The Great Gospel of John
Volume 7
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord on the Mount of Olives. (cont.) Gospel of John, Chapter 8
- Chapter 120 -
Agricola asks about the guidance of men.
Then Agricola looked surprised and said: "Lord, only You as the most independent and the most free Being of the whole infinity can speak such words to us! It is true, when I have reached after an infinite long time some degree of bliss and if then I still have an endless long time before me, then such an unhappy existence, which took countless long earthly years, means in fact nothing. But one miserable painful day that has tortured me means really something for the limited man, and considering the memory that is remaining, it is the question if eternity can and will be a complete compensation for the endured suffering.
2
Because it is only through Your almighty will that someone became a miserable citizen of this world. He encounters human beings that look like ferocious animals, receiving no education except that given by a selfish imperious paganism. A fraud with countless lies and deceptions of all kind, which had to be accepted as holy truths. And if they were not accepted because your reason became wiser and clearer, and eventually opposed it, then you were wiped out as miserable vermin, because many of such awful examples are very well known to me.
3
With such a spiritless and godless education, I myself could not become anything else than a devouring wild animal in the form of a human being. Now then, if I became as such and could not become anything else, I am completely rejected by You for an endless long time whereby I also do not possess any means to help myself out of my great need.
4
In such a case one could ask You - the only true God - the very important question why I, by Your almighty will, had to become a human being on this Earth. Because before that, I was nothing. I did not exist and I also did not want to exist. Then why did I have to exist?
5
And because I did exist, not by my will but by Your almighty will, I'm asking: why did You not wisely arrange it in such a way that I could come into this world under such circumstances that I would be formed and placed immediately as a true human being in Your order. Why did I have to become first a devouring animal, worse than all lions, panthers, tigers and hyenas?
6
See Lord, this is a very important question. Sure, it is true that all human beings have to die once a bodily dead, but the sad thing of it all is that we on the other hand have to endure an endless long death of the soul, who by Your power is unconditionally given to us poor mortals. This looks rather peculiar to my wisdom that is still very shortsighted. Because I as supreme judge in Rome cannot completely condemn a child that has committed a crime against his parents, and this even less because it is not the fault of the child if it receives a bad and often a very miserable education for which it cannot be blamed. If the parents would give the child another, and let us say, better education, then the child will certainly react in a different way towards them. And actually, even the poor parents cannot be blamed because they also have never received a better education and therefore can impossibly give something better to their children than what they themselves possess.
7
But You, my Lord and my God, possess the infinite best from eternity, and You could give the poor people, Your created beings, Your children, also the very best for their heart and for their soul. However, this, for wise reasons, You decide not to do. First, men have to become the most horrible devouring animals, and later You punish them with Your hard judgments, and only few can say: 'The Lord of Heaven and Earth has had finally once more mercy on us.'
8
Lord, forgive me that I now have spoken so boldly, but Your mysterious behavior against the 3 magicians made me to react like this. Can they help it when they are the way they are? They were searching for You already for such a long time and could not find You, and now they are here close to You and still You do not make Yourself known to them. O Lord, do tell me why this of Your infinite wisdom has to be so when on the other hand Your fatherly love, mildness and goodness wants every human being to be happy, wise and blessed. Because with this constant raging and fighting of men against each other it is unthinkable that they could ever attain to the goal of life that You have set out for them. Lord, please explain this to me."