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Simplicity and heart purity. - Sinning by thought. Adultery. - True purity. Unwashed hands. - If your hand is cause of offense, cut it off. - Instructions from the spirits: Let the little children come to me. - Blessed are those whose eyes are closed.

Simplicity and heart purity

1. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8.)

2. They brought to him young children that he might touch, but his disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw it, he was much displeased and said to his disciples: Let the little children come to me; Don't forbid them, because the Kingdom of Heaven is for those that resemble them; Verily I say to you, only those who receive my teachings as a little child will enter into the Kingdom of God. And Jesus, embracing and laying his hands upon the children, blessed them. (Mark 10:13-16.)

3. Inseparable mate of humility and simplicity, heart purity throws away all selfishness and pride ideas. Jesus uses childhood as a symbol of purity and humility.

A child's soul may have experienced many previous embodiments. Thus, it may be very old. When reincarnating, a spirit brings to corporeal life the imperfections it still retains. Only perfect spirits can offer examples of complete purity. Any child's soul has moral flaws. However, tots transmit us an image of innocence and purity because, being still very tender, they cannot manifest their spiritual roughness. This is why Jesus says the Kingdom of Heaven is for those who resemble babes.

4. If incarnated souls showed themselves, right from birth, as they really are, reconciliation would be harder or even impossible. The Divine Providence is always wise. Babes need a very special care. Their weakness and naivety strengthens maternal fondness. Children are always angels for their mothers. It has to be so, because offspring's fragility helps attracting her attention. Love between mother and children helps reconciliation. She would deny her babes the same devotion if, instead of innocence, she saw adult ideas and, still worse, if she knew their past incarnations.

Moreover, the intelligent being's work must be proportional to development of body, which cannot resist spiritual overactivity. When approaching reincarnation, the spirit becomes disturbed and gradually loses awareness. It stays, for a while, in a kind of sleep, during which its abilities remain latent. The spirit needs this transition period, in order to disable remembrances that could be harmful to its new fleshly life. We always experience reactions from our past lives. Nevertheless, each reincarnation means a new starting point. Supported by its background, each spirit is reborn both morally and intellectually stronger.

During its first bodily years the soul is truly a child, because all features which comprise its real personality remain asleep. As children grow up, their own concepts gradually take shape and impulse, according to the organic development. Instincts remain latent and spirits are more malleable during childhood. This is why parents are much easier to educate their children during the precious infancy years. The spirits then wear a temporary innocence tunic. That's why Jesus takes a child as a purity symbol, no matter its soul's past.

Sinning by thought. - Adultery

5. You have learned from the ancient that you must not commit adultery. But I say to you that whoever looks at someone to lust after them has already committed adultery with them inside heart. (Matthew 5:27-28.)

6. Here the word adultery has a broad meaning. Besides spouse cheating, Jesus uses this word to designate evil in general as well as every type of bad thought. An example of this wide sense is given by this passage: “they, in this adulterous and sinful generation, who are ashamed of my words, the Son of Humanity will also be ashamed of them when he comes.” (Mark 8:38.)

7. Purity goes far beyond visible behavior. It is also within thought. Those who have pure hearts never think evil. This is why Jesus condemns sin even in thought. Then a question arises: Does a bad thought, even effectless, bring any consequence?

All evil thoughts come from imperfection. As the spirit evolves, it becomes enlightened and gets rid of its flaws, according to its stronger or weaker resolution. Even a wrong thought, when energetically repelled, can help advancement. In this case, soul is resisting temptation. Such attitude indicates a positive desire to clean a stain. After having resisted evil, the spirit feels stronger and glad due to its victory. On the contrary, those who delight with evil look for every opportunity to practice it. They fail to accomplish badness due more to lacking opportunity than to lacking wish. Such people are as guilty as those who have actually committed evil.

In conclusion, those who never conceive malice have already advanced. People who feel the bad urge but constantly reject it are advancing. But evil still strongly exists in they who shelter the vicious thought and delight with it. For some, labor has already been performed. For others, there's still a lot of work to be done. Being fair, God takes into account all these details when judging the individual responsibility of acts and thoughts.

