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Word Gems
exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
Franchezzo
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The Guides may have opinions, even, studied and well-conceived, but neither they nor anyone else has the authority to write the script of our lives. We, only we, ourselves, have the last word; the sacred self only will determine what it shall do and with whom.
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return to the main-page article on "Hell"
Franchezzo has submitted to the brothers’ determination. But, in all the back-room dealing, they forgot that another party, with vested interests along with veto rights, was involved in the negotiations.
the mouse the roared
And then? Ah me! while I write the words the tears of thankfulness are in my eyes again, and I almost break down in trying to write them…
The brothers thought that sweet little sister could not speak, that womanly grace and gentleness was weakness – but, they found out, fast.
… then she—whom we had deemed so weak and gentle that we had but to decide for her, —she called me back…
"the force of love that none dare oppose"
…with all the force of a love none dare oppose—called me back to her.
'I will wait for you' is among the very sweetest, the most sincere, the most costly, the most forcible, of love's affirmations
She said she could never give me up so long as I had love for her. "Let your past be what it might—let you be sunk now even to the lowest depths of Hell itself, I will still love you—still seek to follow you and claim my right—the right of my love—to help and comfort and cherish you till God in His mercy shall have pardoned your past and you shall be raised up again."
to perceive oneself loved to this highest degree is salvation itself; in receipt of such evaluation, there is now no height too high barring the way to one's evolvement
"Worship" is an old English word with the sense of "worth-ship." Knowing that his beloved places such high value on him, Franchezzo is now ready to meet whatever fate requires.
And then it was that I broke down and wept as only a strong proud man can weep, whose heart has been wrung and bruised and hardened, and then touched by the soft tender touch of a loving hand till the tears must come to his relief.
I went back to my love and knelt down beside her, and though they would not let me touch her, that calm beautiful Spirit [Guide] who was her guardian whispered to her that her prayer was answered, and that she should indeed lead me back to the Light.
And so I left my darling... I left her thus with those spirits, and went forth to wander till her voice should call me to her side again.
She goes out and finds a psychic-medium to help her communicate.
The medium, one who understood natural law, addresses Franchezzo:
He assured me that if I was only patient all would be well in time, and though the relations [the two brothers] might build their spiritual wall around my love, her will would at all times draw me through it to her, and nothing could shut out her love from me—no walls could keep that back.
If I would seek now to learn the things of the spirit and work to advance myself, the gulf between us would disappear.
Comforted, I left him and wandered away again, I knew not where...
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Editor's last word:
This example of a sinful man making his way back to the woman he loves is an excellent illustration of the principle “work out your own salvation.”
A fundamentalist from my past once contacted me to learn about my writings. He knew they were extensive, and I quickly discerned that he was threatened by the sheer volume of interlaced detail laid out concerning the afterlife and natural law. He didn’t like this as some of it countermands the biblical narrative.
In our discussion, I must have referenced Paul’s phrase “work out your own salvation,” and he immediately defended that the context of Paul’s comment did not exactly allow for my proposition. Fair enough, but - the answer to such charges is this: It doesn’t matter what Paul said. The Bible is not a perfect book. It is not God's literal word dropped from heaven. Further, there is no external source to infallibly lead us.
And if I choose to employ the phrase "work out your own salvation," I am under no obligation to pay homage to Paul. The principle of “work out your own salvation” can be taken as one’s own with no necessary allegiance to biblical precedent. It’s a universal precept, stands on its own, and is well affirmed by thousands of afterlife testimonies. It’s how things manage themselves over there; here, too, if we have eyes to see.
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