Jesus says:
“I want to speak to you about human prudence.
“Supernatural prudence is a great virtue. But human prudence is not a virtue. You men have applied this name, like a false label, to improper and unvirtuous sentiments. Just as you call the small offering you give to the poor ‘charity’.
“But if you give alms, even an enormous sum, and do so to be observed and applauded by the world, do you think you are performing an act of charity? No. Stop fooling yourselves. Charity means ‘love.’ Charity is thus to have compassion and love for all the needy of the earth. Money is not necessary to perform an act of charity. A word of advice, comfort, sweetness, an act of material aid, and a prayer are charity. Alms given rudely, while you dishearten the poor, in whom you are unable to see Me, is not charity.
“The same holds for prudence. You call your cowardice prudence, your craving for untroubled living, your selfishness. Three things which are certainly not virtue.
“Even in your relations with religion you are lovers of this untroubled life. When you know that a frank profession of faith, a phrase stated as hinted to you by the Spirit of Truth, may irritate authorities, employers, a husband, children, or parents, from whom you anticipate material aid, your human prudence causes you to lock into a silence which is not prudent, but cowardly, even if not blameworthy, for you go so far as to deny, disavow - perjuring yourselves - your most spiritual sentiments.
“Peter was the first one who, in the hour of danger, out of human prudence, went so far as to deny that he knew Me. I permitted this so that, once he had repented, he could later have compassion on and forgive his cowardly brothers. But how many ‘Peters’ there have been from that time until now! You always have a base interest before your minds and you give it preference and protect it to the detriment of the eternal interest which the bold and boldly professed Truth yields you.
“In the face of certain manifestations of God, you, poor men, certainly lack the courage of Nicodemus or Joseph, who, at a tremendous hour for the Nazarene and his followers, were able to step forward to think of Me, going against the hostility of all Jerusalem. You yourself sometimes remain somewhat passive in the face of some of my manifestations and would like to make them less piercing.
“Human prudence guides you all. You take it everywhere. Even into bishops’ palaces and convents. How you have changed as compared to the first Christians, who took nothing that was human into account and looked only to Heaven!
“It is true that I told you to be as wise as serpents, but not with human prudence. I also told you that to follow Me one must be bold, going against everyone. Against self-love; against power, when it persecutes you because you are my followers; against a father, a mother, a wife, children, when, out of human affection and earthly concern, they want to keep you from following my Way, for one thing alone is necessary: to save one’s soul, even by losing fleshly life to obtain eternal life.”