We felt the need to write this article, after reading the news published in the Correio Braziliense online (OLIVETO, 2018). The report highlights the growing increase in suicides in several countries, including Brazil. The news, whose title is: "Suicide is responsible for 800 thousand deaths annually and increases across countries", states that every 40 seconds someone in the world commits suicide.

It is common knowledge that we live in a materialistic world, which influences us to seek consumption frantically, and in this unbridled zeal we forget the immortal being. The focus on having, the exacerbated egocentrism and the competitiveness of modern life have generated several psychological imbalances. How many brothers feel lost and think they have no strength to seek the rebalancing of their lives, as they have no courage to overcome the social taboo, when diagnosed with some psychological imbalance?  People are still tied to old paradigms, to the profile idealized by society about the need to succeed, to have money, to have sympathy, to have above average intelligence, to have a prominent profession, to have and to have. Individuals removed from the Spiritual being find themselves trapped in this socio-materialist web, which leads them inexorably to the path of loneliness, becoming frustrated when they fail to reach the desirable stage of the materialistic world. They then feel ignored by other members of society or by themselves and isolate themselves for self-judging failure in this attempt. Man - removed from Spirituality - cannot perceive the heart of the matter: we are not incarnated on Earth to pile up what moths can eat, and thieves can steal or what rust can corrode. And even less, to subject ourselves to the satisfaction of others' desires.

Man, unbalanced in his divine foundations, desperately seeks a quick and definitive solution to his desires, unpredictably resorting to self-punishment, reaping his life, closing his eyes to immortal life.

Many of us grew up and were educated not to talk about "religion", "football", "politics", "sexuality", issues that should not be discussed at the table. However, over the years, with intellectual and Spiritual maturity, we look for our own answers to these and other questions: Where do I come from? Where I go? Why do I suffer? Why can't I choose to die or live?

In this search for answers or consolation for our pains, we are faced with various religious theories that condemn “killing oneself”. But it is in the Spiritist Doctrine that we find consoling and rational answers as to why we should not choose suicide as the solution to our problems. The Doctrine is the Promised Consoler, who comes to explain why we feel existential anxieties. That this is part of life, of the evolutionary process. The real and reasoned faith is the only thing that protects us.

Approximately 800,000 people leave the stage of life on the path of suicide. The State, through its public policies, is unable to reach these body and mind sick brothers. There needs to be the mobilization of the whole society, the family and the various philosophical and religious currents, reminding the human being that we are immortal beings. Spiritists, more than others, are enlightened people about reasoned faith, about the importance of seeking to know oneself in order to promote transformation in one’s own mental home. Spiritists, before the needy brothers, must offer comfort, understanding and tolerance. Didn't Allan Kardec tell us that “there is no salvation outside of charity?” ². So, my brothers, charity is not restricted to almsgiving to the needy, since the need is not always material, as there are those who seek comfort and answers to their moral and emotional pains.

According to the Spiritist teachings, to die is to leave the material body, which returns to dust, since the body is of organic composition. The immortal being, the Spirit, who inhabits the material body, then returns to the Spiritual plane. Reincarnating is an opportunity for progress and rescue. We have all gone through this divine mechanism and will continue to go through it, until we understand that we cannot transgress any divine law or hurt our neighbor without responding for it. By attacking the body that hosts us, we are anticipating the return to the Spiritual homeland, missing out on the opportunities that have been programmed for our proper adjustment and progress in the school of the flesh. What we think is a relief, - freedom - just an early departure, is actually a delay in our path and everything we postpone now, we will inevitably face tomorrow. The worst thing, my brothers, is that, in the next physical existence, in addition to the commitments that we have not finished, there will be an aggravating situation, because we will have marked in our Spiritual body the consequences of the aggression that we provoke by extinguishing the life of the body through the doors of suicide.

We do not reincarnate alone, and we are not alone. We form a family nucleus, whether inbred or not. Our journey has been accompanied by other brothers, who have come to support us, expiate or prove us their love. Why in times of greatest anguish do we move away from those who have the greatest possibilities to get us up and trace a whole life path with us? What makes us think that giving up on life will not affect the people we love most, leaving them immense pain and emptiness to see us go.

Our bodily or Spiritual family matches the message brought by question 980 of “The Book of Spirits”, when it refers to the happiness that man enjoys on Earth when faced with pure and sincere affections, with reciprocal sympathy and that brings us a resource of happiness, because there are no false friends, nor hypocrites, because we will find souls that vibrate in the same tune with us, that selfishness will not make them cold³.

Therefore, we must be firm on purpose and face the problems that arise throughout our lives, as prescribed in The Book of Spirits in question number 943, which shows how important it is to combat idleness, the absence of faith in the future, thus avoiding discontent with life, without plausible reasons⁴. May we live one day at a time with courage and enthusiasm!

Life is an act of divine creation, man does not have the right to reap it with his hands, because it is always possible to find the strength to overcome difficult moments, with the complacent eye of the Master of Nazareth: “All who walk in suffering and are burdened, I will relieve you. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, who am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Because my yoke is easy and my burden is light”. (Matthew, XI, 28-30).

“Life is made up of moments, moments that we have to go through, whether they are good or not, for us to learn. Nothing is by chance. We need to do our part, play our part on the stage of life, remembering that life does not always follow our will, but it is perfect in what it has to be” (Chico Xavier, 2011).

References:

1. THE BIBLE. The mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven. GORGULHO Gilberto da Silva; STORNIOLO Ivo; ANDERSON Ana Flora. Sao Paulo: Paulus Publisher, 1998. p. 2206. Old Testament and New Testament;

2. KARDEC, Allan. The Gospel According to Spiritism. Chap.XV, pages 158-163;

3. KARDEC, Allan. The Book of Spirits. Fourth part, Chapter II, item 980 p. 440;

4. KARDEC, Allan. The Book of Spirits. Fourth part, Chapter I, item 943, p. 424;

5. OLIVETO, Paloma. Suicide is responsible for 800,000 annual deaths and increases across countries, Brasilia, June 24, 2018. Available at: https: /correiobraziliense.com.br

6.  XAVIER, Chico. This also passes, October 23, 2011. Acess, clique aqui.

This article was included in the contest “The Doctrine Explains”, which took place in 2018, promoted in the course of Spiritist Speakers’ Course of the Federal District, in the Spiritist Federation of the Federal District (FEDF). Lineldo Landim de Lima and Telda Pereira Costa Lima are Spiritist speakers based in the Federal District.