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It is enlightening to see the sacrifice of so many evolved beings who devote themselves to sacred labors on the planet of shadows, in the same way as those who work on the regeneration of individuals obsessed with evil, operating selflessly in the service of the redemption of all souls, dedicating themselves fearlessly to difficult tasks, full of sanctifying resignation - By the Spirit Emmanuel (In: XAVIER, 2013).
The words of the Spirit Emmanuel were confirmed in dozens of works – psychographics by Zilda Gama, Chico Xavier, Yvonne Pereira and Divaldo Franco, just to mention the most renowned mediums from Brazil who reported on these life-saving activities from the Superior Spirituality to those still in their spiritual childhood. Such support, however, exists from the very beginning of the world and it is mentioned in the most different works considered sacred and even in books of fictional literature.
Obviously, the High Spirits have informed Allan Kardec, since the first work of the so-called "Kardecian Pentateuch", The Book of Spirits, on the manifestation of Divine Goodness regarding the relief provided by the good to the evil Spirits, as we read in the answer to question 279 of that work: "The good go everywhere and so it must be, so that they can influence the evil. However, the regions where the goods live are forbidden to the imperfect Spirits, lest they disturb them with their inferior passions".
Thus it is easy for us to understand the parable of the rich and Lazarus, taught by Jesus to His disciples, quoted by Luke, 16:19-31. We read there that the rich man, when incarnate, wore the most beautiful clothes and he was fed with the best food, while Lazarus was an ever-hungry beggar who wished he could eat at least the crumbs that had fallen from the rich man's table. While he lived "in delighted and in splendor”, the beggar had his wounds licked by dogs.
When both disincarnated, however, the rich man went to a place of moral torments and saw Lazarus in the celestial regions. Feeling thirsty, the rich man asks Abraham, who represents God's messenger, to allow Lazarus to refresh his tongue with the tip of his finger. Then he hears from the divine representative the following negative answer:
Son, remember that you have received your goods in your life, and Lazarus, only evils; and now he is comforted, and thou tormented. Besides, a great chasm has been fixed between us and you, so that even those who wish cannot cross from here to you, nor can anyone cross from there to us. (Luke, 16: 25-26).
It is the law of merit that is present in this Gospel passage. However, in a symbolic way, we can see that the passage to the upper regions, where the beggar was, was forbidden to the rich, but at no time did Jesus say that this situation would be eternal. Otherwise, Abraham, God's representative, would not even have to go to the trouble of meeting the repentant rich man.
The Superior Spirits’ narratives make it clear to us that the suffering of the indebted Spirit before the Divine Laws, no matter how long it may be, will always have a term that begins with its sincere repentance. It is when the good Spirits find a breach in the mind of the evil Spirit to rescue it. However, this aid is not always immediate, because of the very negative vibrations that such Spirit presents, plagued by the dramas of his conscience.
Certainly that was why Jesus wanted to show us in the parable that the rich disincarnated could already communicate with a Higher Spirit, but he would still need a time of suffering in the Spiritual Plane to reflect on the selfish and merciless life which he had when he was still incarnate. Only after this period of deep moral pain and extreme repentance does the broken Spirit opens its heart and mind to spiritual first-aid, as we see in Our Home, a psychographics by Chico Xavier that was reproduced in an internationally successful movie.
The first great Brazilian psychographics medium of novels dictated by the Spirit Victor Hugo, on the issue regarding action and reaction, was the female Professor Zilda Gama, who began her mediumship work around 1912. In works like Crucified Souls, In Shadow and Light, From Calvary to Infinityand Redemption, the Spirit of the most illustrious French poet and novelist tells us about the consequences of the misuse of our free will and of the Divine Providence, always ready to help us through its heavenly messengers. However, we realize that in both physical and spiritual life the consequences of our actions never fail to influence us positively or negatively.