True purity. - Unwashed hands

8. From Jerusalem, Pharisees and Scribes came to Jesus. They asked him: Why do your disciples transgress the ancient tradition as they don't wash hands when they eat? Jesus answered to them: Why do you transgress the God's commandments due to your tradition? God says: Honor your father and mother, and: Those who curse father or mother let them suffer death; But you teach that satisfy the law those who, even not honoring father and mother, say to their parents: Whatever gift from me will profit you; So, your tradition voids the God's commandment! You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, by saying: This people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far away from me, and in vain they worship me teaching as doctrine human commandments. And Jesus, having called to him the crowd, said to them: Hear you and understand: It is not that which goes into the mouth that defiles people, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles people. Then his disciples came and said to him: Do you know that the Pharisees were scandalized when they heard your words? But Jesus, answering, said: Every plant which God has not planted will be rooted up; Let them alone; They are blind leaders of the blind; If a blind guides another blind, both will fall into the ditch; For from the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies; These are the things that defile a person; But eating with unwashed hands does not defile anyone. (Matthew 15:1-14, 19 and 20.)

9. A certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him. So, Jesus went in and sat down. When the Pharisee host saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed before dinner. Then Jesus said to him: You Pharisees finely clean the cup and platter outside, but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness; You fools! Didn't the one, who made that which is outside, make also that which is inside? (Luke 11:37-40.)

10. The Pharisees neglected the God's commandments in order to cling to human regulation. They made the severe fulfillment of such rules a conscience matter. The original substance, very simple, was lost under the form complication. People in general are easier to observe exterior worship than to morally rebuild themselves, washing hands instead of cleansing hearts. So, the Pharisees preached that one could be even with God by conforming to exterior human-taught practices, and that the Supreme Justice would demand nothing else. They self-deluded, remaining the same they had always been. This is the meaning of the following words: In vain they worship me teaching human commandments as doctrine.

The same happens to the Christ's moral teachings, whose essence has been thrown to a second rank. Many Christians, like the ancient faithful, still believe salvation is better achieved by external practice instead of moral improvement. Jesus refers to the human-made additions to the divine law when he says: Every plant which God has not planted will be rooted up. (Matthew 15:13.)

Religions are supposed to guide humans towards the Supreme Love. People can only reach the Omnipotent through moral perfection. Hence, a belief which is unable to morally improve humans cannot reach this goal. Every creed which leads one to commit evil is either false or had tampered principles. Mistake is the likely result of a faith inside which the form surmounts the base. Exterior worship is null if it doesn't restrain evil action, such as murder, adultery, robbery, slander or whatever damage or hurt. Such exterior practices seldom create godly people, but mostly superstitious, hypocritical and fanatical followers. So, a mere purity appearance is not enough. Above all, we need actual purity inside our hearts.

If your hand is cause of offense, cut it off

11. Whoever offends one of these little ones who believe in me, it were better for them having a millstone hanged about their necks and being drowned into the sea depth. Woe to the world because of offenses, for offenses need to come. But woe to that person by whom the offense comes! If your hand, or your foot, is cause of offense, cut it off and cast it away from you. It is good for you entering into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands and two feet and being cast into the everlasting fire. If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it away from you. It is better for you entering into life having one eye than having two eyes and being cast into hell fire. Take heed that you never despise one of these little ones. I say to you that their angels in Heaven always see the face of God. For the Son of Humanity is come to save that which was lost. (Matthew 18:6-11.)

If your right eye induces you to sin, pluck it out and cast it away from you. It is profitable for you that one of your members perish rather than your whole body being cast into hell. If your right hand is a trap against you, cut it off and cast it away from you. For it is more profitable to you that one of your members perish rather than your whole body being cast into hell. (Matthew 5:29-30.)

12. Offenses usually imply a certain commotion. Many people are satisfied when they manage to keep the offense hidden, because publicity would damage their reputation and hurt their pride. They do their best to hide their vileness because this is enough to keep them in their comfort zone. As Jesus says, they are like "whitened tombs, which are full of rottenness inside; vessels which are clean outside but dirty inside." The word offense here means evil in general, and its consequences.

