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The Master's
Invitation
Today we will travel back in time, to
the past. I say we, because indeed it was all of us, our immortal spirit
that has lived as different personalities throughout the centuries.
Therefore, at this moment, let us travel
back in time to Moses. We will recall that great leader of souls, who
because of his firm dedication and determination, roamed and crossed the
desert for 40 years, surrounded by crude barbarians, a completely
primitive people, who received their first varnish through the austere
discipline that he, Moses, imposed.
We were there, those people were
actually you and me. With almost no notion of hygiene or morality. That is
the reason that it was necessary for Moses to impose disciplinary laws. We
didn't act worse, because as a matter of fact we already believed in only
one God and feared Him. And it is in this manner that Moses acquainted us
the Father, revealing Him to be revengeful, angry and who punished our
mistakes. (Do you remember that as soon as Moses left their side to
receive the Law, the people built the Calf of Gold?).
Fortunately the law progress exists thus
we continued moving forward, slowly improving and getting ready for the
largest event that was yet to occur on our planet - the Master's coming.
The hour had arrived. He Himself, governor of our planet, had come to
invite us to share the knowledge. Jesus' hour had finally arrived to show
us the way through His example and through the teachings that He brought
us.
The Master told us: “I am the way, the
truth and the life, nobody will go to the Father except by me.” Until
today His words resound in our spirit. But by what means: “go to the
Father through Jesus.” We will try to analyze these words through this
discussion.
In 3 years, only 3 years of public life,
Jesus left us the teachings that many today still cannot completely
understand. (Imagine that there are people that say that 3 years doesn't
mean anything, it passes quickly, that no one can accomplish anything
significant in such a short time. See how much Jesus accomplished in this
short period of time, and we as well, in spite of not being pure spirits,
can also accomplish a great deal if we apply ourselves today).
Jesus came to bring us the Law of Love,
introducing us to the Father of Justice and Kindness, He does not punish
and always gives us all the opportunities in order that we may rectify and
achieve our progress, Jesus came to reveal to His disciples “whatever I
heard from my Father.”
But what have we done with those
teachings, with the invitation to enlightenment?
The great majority, not yet prepared and
willed to the renouncement of the illusions (of power, ownership,
wealth…) tried to interpret the teachings of Jesus according to their
own convenience. So, His words: “it is necessary to forgive not only
seven times, but seventy times seven”, was practically forgotten and
ignored. We rushed to the religious wars, which can also be called
fratricidal, as we were killing our own siblings.
The Crusades began, and persecutions of
all those who didn't take communion from the Christian Religion. And we
justified everything by distorting the interpretation of Jesus' words that
said: “I didn't come to bring the peace but the sword.” Jesus never
had induced us to fight, to have war, or to seek revenge. He suffered in
the flesh many insults and He never displayed violent attitudes or signs
of aggression.
The Spirits, explain to us in the Gospel
According to Spiritism, Chapter 23, Strange Moral, that the words: I
Didn’t come to bring the peace but the sword, ” absolutely does not
give us the freedom to war and to kill. Actually, they mean that Jesus
knew about the opposition that His teachings would encounter on the part
of those that didn't have any interest in seeing the darkness dissipate.
Every new idea suffers similar opposition, and the more truth it reveals,
the more it frees the consciences, the more its opponents will criticize
and try to destroy them.
Then, distorting the Master's words,
these insatiable men hungry for power and conquest went out to destroy
towns, to kill the families of those that didn't share their views.
The martyrdom of the first Christians
occurred because of the pagans, ignorant men, who didn't have the faintest
notion of the Father. However, we cannot say the same about the Crusades,
because they were drafted and led by high representatives of the clergy
who were considered experts in the Truth.
And we continued like this in iniquity,
behaving in the same manner that we condemned in others. We condemned the
attachment to the external acts of the Jews of the time, but we were also
dazzled by the power and wealth that we could achieve through religion and
we totally forget our commitment to Jesus. In the book by Herminio
Miranda: History narrated by the spirits, he tells us of the statements of
the spirits during desobsession meetings, and in one of them in
particular, a spirit says that in one of his incarnations he was a very
important person of the clergy; however, in describing his acts at the
time he came to the conclusion and stated that he, as well as most of the
others were not serving the Christ, but rather, they served themselves of
Him. And yet the Master is constantly inviting us to follow Him. The
Father from time to time sent us His emissaries to renew the invitation of
Jesus.
In the peak of the Crusades, when the
Church already possessed great power, in the 13th century, we saw the
coming of Francis of Assisi, who personally tried to discourage the sacred
wars talking with the Pope and his followers concerning the true kingdom.
“My Kingdom is not of this world” Jesus said.
The Religious Reform of Martin Luther,
in the 16th century divided the Christian world between Catholics and
Protestants, and it was also envisioned with the objective that we should
return to the origins in order to exhume, dig up, the thought of the
Christ, which had been buried during centuries of speculations and
distortions. Luther insisted in the return to the age of faith, to the
cradle of Christianity, because he said that it was there that we could
encounter the fountain where we can find the pure and non-contaminated
water, the only one that was not polluted by human passions, that has the
condition to appease the thirst of a humanity that had been lost in the
desert of their own incredulity.