Another very important work, which tells us about the terrible suffering of a suicide, supported by the team of Mary Most Holy, is Memoirs of a suicide. This book tells us, in an intense way, the sorrows suffered by the great Portuguese writer, Camilo Castelo Branco, whom the medium preferred to call Camilo Candido Botelho at the time of writing the book. Suffering in the Valley of the Suicides is so intense for the narrator that he says: "The valley of the lepers1 – a repulsive place of ancient Jerusalem[…] the last degree of abjection and human suffering - would be a comforting stage of rest compared to the place I try to describe"(PEREIRA, page 18). Only after an indefinable period of suffering, in which the Spirit could not distinguish the day from the night, spiritual help would be possible, but only to the one whose vibratory change allowed it.
Several other works were received by the medium Yvonne do Amaral Pereira, in which the continuous action of the good Spirits, in favor of the bad, incarnate or disincarnated, shows us the Goodness of God, which never forgets us.
Another today’s medium, Divaldo Franco, who received works dictated by the Spirits Joanna de Angelis, directed towards the attendance of our psychological and spiritual problems, as well as Manoel Philomeno de Miranda, with his reports on the intense rescue activities of Superior Spirits to obsessing entities and obsessed people. In some of his works we are told that most people considered mentally ill, if not all, suffer the influence of vengeful Spirits. These brethren, ignorant of what they are, are always under the watchfulness of the higher entities and, in a timely manner, they will be enlightened, although the free will of all incarnated or disembodied individuals is always respected.
This spiritual help, however, is even given to Spirits who are hardened in evil, as we have seen in question 280 of The Book of Spirits, when Kardec asks about the nature of the relations between the good and the evil Spirits and obtains the following answer: "The good are engaged in fighting the evil inclinations of others in order to help them rise. It's a mission. "
In the work Heaven and Hell, we read the account of several Spirits who practiced evil in the physical life and reported their atrocious sufferings as a result. None of them, however, is left to the helplessness of the Divine Mercy, which sends them His messengers. Many of the indebted Spirits for our instruction are led to mediumistic meetings by spiritual mentors. There are some repentant and some still angry. To the repentant, the opportunity of deliverance from their moral pains is faster; to the insane, only after a long time, which seems to be an eternity, spiritual support is possible, since the divine emissaries do not violate anyone's free will.
The following chapters of Heaven and Hell tell us the situation of the Spirits setbacks to the laws of God and what the divine messengers can do and even we, the incarnated ones, for their benefit and those who suffer their negative influences: Chapter 4 - Suffering Spirits; Chapter 5 - Suicidal; Chapter 6 - repentant criminals; Chapter 7 - Hardened Spirits. The last chapter of this work, however, deals with "earthly atonement," which justifies the following words of Jesus:
Conciliate quickly with your adversary, while you are in the path with him, lest the adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer and you will be locked up in prison. Verily I say unto thee, that thou shalt not depart thence, until thou pay the last copper coin (Matthew, 5: 25-26).
When we draw the veil from the "word that kills" and interpret the words of Jesus above, according to "the Spirit that enlivened”, as was proposed by Paul in 2 Corinthians 3: 6, we will see how much work the High Spirits have to keep us in the path of good or to make us take up this direction. We interact mentally with the so-called living and supposed deceased, who most easily influence us for good or evil, according to his and our superiority or moral inferiority.
Reflecting on this possibility, Allan Kardec, in The Book of Spirits, item 459, asks: "Do Spirits influence our thoughts and our actions?" and receives this answer: "Much more than you imagine, for it is often that they lead you”. "In such a way the divine messengers act for the benefit of the incarnated and the disincarnated, that in the last chapter, number 28 of The Gospel According to Spiritism, Allan Kardec inserts a "collection of Spiritist prayers", according to him "dictated by the Spirits in several circumstances "(Preamble, item 1).
There are several suggestions for prayers, which, still in the Preamble, the Encoder of the Spiritist Doctrine explains to serve more as manifestation of thought than by form, because what matters is the good feeling reflected and emitted by each being. The first of these is the Sunday Prayer, also known as the Our Father, which, “according to our thoughts associated with it, say the Spirits, can supply all the others. Every sentence of this sublime prayer, taught by Jesus, is commented on by Allan Kardec.