13. Jesus says the world needs offenses because earthly people, due to their imperfection, still tend to practice evil, and bad trees bring forth bad fruits. But we must understand that offenses are consequences of human imperfection, and that there is no obligation to practice evil.

14. Jesus says that offenses have to come because humans, still in atonement on Earth, punish themselves by contacting one another and their respective vices, making one another victims, until the day they will finally understand the evildoing error. When the earthly people become tired of suffering due to evil, they will start seeking remedy in goodness. Therefore, reactions caused by wickedness serve for some as penalty, and for others as trial. This is the way how God takes good out from evil, and how humanity makes badness useful.

15. Some people might say that evil is necessary, and that it has to last forever, alleging that, if it disappears, the Supreme Majesty would lose a powerful means to correct the guilty. They could still conclude that it is useless trying to improve humankind. This is incorrect. Punishment would be needless in the Earth if the planet stopped having culprits. Let us suppose that our globe had been transformed, so that it would have started sheltering only good men and women. Then, no one would think of harming a neighbor or the environment anymore. Everyone would be happy being good. This is the very situation of the advanced worlds, where evil has already been banished. This is how the Earth will be, when its inhabitants have achieved sufficient moral progress. While some planets are ahead, other globes are just being formed and inhabited by primitive spirits. These worlds also serve as house, exile and atonement place for souls that are imperfect, rebellious and evil-persistent, who have been expelled from planets which have already become happy.

16. Woe to that person by whom the offense comes! This is why evil, always being evil, the person whose bad instincts have been used, even when serving as a divine justice tool, commits no less than evil and, thus, needs proper correction. So, an ungrateful son, for instance, is a punishment or a trial for his parents, who suffer because they themselves perhaps were bad children and made their parents to suffer. Thus they pay the “an eye an eye” penalty. But such circumstance doesn't justify the behavior of the son, who, in return, will also have to pay that penalty through his own children, or by another manner.

17. If your hand is cause of an offense, cut it off. Strong metaphor, it would be an absurdity to literally take it. With these words, Jesus teaches that we must remove from our hearts everything that can cause an offense, that is, all kind of badness, by rooting out and casting away every impure feeling and vicious trend. Those words also mean that one is preferable cutting off a hand rather than using it to do wrong, or ripping out an eye rather than using it to feed a bad thought. Jesus says no absurdity for those who understand the deep meaning of his words. Now, Christian teachings become clearer with the explanation that Spiritism offers.

INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE SPIRITS

Let the little children come to me

18. Christ says: “Let the little children come to me.” Simple and deep, these words, besides calling the little ones, also call the souls who gravitate in the inferior regions, where misfortune knows no hope. With these words, Jesus calls to him the morally-immature humans: the weak, the enslaved and the vicious. He could teach little to physical children, who, lacking mastery over free-will and reason, were still unready to learn.

Jesus wants humankind going to him with the same confidence that those tots showed. He submits the souls to his tender and mysterious authority. Christ is the flame which moves darkness away, the dawn light that announces the sunrise. He initiated Spiritism, which, in its turn, will attract to Christ all the goodwill people. A vigorous action has begun. Instinctive belief and mechanical obedience are not the best pathways. Now humans are invited to follow the understandable law, which is disclosed in its universality.

Dearly beloved, the time has come in which truth will replace error. We will teach the proper meaning of parables and show the strong correlation between what was and what is. The Spiritist manifestation opens up horizons. It is the messenger which resplendently shines, as the sun upon the mountain peak. - John the Evangelist. (Paris, 1863.)

19. Let the little children come to me, for I have the bread that strengthens the weak. Let come to me all those that, shy and feeble, need consolation and support. Let come to me the ignorant, so that I may enlighten them. Let come to me all who suffer, the afflicted and unfortunate crowd, and I will teach them the great remedy which will soften the life ill! I will reveal to them the secret that will cure their wounds! What is this supreme balsam, that possesses such high virtue, that applies to all heart wounds and heal them? It is love! It is altruism! If you have this divine flame, what is there to be afraid of? In every moment of your life, you will be able to say: “Dear God: let be done your wish instead of mine. If it is your wish to teach me through pain and tribulation, hallowed be your name, because I know that adversity is for my own good! If it pleases you, Supreme Majesty, having mercy on your weak creatures, giving healthy happiness to our hearts, blessed be your name too! But do not allow love to stay asleep inside our souls, and make our gratitude testimony always to rise up to your feet!”

