364. Poor people do not get into heaven because of their poverty but because of their lives. Our lives follow us whether we are rich or poor. There is no special mercy for the one any more than for the other. ¹ People who have lived well are accepted; people who have lived badly are rejected.

Poverty can actually seduce people and lead them away from heaven just as much as wealth can. There are many people among the poor who are not content with their lot, who covet much more, and who believe that wealth is a blessing; ² so when they do not get what they want, they are enraged and harbor evil thoughts about divine providence. They envy other people their assets, and given the chance would just as soon cheat them and live in their own foul pleasures.

It is different, though, for poor people who are content with their lot, are conscientious and careful in their work, prefer work to idleness, behave honestly and reliably, and lead Christian lives. I have sometimes talked with rural and common people who had believed in God while they lived in this world and had behaved honestly and righteously in their jobs. Because they were impelled by a desire to know what was true, they kept asking what thoughtfulness and faith were, since they had heard a lot about faith in this world and were hearing a lot about thoughtfulness in the other life. So they were told that thoughtfulness is all about living and faith is all about doctrine. This means that thoughtfulness is intending and doing what is fair and right in every task, while faith is thinking what is fair and right; so faith and thoughtfulness go together like doctrine and a life according to it, or like thought and intent. Faith becomes thoughtfulness, then, when we intend and do the fair and right things that we think. When this happens, they are not two but one. They understood this perfectly well and were overjoyed, saying that in the world they had not understood believing to be any different from living.

फुटनोट:

8700. 'For the task is too heavy for you' means that it is not possible because it does not arise from true order. This is clear from the meaning of 'heavy task' as something not possible. The meaning of 'heavy burden' here as something not possible is clear from what comes before, where it says that he and the people with him would wither away, meaning that the truth which had been implanted was going to perish, and also from what comes after - 'You are not able to do it yourself alone', and later on in verse 23, 'If you do this thing, you are able to stand fast' - by which impossibility if no change takes place is meant.

[2] The reason why it is not possible because it does not arise from true order is that in the next life everything is possible which arises from order, and everything is impossible which does not arise from order. Divine Truth, which emanates from the Lord, is what makes order, indeed is order. Consequently everything that is in keeping with Divine Truth, being in keeping with order, is possible; and everything that is contrary to Divine Truth, being contrary to order, is impossible. Let some examples serve to show plainly that this is so. It is in keeping with order that people who have led good lives will be saved, and those who have led bad ones will be condemned. Therefore it is impossible to send to hell those who have led good lives, or to raise to heaven those who have led bad ones. Consequently it is impossible for those in hell to be brought, by the Lord's pure mercy, out of there into heaven and to be saved. For it is the acceptance of the Lord's mercy when they lived in the world that saves everyone. Those who accept it in the world are open to the Lord's mercy in the next life, for there they have the ability to accept it. Imparting it to others, and doing so at will to all and sundry provided that they possess faith and so believe they have been cleansed from sins, is impossible because it is contrary to true order, that is, contrary to the Divine, who is order.

[3] It is in keeping with order that faith and charity should be implanted in freedom and not under compulsion, and that faith and charity that has been implanted in freedom should remain, but not if implanted under compulsion. The reason for this is that when they are implanted in freedom they are instilled into the person's affection and so into his will, and are accordingly made his own, but not so if they are implanted under compulsion. Consequently it is impossible for a person to be saved unless, having been born in evil, he is left in freedom to do evil or to refrain from it. When with that freedom he refrains of his own accord from evil, an affection for truth and goodness is instilled by the Lord; and this gives him freedom to receive insights belonging to faith and desires belonging to charity; for freedom exists as a result of affection. From this it is evident that it is impossible for a person to be saved under compulsion; were it possible all people in the world would be saved.

[4] It is in keeping with order in the next life for all to be formed into different communities according to the life they acquired in the world, the evil living in association with the evil, and the good with the good. It is not possible therefore for the evil and the good to be together, nor is it possible for the evil to be governed by good; for good and evil are opposites and one destroys the other. From this it is also evident that it is not possible for those in hell to be saved, so that salvation by mercy alone, regardless of the life a person has been leading, is an impossibility. Those who are in hell and suffer torment there attribute the torments there to the Divine. They say that since the Divine is all-powerful He is able, if He is willing, to take their torment away, but that He is not willing, and that for this reason He is responsible for it. For they say that he who is able yet unwilling to take it away is the one who is responsible for it. But it is impossible for such things to be taken away because that is contrary to order. If they were taken away the evil would rise up against the good; they would overpower the angels themselves and destroy heaven. But the Divine desires only what is good, that is to say, the happiness of those who are good, and those torments only because they restrain and at the same time correct the wicked. Since this is the end in view, being the end that Divine Love and Mercy itself has in view, it is not possible for the torments suffered by those in hell to be taken away. From these examples it becomes clear that everything is impossible which is contrary to order, however possible it may seem to be to those unacquainted with the arcana of heaven.