When referring to the last phrase of Our Father: "Let us not be tempted, but deliver us from evil," the Encoder of Spiritism, inspired by Celestial Powers, asks for strength "to resist the suggestion of evil Spirits, to divert us from the path of good, inspiring us with evil thoughts". Soon after, however, he acknowledges that "we are imperfect Spirits, incarnated on Earth to atone for our faults and to improve ourselves. The first cause of evil is in ourselves, and evil Spirits only take advantage of our vicious penances, in which they entertain to try us".
This Chapter is divided into I - General Precepts; II - Prayers for oneself; III - Prayers for others; IV - Prayers for those who are no longer of the Earth; and V - Prayers for the sick and obsessed. All these formulas, as explained by Kardec, are only valid when we associate our elevated feelings and thoughts with God, to whom we may ask, praise or thank a grace, whether for our benefit or another.
We are of the opinion that when we sincerely pray for an enemy - incarnate or disincarnate, for the suicidal and obsessed, for the hardened Spirits - we are carrying out with this a noble spiritual charity, without ceasing to practice a great good with other prayers too. It is by sincere prayer and good thoughts that we defend ourselves from evil and practice well. Jesus advises us to "watch and pray", including for our persecutors and slanderers, because he knows that only love felt and exemplified saves us from the evil still present in us.
Finally, it can be said that the practice of love, whether for incarnate souls or disincarnate Spirits, is the greater law of God, which enables us to ascend pleasantly to the high regions of the Greater World. Above all, it allows us to be happy wherever we are, because God, who is Love, will reverberate in our thoughts, words and deeds. In conclusion,
When there is love...
The hearts of the servants of the Lord
They were created by Love: I AM.1
It is through love that the Holy Heaven is proud.
And the angels play harps praising
Our Augustus and Pure Creator.
It is through love that the Earth adorns itself
With flowers, beautiful fireworks,
And all loneliness disappears.
In the air, the sublime sound of a prayer...
All the pleasant faces light up,
The people, cheerfully, go to the streets
And sing, dance, cry of joy...
The darkest night turns into day,
When love enlightens our lives.
When there is love, life is always beautiful,
Our desire to serve increases,
And our soul vibrates and cherishes
Hope, Charity and Faith.
Brightness reflects everywhere,
From the light of the Father's love for the sake of His son.
The faith of the active human being
Never wanes, for Our Lord
Has taught us that we are alike,
And the Father both loves the good and the condemned
To whom he bestows blessed rain,
And makes the sun shine on his road.
He makes the caterpillar and, from it, the butterfly...
If there is love, everything is always done,
For the sake of simple, small souls,
Goodness grants us great peace.
Jesus, for a long time, teaches us
That the Earth belongs to those who are pure and humble
And serve their brethren kindly
As sincere servants of the Lord,
The Master Sage who taught us:
Love God above all things,
And your brother, whoever that brother is...
Love all animals too.
And love all plants.
Let us therefore love the Divine Creation
Of This Kind and Wise Father
From whom everything proceeds and everything returns.
Let us be devoted to work,
And diligent in studies.
God, through Moses, gave us the Ten Commandments,
As guidelines on Mount Sinai.
And it was Jesus who called Him the Father
Of all of us, His beloved children,
Created by love and to love.
But there were so many distortions,
That Christ summed them up in one
And he advised us to keep in mind:
Be perfect, brethren of the LORD:
I AM LOVE; LOVE EACH OTHER AS I AM!
References:
KARDEC, Allan. The Book of Spirits.Translated by Evandro Noleto Bezerra. Rio de Janeiro: FEB, 2006.
______. Heaven and Hell. Translated by Evandro Noleto Bezerra. Rio de Janeiro: FEB, 2009.
______. The Gospel According to Spiritism.Translated by Evandro Noleto Bezerra. 2nded., 4th print. Brasilia: FEB, 2017.
PEREIRA, Yvonne Amaral. Memories of a suicidal. 27th ed. Brasilia: FEB, 2012.
XAVIER, Francisco Candido. Emmanuel. By the Spirit Emmanuel. 27th ed. Rio de Janeiro: Brazilian Spiritist Federation, 2008.
______. Words of Light. By the Spirit Emmanuel. Organization: Advisory of Social Communication of the Brazilian Spiritist Federation. Brasilia: FEB, 2014. |
