64. The reason so many varied elements act as one in an individual is that there is nothing whatever there that does not contribute something to the common good and do something useful. The inclusive body serves its parts and the parts serve the inclusive body because the inclusive body is made up of parts and the parts make up the inclusive body. So they provide for each other respectively, they focus on each other mutually, and they are united in the kind of form that gives every single component a relationship to the inclusive entity and its well-being. This is what enables them to act as a unit.

[2] It is the same with assemblies in the heavens. People there unite in this kind of form in pursuit of any worthwhile activity. As a result any individuals who do not serve some use for the larger body are cast out of heaven because they are misfits. To "serve some use" is to intend well to others for the sake of the common good, while "not to serve some use" is to intend well to others not for the sake of the common good but for the sake of oneself. People who act in this latter fashion are people who love themselves above all, while people who act in the former fashion are the ones who love the Lord above all. This is why people in heaven act in unison not from themselves but from the Lord. They in fact focus on him as the unique source of all, and on his kingdom as the commonwealth that is to be cared for. This is the meaning of the Lord's words, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and everything will be given you in addition" (Matthew 6:33). To "seek his righteousness" is to seek his good. ¹

[3] There are people who in this world love the good of their country more than their own and the good of their neighbor as their own. They are the ones who love and seek the kingdom of the Lord in the other life, since there the kingdom of the Lord takes the place of one's country. Further, people who love to do good to others not for self-centered reasons but for the sake of the good itself are people who love their neighbor, since in the other life the good is one's neighbor. ² All individuals who are of this quality are in the universal human - that is, in heaven.

Poznámky pod čarou:

6823. The Lord's kingdom is the neighbour in a higher degree than the Church in which anyone is born, for the Lord's kingdom is made up of all those who are governed by good both on earth and in heaven. This means that the Lord's kingdom consists in good, which includes all kinds of good in their entirety. When this good is loved so are individual persons who are governed by good. Thus the whole, that is, all good in its entirety, constitutes the neighbour in the first degree. It constitutes the Grand Man, which was the subject at the ends of quite a number of chapters, the Man who is an image representative of the Lord Himself. This Man, which is the Lord's kingdom, is loved when from deepest affection good is done to those who are by means of that Man made truly human by the Lord, thus those among whom the Lord's kingdom is established.