Love moves the universe! If you have love, then you have everything that is desirable on Earth; you possess the most precious pearl, which no occurrence and no wickedness can take away from you. If you have love then your treasure is placed where the worms and rust cannot attack it. If you have love, your soul will get rid of everything able to stain its purity. Every day you will feel the decrease of matter weight. Like a flying bird, you will continually rise up, till your happy soul fills itself with true life in the Almighty's bosom. - A protecting spirit. (Bordeaux, 1861.)

Blessed are those whose eyes are closed¹

20. My good friends, why did you call me? Do you want I put my hands upon this unhappy lady and cure her? She suffers, dear God! She has lost her sight and darkness involves her. Poor child! Pray and wait! I ignore how to perform miracles when God doesn't allow them. All cures I have been able to obtain can only be attributed to the All Powerful. In your afflictions, always lift up your eyes to Heaven and say, from the bottom of your hearts: “God, cure me. But before curing my body, make my sick soul to cure itself. Let my flesh be chastised, if necessary, so that my soul may rise up to your bosom with the same purity it had when you created it.” After this prayer, that the Eternal always listens to, you will be given strength, courage, and perhaps also the cure, for which you have just lowly asked, in reward for your self-abnegation.

As I am here in a study meeting, I will tell you that the blind should consider themselves the blessed of atonement. Remind that Christ teaches that you are better losing your vision if it is an evil source, and that you are preferable casting your eyes into fire rather than allowing them to become your condemnation cause. Countless souls, who now suffer in terrible spiritual darkness, are now cursing the days during which they saw the light! How happy are those who, through atonement, are struck in their sight! Their eyes will not be cause of offense nor downfall anymore. They will be able to live the soul's full life, to see much more than those whose eyes are perfect!... When God allows me to open eyelids of some of these sufferers, and to return the light to them, I think to myself: Dear child, why don't you keep yourself knowing all the delights of the spirit who lives love and meditation? Then you would abstain from wanting to see images that are less pure and less gentle than those that you can glimpse through your blindness!

Blessed are the sightless who keep living with God! More fortunate than you, they feel and touch happiness. They see the elevated souls and can rise up, with them, to spiritual spheres which only a few earthly privileged ones manage to behold. When open, the eyes are always ready to distract the soul and make it to morally decay. When shut they are, contrarily, always ready to help the spirit to rise up towards God. Believe me! Blindness is often the true heart light, while sight is frequently the dark angel that leads to death.

Now, a few words directed to you, my poor sufferer child. Wait and cheer up! If I said to you: “My beloved child, your eyes will open up”, you would feel extremely glad! But would such joy be incapable to cause your loss? Trust in God, who spreads the glee but also allows the temporary sadness that aims at our happiness. I will do everything I can for you. On your side, pray and meditate about my words.

May all of you, who are gathered together here, receive the Christ's blessing. - Vianney, vicar of Ars. (Paris, 1863.)

21. NOTE. When an affliction is not consequence of any present life act, then we must seek its cause in a previous incarnation. Everything we call chance whim is the divine justice effect. God never imposes an arbitrary punishment. Rather, the Supreme Justice desires every atonement to be in accordance with the misdeed. The All Merciful casts a veil over our past errors and guides us by teaching: “Who kills by sword must perish by sword.” From these words, we should understand that each person is demanded exactly in accordance to their specific moral weakness. So, if someone loses sight, vision has perhaps been their moral downfall cause. This person might also have blinded another one, or indirectly caused someone else to lose vision, due to overwork, maltreatment, negligence etc. In such cases the debtor undergoes the “an eye an eye” penalty. Frequently the indebted spirit, after repentance, voluntarily choose such atonement, self-applying the Christ's words: “If your eye is an offense cause, cast it out.”²

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Do to others what you want that others do to you. (Matthew 7:12)
You'll know the truth and the truth will make you free. (John 8:32)
 
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