|
"My question is, why should we wait?" said Helen and smiled. "The principle is valid now. Why should we not allow ourselves to experience it now, and begin this journey at the most intimate level? There is no reason why we shouldn't. That is what my friends like Leibnitz, are telling me. It's simple to do, by just doing it. Nothing else matters except to yield to the principle that is already established in truth. That's not hard to do, is it?"
Suddenly Helen laughed. "This is funny," she said.
"What is funny?"
"Suppose that lightening struck you today and you found yourself facing St. Peter at the pearly gate. He would ask you: 'Son, how much have you loved in the world?' How would you answer? Tell me, Peter, what would your answer be."
"I would say to him that I loved my wife Sylvia, for as long as I have known her, and Erica for a day, and Helen for a few hours."
"And he would ask you: Is this all there is?" Helen replied.
"I would answer then, that I always wanted to love more, but it wasn't allowed, or the opportunities didn't exist, and so on. I am sure he would understand."
"Would he?" said Helen. "Would he understand?" She began to smile. She suggested that the following would happen. St. Peter wouldn't understand. He would ask me to explain why. I would answer him as I did. Then he would respond to every one of my excuses by saying: That's irrelevant. That doesn't apply. Or, what has this got to do with anything? In the end, after all my excuses would be exhausted, he would put his arm on my shoulder like a friend, and would say to me: Son, I cannot let you pass into heaven. You would not be happy there. Your belligerent attitude towards love would isolate you from everyone in heaven. You would be eternally lonely. So, let me tell you what I am going to do to make you comfortable and happy. I will send you to a place where you will feel truly at home. You will find this to be a beautiful place surrounded by fire, a place of fear and doubts and endless struggles. You will love this place, a place where people steal from each other and call themselves rich, and give you the privilege to join the game. You will find it to be a place where love is unknown, where people are stuffed full with knowledge that is irrelevant, that they cannot use. It is a place where people kill one-another, or find living too expensive and allow themselves to be killed so that their bones can be sold to the fertilizer factories which makes products for profit that other people use to grow flowers with. Helen suggested that St. Peter will then shake hands with me, and while I smile at him he would raise the other, and puff, I would be happy. At least I would be content. I might even be proud of myself that I am able to manage to survive in this 'difficult' world.
I was about to protest.
Helen shook her head. "I am not saying this about you," she defended herself. "I am saying this about all who say to me, 'Helen, you make loving sound so easy.'"
"But that's me, Helen," I protested. "I just said those very words to you moments ago."
"What is in the past is irrelevant, Peter. Are you the same person now? I believe that you are not. I believe that you have changed. It only takes a moment of honesty for a person to change."
I nodded in agreement. "Are you saying that if we can't accomplish the simple tasks, how can we even hope to accomplish the greater?"
"More than that, Peter. Think about that. Think about all the things you told me tonight that you no longer believe."
"Erica was wrong," I said quietly, "when she felt that loving completely can be an impossible task."
Next Page
|| - page index -
|| - chapter index -
|| - Exit -
||
|
