Course II - Teaching 7: Blood-relationship

Sacrifices so far described are inner sacrifices and belong to the soul; many times they are unnoticed because they happen hidden from the eyes of men, in the innermost of the individual being; but there are Sacrifices that, although not so subtle, are not less strong despite their material nature.
These Sacrifices are enemies made flesh, which should be fought. Flesh is an ever-living sorrow, and one needs hard Sacrifices to overcome it. Also the Master has said, “The enemies of a man are those of his own house”.
The soul wants to take flight and aims at perfection, but all material affections appear before it and claim for their rights; and since the blood-voice is as strong as the very death, only a being ready for a great Sacrifice can stand the frightful trial. That is why certain attitudes of great beings are strange. Mary Baker Eddy ever lived far from his son, and never remembered him; when she saw his child, then a grown-up, she looked at him, and as she did not notice in him the sign of faith of an eventual adept of her beliefs, she said, “Go away; I do not know you!”
Francis of Assisi had not shame when, taking out his clothes and throwing them at the feet of his father, exclaimed turning his eyes toward the sky, “Now I am free; I can say only one thing, Our Father who are on heaven”. And who does not remember the Buddha coldly looking at the sleeping bodies of his wife and child, before leaving them forever?
At the point of leaving her home, Jeanne of Chantal feels her mother heart devastated; but when her son tried to block her way, she did not hesitated, passed over the body of him, and followed her path to perfection.
Then, all those wishing to find the alliance of the spirit should fight the alliance of the flesh, and it is from these great Sacrifices that the soul emerges tempered and able to say, “I overcame the flesh and I wear the spiritual attire”.