374. That 'the voice of blood' ¹ means violence done to charity is clear from many places in the Word where 'voice' stands for everything that accuses, and 'blood' for all sin, especially hatred. For anyone who hates his brother murders him in his own heart, as the Lord teaches,

You have heard that it was said to the men of old, You shall not kill, and whoever kills will be liable to judgement. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without cause will be liable to judgement. Whoever indeed says to his brother, Raca! will be liable to the Sanhedrin. And whoever says You fool! will be liable to the Gehenna of fire. Matthew 5:21-22.

These sayings denote degrees of hatred. Hatred is contrary to charity; and though a person does not actually commit murder, the intention to do so is still there, and by whatever possible method. It is external restraints alone which prevent murder actually being committed. And this is why all hatred is called blood, as in Jeremiah,

How well you direct Your way in the quest for love! Yes, in your skirts the blood of needy innocent souls is found. Jeremiah 2:33-34.

[2] And since hatred is meant by blood, so is every kind of wickedness, for hatred is the source of all wickedness, as in Hosea,

Perjuring, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they commit robbery, and blood' has followed on blood. ¹ Therefore the land will mourn and every inhabitant will anguish. Hosea 4:2-3.

And in Ezekiel,

Will you judge the city of blood' and declare to her all her abominations? A City that sheds blood' in the midst of her. By your blood which you have shed you have become guilty. Ezekiel 22:2-4, 6, 9.

This is referring to the lack of compassion. In the same prophet,

The land is full of the judgement of blood, ¹ and the city is full of violence. Ezekiel 7:23.

And in Jeremiah,

For the sins of the prophets of Jerusalem, the iniquities of her priests who shed in the midst of her the blood of the righteous, they wander blind in the streets; they are defiled with blood. Lamentations 4:13-14.

In Isaiah,

When the Lord will have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and wiped away from its midst the blood ¹ of Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. Isaiah 4:4.

In the same prophet,

Your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Isaiah 59:3.

In Ezekiel,

I passed by you and saw you weltering in your blood, ¹ and I said to you, Live in your blood ¹ I indeed said to you, Live in your blood. ¹ Ezekiel 16:6, 22.

This refers to the abominations of Jerusalem, which are called 'blood' ¹ . Lack of compassion, and hatred, in the last times a real so described as blood in Revelation 16:3-4. The plural 'bloods' is used because all forms of iniquity and abomination well up out of hatred, just as all forms of good and holiness do out of love. Anyone therefore who hates his neighbour would murder him if he could, and he does do so in whatever way he can. That is to say, he does him violence, which is strictly the meaning here of 'voice of blood'. ¹

Бележки под линия:

535. I have been allowed to talk with some people in the other life who had distanced themselves from the affairs of the world in order to live in devotions and sanctity, and also with some who had mortified themselves in various ways because they thought this was renouncing the world and taming the desires of the flesh. However, most of them had wound up with a gloomy kind of life from this and had distanced themselves from that life of active thoughtfulness that can be led only in the world, so they could not associate with angels. The life of angels is cheerful and blessed. It consists of worthwhile activities that are deeds of thoughtfulness. Particularly, people who have led a life withdrawn from worldly concerns are aflame with a sense of their own worth and constantly crave heaven. They think of heavenly joy as their reward, with no knowledge whatever of what heavenly joy actually is. When they are with angels and are let into that joy - which has no sense of merit and consists of activities and public duties and in bliss at the good that is accomplished through them - they are as bewildered as though they were seeing something totally alien to their faith. Since they are not open to these joys, they move off and associate with people who have led the same kind of life in the world.

[2] There are other people who have lived outwardly devotional lives, constantly in churches and at prayer there. They have mortified their souls while constantly thinking about themselves, how they are worthier and more estimable than others and will be regarded as saints after their death. They are not in heaven in the other life because they have done all this with themselves first in mind. Since they have polluted divine truths by the self-love they immersed them in, some of them are so deranged that they think they are gods. So they are with similar people in hell. Some of them are ingenious and crafty and are in hells for the crafty people who used their skills and wiles to construct outward appearances that would lead the masses to believe them possessed of a divine sanctity.

[3] This includes many of the Catholic saints. I have been allowed to talk with some of them and have had their lives clearly described, both the lives they had led in the world and what they were like afterward.

I have mentioned all this to let it be known that the life that leads to heaven is not one of withdrawal from the world but a life in the world, and that a life of piety apart from a life of thoughtfulness (which is possible only in the world) does not lead to heaven at all. Rather, it is a life of thoughtfulness, a life of behaving honestly and fairly in every duty, every affair, every task, from our deeper nature and therefore from a heavenly source. The source of this life is within us when we act honestly and fairly because doing so is in accord with divine laws. This life is not hard, but a life of piety apart from a life of thoughtfulness is hard. Still, this latter life leads away from heaven as surely as people believe it leads to heaven. ¹

Бележки под линия: