On Reincarnation

"Abraham lived once. Isaac lived once. Jacob lived once. You shall live once. I, who am God, took on flesh once and will not take it on a second time, for God, too, respects order. And the order of human life is this: For a spirit to be fused to flesh to make man like God, who is not flesh, but spirit, not animal, but supernatural. For the flesh, when it declines, in its evening, to fall like a slough and covering into the nothingness from which it was taken and the spirit to return to its life; Blessed, if it lived, Damned, if it perished for having made the flesh its lord instead of making God the lord of its spirit. For that spirit-from the hereafter, whose details you uselessly wish to know, without contenting yourselves with believing in its existence-to wait, with a fearful trembling or a joyful thrill, to see the flesh rise again to clothe itself therein once again on Earth's last day and to plunge with it into the abyss or penetrate into Heaven, also glorified in matter, with which you have overcome because it has been your natural enemy, changed into a supernatural ally by you. But how could you take on one flesh at the time of my sublime review and go to condemnation or glory with it if each spirit had many fleshly existences? And which would it choose from among them? The first or the last? And how could you invoke the blessed if they were already reincarnated? And how could you call your deceased yours if at that moment they were already the children of others? And life... Oh, life, once over, never returns! You are given an hour of eternity, a moment of eternity, to conquer Eternity. I give you time. This is at once love and justice. What would you say if I struck you at the first mistake? You would say, 'Why, Lord! If You had given me time to reflect, I would have repented!' I leave you time. You are at fault one, two, ten, seventy times, and I could strike you. I give you time. So that you cannot say to Me, 'You did not show benignity.'"