Spiritual transformation happens in the blink of an eye following centuries of effort

January 1st 2021
Last night, as you left your friends, you wished them good night, saying, ‘I’ll see you next year!’ And now, only a few hours later, it is next year. You already speak of yesterday as ‘last year’. All day yesterday, until the very last second before midnight, in fact, until eleven fifty-nine and fifty-nine seconds, it was still the old year. On the stroke of midnight, the New Year began. If you take the time to think about this, you will make some interesting discoveries. A single second divides one year from the next. However, before you reach that final second, you have to go through the long succession of days that lead up to it. Well, you should know that the transformation of a human being follows the same pattern. Yes, the spiritual transformation of a human being happens in the blink of an eye. In no more than a split second, a person can be totally renewed and regenerated, but this crowning moment can come only after they have worked and striven towards it for hundreds and thousands of years. Just as with the year gone by, the period leading up to the moment of transfiguration will be referred to as the old life; and just as with the New Year, the period dawning at that moment will be known as the new life. How long will we have to wait before this final second arrives? You need not worry about that, it will come for each one of you. So be patient, you must learn to wait. But while waiting you must work.