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The Spirit Pascal, in The Gospel According to Spiritism, Chapter XVI, Item IX, clarifies that man only possesses truly what is of use of the soul, that is, intelligence, knowledge, moral qualities, attributes that cannot be taken from him, since spiritual evolution is individual and non-transferable, and it is not possible for anyone to acquire titles of ennoblement to pass them on to others.
Thus, "the perfecting of the Spirit is the fruit of his own work. Not being able, in a single bodily existence, to acquire all the moral and intellectual qualities that will lead him to the goal, he attains it by a succession of existences, and in each of them he takes a few steps forward on the path of progress".
Such a succession of existences occurs in various worlds, "appropriated to the different levels of the progress of the Spirits, and where bodily existence presents very different conditions".
Regarding the Earth, we know that it (still) belongs to the category of the worlds of atonement and proof, and this is why it is not surprising that our live here is marked by several turbulent facts, or many things that test our capacity to resignation, therefore we usually say that it takes Job's patience to bear it all.
The expression, in fact, goes back to one of the oldest stories told in the Bible. Job was the richest man in the area in which he lived. He had thousands of sheep and camels, hundreds of oxen and donkeys, a very large piece of land, seven sons, three daughters, and a large number of servants. He was considered a good man, righteous and a God-fearing man.
Job's faith was severely tested when evil struck him in different ways.
On the same day his property was invaded and plundered, his herds were stolen, the servants murdered, and his sons and daughters died when the house collapsed on them, caused by a very strong wind coming from the desert.
Job was very sad, and he fell on the ground and prayed. He did not rebel. He acknowledged that all that he had had been given by God and that the Lord had thought it right to take everything away from him. Thus, he affirmed his faith and showed resignation to the Father's will. However, the problems continued. He had his body covered with sores. It was the dreaded leprosy.
His wife, tormented by pain, said that he should curse God and die. However, Job stood firm in his faith. The wife, disgusted, abandoned him. Alone, isolated, Job was visited by three friends who, instead of comforting him, tried to convince him that God was punishing him for his many sins.
Job disagreed with them, reaffirmed his faith in the divine goodness and justice, and still prayed to the Lord not to punish his friends.
Because of his unshakable faith, and due to his patience in bearing all things, after a while, the Heavenly Father allowed him to recover his health by curing him of leprosy. Afterwards Job succeeded in recovering, and duplicating, all his possessions.
He remarried and had ten children, and he lived the rest of his life in happiness.
Having said this, it is necessary to mention the Spirit Emmanuel for whom true patience "is always an exteriorization of the soul which has itself given a lot of love, and gives it to others as an example.
This love is the brotherly expression which regards all creatures as brothers and sisters, under any circumstances, without disdaining the energy to clarify the lack of understanding, when that becomes necessary".
In fact, at the time when he was alone and visited by his friends, who led him to believe that he was being punished by God, Job, disagreeing with them, used energy to clarify their misunderstanding.
Moreover, Job considered himself to be the beneficial owner of the goods which God had bestowed on him, since he knew that what the Creator had given him could be withdrawn.
The beneficial owner is "the one who is entitled to the usufruct; the one which can enjoy the movable or immovable property that does not belong to him".
In the book Calma, Emmanuel affirms that, before the Laws of the Earth, the property, whether it belongs to the social group or to the individual, is always worthy of respect; however, before the Divine Creation, "the idea of usufruct is a great factor of patience to the heart".
When we consider ourselves to be the beneficial owners of the goods granted by Divine Providence, we will be in a position to attribute their due value to these resources, and like Job, if we are deprived of them, we will resign ourselves as per God’s will, and will fill our hearts with patience, the real wealth that we must strive to acquire for the sake of our own evolution.
It is worth mentioning another real wealth: calmness.
In The Gospel According to Spiritism, Chapter V, Item XXIII, the Spirit Fenelon emphasizes that man lives continuously in search of happiness on Earth, but it slips from his hands, since happiness without a flaw does not exist on this planet.
Nevertheless, the above-mentioned Spirit mentions that man can enjoy relative happiness, provided he does not seek it in perishable things and subject to the same vicissitudes related in his existence on Earth, but in the imperishable joys of the soul, which are the prodromos of celestial joys.
Thus Fenelon goes on to say that man, instead of seeking peace of heart, the only real happiness in this world, is eager for everything that will stir and disturb him, and singularly ends up creating torments for he himself to avoid.
Furthermore, the Benefactor asks whether there will be greater sufferings than those derived from envy and jealousy, asserting that there is no rest for the envious and jealous, since they are always kind of feverish.
On the other hand, because we must always refer to the conduct of the High Spirits, with the purpose of following good examples, we may cite a passage from Question 967 of The Book of Spirits: "967. What is the happiness of the Good Spirits? To know all things; not to have hatred, or jealousy, or envy, or ambition, or any of the passions that contribute for men’s unhappiness... Those who are well advanced understand the happiness of those who have advanced more than they have, and aspire to it, but this is for them a motive of emulation rather than envy. They know that it is up to them to attain it and they work for this purpose, but with the calmness of pure conscience [...]".
Superior Spirits are calm because they have already built inner serenity at the expense of self-effort in the search for understanding and self-understanding, which are maintained "by tolerance regarding the mistakes of others and even by self-acceptance of our own mistakes, so that we learn how to correct them without turmoil and waste of time".
Hence, calmness is inseparable from understanding, so that by understanding ourselves and understanding others, we will be able to remain more proactive than reactive.
Thus, in those tormented days when everything seems to crumble and contradict our will, we must use the richness of calmness not to complain or to act untimely, and, like Job, to maintain faith and unreserved trust in God.
However, let us also be attentive to the necessity of not creating ills for ourselves, as stated, in the certainty that one can protect himself from many torments: "he who knows how to be contented with what he has, who looks without envy at what he does not possess, who does not pretend to be more than what he is. This one is always rich, because if he looks down on himself and not up, he always sees creatures that have less than him. He is calm, because it does not create chimerical needs for him. And is it not happiness to be calm in the midst of the storms of life?"
Although Fenelon referred to calmness as being happiness, we infer that it is also a real wealth, the acquisition of the Spirit that has already achieved self-control.
Patience and calmness are therefore two real riches that make our life lighter and free from voluntary torments, even because there are evils that are inherent in existence in the body of flesh, and as a consequence we should not create others besides these.
Bibliography:
ONLINE DICTIONARY OF PORTUGUESE. Available at: dicionário on-line Accessed on: April 06, 2019.
SPIRITIST MOMENT. Job's Patience. Available at: Momento espírita
KARDEC, Allan. Spiritism in its simplest expression and other works of Kardec; Evandro Noleto Bezerra’s translation. 2ndedition. 1st reprint. Rio de Janeiro: FEB, 2010.
KARDEC, Allan. The Gospel according to Spiritism: with explanations of the moral maxims of Christ in agreement with Spiritism and its applications to the different circumstances of life; translation of Guillon Ribeiro of the 3rd French edition, revised and modified by the author in 1866.129th edition, 1st reprint. Rio de Janeiro: FEB, 2010.
KARDEC, Allan. The Book of Spirits: Spiritualist Philosophy; translation by Jose Herculano Pires, revised and with translator’s notes to clarify and update the text's problems. 67th edition. Sao Paulo: LAKE, 2010.
XAVIER, Francisco Candido. Calmness (Calma). Dictated by the Spirit Emmanuel. [s.l.]: GEEM Publishing House, 1979.
XAVIER, Francisco Candido. O Consolador. Dictated by the Spirit Emmanuel. 29th edition. 5th printing. Brasilia: FEB 2017. |
