|
Word Gems
exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
Franchezzo
|
Franchezzo tries to argue and reason with a wicked man to change his ways. But it was all useless. The experienced Spirit Guides have learned not to argue but simply wait for that first glimmer of repentance.
|
return to the main-page article on "Hell"
In the middle of a dark lonely plain I came upon a solitary hut in which I found a man lying on some wisps of dirty straw, unable to move and to all appearance dying.
'we all die anyway, so I just helped him get there a little faster, no big deal'
He told me that in his earth life he had thus abandoned and left to die a sick comrade, whom he had robbed of the gold for which they had both risked their lives, and that now he also was dead he found himself lying in the same helpless deserted way.
sorry, but not that sorry
I asked him if he would not wish to get up and go and do something to help others and thus atone for the murder of his friend, because if so I thought I could help him. He thought he would like to get up certainly.
He was sick of this hole, but he did not see why he should work at anything or bother about other people. He would rather look for the money he had buried, and spend that. Here his cunning eyes glanced furtively at me to see what I thought of his money and if I was likely to try to find it.
sermonizing
I suggested to him that he ought rather to think of trying to find the friend he had murdered and make reparation to him. But he wouldn't hear of that and got quite angry, said he was not sorry he had killed his friend and only sorry he was here. He thought I would have helped him to get away.
but it was no use
I tried to talk to this man and make him see how he really might better his position and undo the wrong he had done, but it was no use, his only idea was that once given the use of his limbs again he could go and rob or kill someone else.
the wicked fellow uses his last remaining strength to throw a stone at Franchezzo; all good deeds are punished in hell (just as they are in our world, a suburb of hell)
So at last I left him where he lay, and as I went out his feeble hand picked up a stone and flung it after me.
"What," I asked mentally, "will become of this man?"
I was answered, "He has just come from earth after dying a violent death and his spirit is weak, but ere long he will grow strong, and then he will go forth and join other marauders like himself who go about in bands, and add another horror to this place. After the lapse of many years—it may even be centuries—the desire for better things will awake and he will begin to progress, but very slowly, for the soul which has been in chains so long and is so poorly developed, so degraded, as in this man, often takes cycles of time to develop its dormant powers."
he sits down, weary and oppressed by the dreariness and fecklessness of wickedness all around
After I had wandered for some time over this dreary desolate plain I felt so tired, weary of heart, that I sat down, and began musing upon what I had seen in this awful sphere. The sight of so much evil and suffering had depressed me, the awful darkness and heavy murky clouds oppressed my soul…
Editor’s note: The experienced Guides don’t argue with anyone. As long as the wicked see themselves as clever and able, there’s nothing to say. And so the Guides wait – maybe for centuries, if need be. Their clients aren’t going anywhere. When they finally figure out they're not going anywhere, they come away with a different point of view.
|