Forgetting what Jesus had taught us,
that we should even love our enemies, we instituted the Inquisition. More
persecution, cruelty, death, and shameful acts that until today are
engraved in our perispirit. A dark period of our history.
However, Jesus did not abandon us, and
once again He opened His loving arms and he told us: “Come to me all of
you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke
unto you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; and you will
find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light”
We were so lost, and so overloaded,
having engraved in our souls the weight of the regret over our actions. We
got tired of sufferings the consequences of our own iniquity.
“If you love me keep my commandments
and I will pray to the Father and He shall give you another comforter.”
The voices of the Spirits was allowed to
be heard in all the corners of the planet and through Hippolite Leon
Denizard Rivail, Allan Kardec, in the 19th century we received the
Spiritist Doctrine, that comes, as Jesus had promised, to teach us all the
things and to remember everything that He had said. A new invitation for
renewal, for the moral transformation. “The true spiritist is recognized
by his efforts toward his moral transformation.”
We received the new directive Flag:
“Without charity there is no Salvation.” Every time that we have the
opportunity to do good, to practice charity, it is an invitation of Jesus.
The Master, in His kindness, sends us all these brothers and
sisters who are overwhelmed. Therefore, every day of our lives we have the
opportunity to serve, to serve Jesus. The invitation occurs daily. -
“And when is it that we served you, Master?” –“Every time that you
assisted one of my needy siblings, to me you served.” How many come to
us in need of aid, or of some words of hope, of orientation, or even only
for our tolerance or for a silent prayer? How many opportunities to serve
are lost everyday… How many invitations will we continue to ignore? What
to do? To get discouraged, give up? Never!!! But won't it be too late? I
am old, I no longer have time, some could say. It is never too late for us
to serve, to learn new avenues, and leave behind the absurd convictions we
possess.
In the book Glad Tidings channeled by
Francisco Cândido Xavier, the spirit of Humberto of Campos narrates a
passage from the life of Jesus where Peter expressed concern because when
hearing the other younger pupils, he believed that because of being older
and also, due to his family commitments, he could not go on preaching the
Glad Tidings as the others. He saw the enthusiasm of James, who still had
plenty of youth and was full of vitality, he believed then that his energy
was not sufficient for him to fulfill the services of the Gospel and, very
worried he looked for Jesus and he revealed his concerns to Him.
Jesus answered Peter with affectionate
devotion, asking him:
“Should we perhaps inquire about the
Father's age? And if we were to count the time in the hour-glass of the
human restlessness, who would be the oldest of all of us?”
“Life in its terrestrial expression is
as a huge tree. Childhood is represented in its green leaves. Youth is
constituted in its beautifully perfumed flowers. The elderly is the fruit
of the experience and of the wisdom. The leaf is hope; the flower, a
promise; the fruit its accomplishment.”
Peter still said:
“The truth Master, is that I feel
weak, lacking strength and old and I fear not being able to resist the
efforts that my soul is obliged to undergo in the dissemination of your
sacred doctrine.”
Jesus replied to him energetically but
serenely:
“Do you think the young man of
tomorrow can become some thing without the works of those who are now
aging? Could the tree live without the root, the soul without God? Be
concerned only with your share of effort and don't worry about the work
that belongs to the All Powerful.”
“Don't think that any other man could
achieve, in the overall of the divine work, the effort that is your
responsibility.”
“Truly, Simon, to be young or old in
the world doesn't matter… above all, it is necessary to be devoted to
God!”
Brothers and Sisters, let us recall the
wonderful work that was accomplished by Peter in leading the other
Apostles, because of his wisdom, persistence and experience, through his
example working for the construction of the Christendom. Martyred he
perished on the cross, but in his humility he begged to be placed upside
down, because he didn't feel worthy of dying like the Christ.
Oh Master! Until when will we flee from
your loving arms, your sweet and gentle voice that calls us and until when
will we stop turning our embarrassed eyes away from your pardoning eyes?
Until when will we walk through the
pathway of thorns, pain and ingratitude into which we have access through
the wide door of illusions?
When will we understand that true
happiness only exists in serving, that the love is in donating, and that
the eternal life is in you and for you?
Don't leave us dear brother, dry our
tears so that we can learn how to dry the tears of our siblings.
Yet give us your heart so that we can
destroy the armor of selfishness that impedes us from feeling anything
beside ourselves.
Show us the road and remove the cataract
from our eyes built through so many existences of insensitivity to the
pain of others.
Love us sweet Nazarene so that in your
love we can finally find the way to our redemption.
I am the way, the truth and the life.
Nobody goes to the Father except by me. No one will reach the Father
except through the way that Jesus have showed us, of infinite and eternal
love and compassion.
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