkness within and outside of him.
Only when he awakens to the truth that God is the all-light does he break free from the darkness of the entanglement in suffering, find the freedom of the children of God and become the bearer of divine light. Truth When Jesus calls the person who has suffered blessed, it is not because of the suffering, but because the suffering led him to self-reflection and self-realization. How can someone who has not experienced suffering or has avoided it and thus given up the opportunity to tear the veil of ignorance and to look within to find the source of light, find life in the light and with it the love that relieves suffering.
Even in suffering, he is closer to the bliss of oneness than the person who thinks he is happy, who is still absorbed in the deceptive joys of external existence and only turns inward in disappointment when they are destroyed and gets to the bottom of themselves. All those who suffer are certain of one thing, if they do not tire of searching.
First of all, they will realize that things and fate are not determined from the outside and that with their own inner transformation, the painful external circumstances also change.
School of Life
In the school of life, the more willing we are to learn, the more surely we progress from one class to the next.
Only for those who are unwilling to learn do the lessons of life become harder and more difficult, so that they can recognize and solve their tasks and become more mature. If they do not work on themselves, fate will do it, whose pressure to move forward and pull upwards will ease as soon as they recognize and accept the teaching, overcome themselves, renew themselves from within and follow the path to completeness - the path to the spirit that sets them free and frees them from suffering.
Blessed are those who have suffered. Jesus calls for heroic hearts that aim upwards, that sense the bright homeland beyond suffering and know that they are safe in it. Those who suffer are closer to awakening. The more persistently they search for the meaning and lesson of suffering, the more alert they become to inner guidance, and the more quiet and willing they become.
So all suffering leads to the light if it leads to letting go and surrendering - and to looking at one's neighbour: To always wander through the darkness is the fate of light, to always shine for others, whether small or large. Always to fight the shadows, to glow without rest, to burn and consume oneself - heart, be like that! In loving self-ignition, the light falls from within into the darkness of suffering and leads its bearer heavenwards.
For him, pain and suffering become wisers to the light, revealers of hidden strength and fulfillers of secret longings. What afflicts him leads him heavenwards to healing and oneness. Becoming still in God calms the need and opens his eyes to the redeemer of suffering, the divine self.