Forgive So God May... You 07.10.08. Doc

FORGIVE OTHERS SO THAT GOD MAY FORGIVE YOU. 1 Source: The Gospel according to spiritism, X: 1-4.

FORGIVE OTHERS SO THAT GOD MAY FORGIVE YOU 1. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy (Matthew, 5: 7). 2. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew, 6: 14 & 15).

3. Moreover if they brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. Then came Peter to Him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times? Jesus said unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but until seventy times seven (Matthew, 18:15, 21 & 22). 4. Mercy is a complement to mildness, because the person who is not merciful cannot be mild and pacific. Mercy consists of being able to forget and forgive all offence. Hate and rancor denotes a Spirit without any elevation or magnanimity. Being able to forget offences is the mark of an elevated soul, which does not perturb itself with the blows it may be dealt. The one is always anxious, of a dark susceptibility and full of bitterness; while the other is calm, full of sweetness and charity. Woe to those who say they will never forgive! If these people are not already condemned by mankind, then God will surely condemn them. What right has a person to demand forgiveness for their own faults if they are unable to forgive those of others? Does not Jesus teach that mercy must have no limits when He says that each one must forgive their brothers and sisters not merely seven times, but seventy times seven? However, there are two very different ways of forgiving: the first is noble and great, truly generous without any hidden thoughts, which delicately avoids hurting the self-esteem and susceptibility of the adversary, even when that same adversary has no justification for his or her acts. The second, on the other hand, is when someone who has been offended, or thinks they have been offended, imposes humiliating conditions on the supposed adversary, making felt the weight of the pardon, which can only cause further irritation instead of calming; where, upon offering a hand to the offended, this is not done with benevolence, but rather with ostentation, so that the person may say to others - look how generous I am! In these circumstances a sincere reconciliation is quite impossible for either one. No, here there is no generosity, only a form of satisfying pride. In every dispute the one who shows him or herself to be more conciliatory, who demonstrates more disinterest, charity and real greatness of soul will always attract sympathy from those who plows impartial. CONSIDERATIONS: Forgiving is part of the spiritual life for a great deal of reasons, mainly because we are Spirits still in evolution and progress and progressing together, as we are still very imperfect, therefore we sometimes get right some with other and sometimes not, others get right with us sometimes and sometimes not. If we forgive each other we leave for another, if we hold the offenses we stay arrested in thoughts in those offenses and the development cerebral or spiritual is conditioned or occupied awaiting to be liberated to move forward in his progress, in that sense we can say that to forgive does us well, because we stay with our spirit free and we feel good one with the other, and instead of us grinding discontement some against the other, spontaneously we help each other. He who had been forgiven loves much more the one who forgave him and respects him much more, emanating gratitude from himself. Jesus went further, for the reason that he taught::'Forgive one another so that God the Father will forgive you', it seems a commandment condition demanded as if it demanded forgive or you are punished, but it is not well like this, the law of pardon is similar to the law of Causes and Effects, it is a law instituted by God, whose law is part, it is part for the reason of our spiritual condition of being us who gain our merits for our ascension to God, since God created us 'simple and ignorant' with 'free will' so to be able to decide our life step by step, however He 1

Estudo feito n o Centro Espírita, Joana d’Arc a 07/10/2008.

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laid down institutional laws which addresses us to Him. They are steps to our service so that we are able to ascend closer to God. So that for us to save ourselves of the inferior condition in which we are found and that this world of tests and atonements gives us testimony of that, it is for us to be careful in our efforts to goodness, and in living together some with the others, using charity which consists in the Gospel of forgiving each other, in that it is our salvation, because 'without charity there is no salvation",2 in the Gospel of us loving each other automatically the law of us forgiving each other is involved, since in pardon there is love. In the pardoning of each other, it is necessary that there be no abuse, because one can think: ah, everything well, there is no problem I ask him to excuse me and he forgives me. The thing is not well like this, Jesus said that we should forgive always, not' seven times, but seventy times seven', however Jesus also suggests, that we ought to learn with pardoning which is a mercy action, given that Jesus said: "A man had a very big debt and the King to whom he owed, forgave him, but soon afterwards the man who would have been forgiven, had a person who owed him something, that person asked for mercy because he could not pay, in spite of that he demanded judiciously, and as the person could not pay he put him in prison." (Matthew, XVIII: 23-35).

We should take a lesson of that; which is to be grateful to him who forgives us and act in the same way, that is, to forgive each other in the understanding that we ourselves are super debted before our God Father, whose heap of debt relapses centuries and centuries passed, since we are from yesterdays long past and we hardly know it 3 due to the forgetfulness that God in His Kindness has graciously granted us so that we would have a restart free from difficulties of the past. Each case is a case, but basically it is that, be it seen as logic or seen through the use of reason. Psychologically, we should also forgive ourselves, because the weight of a fault generates depression or anxiety, and one in the effective ways which a good psychiatrist should use, is to convince the patient that his fault, is not that much, so much that everyone errors. The worst anxiety to be cured or to be forgiven by the very person, it is the religious person which thinks to have offended God or had sinned against God. If a person is fallen in fault of something, he should make effort to get up and ask help from God to have strength for so doing. Sometimes the offense is against our own conscience and not against God, because nobody has condition of offending a superior being much less God, although what a person may offend is the laws of God. We should deduce that many a time a man may offend the laws of God and think that he has offended God and he suffers a fault sense for a long time without finding a solution, because he feels to be a condemned. Inexplicably to him the very laws of Cause and Effect are set out to work and they are to adjust the man who frightfully lifts his eyes unconsciously to the heights asking for help which will not be denied to him. in that case, one can also deduce, that suffering is not eternal, because one can see the intervention of the Kindness and Mercy of God in the laws which He foresaw and granted arrangements for our spiritual balance and repairing of our faulty falls, will it be that one does not notice that, or else, to see the constant performance of God in our lives? If we offend somebody we should apologize immediately or when opportunity comes, before the peel thickens, as time passed by it gets to be more difficult, especially because pride does not allow a person easily to ask excuses or apologies, and it may also happen that the offended person be proud and for pride will not forgive, and if he forgives it will be with conditions of this or of that. Two hundred years ago men were so proud that penetrates fear into anyone, for any nonsense they felt offended themselves and for everything and for anything they challenged the rival for a duel of special juridical weapons of only one bullet; otherwise they were challenged to a swordsman's fight, for that very reason also in preventive case the ‘Gentlemen' received fencing classes and in which way they were proud of that, and it gave them certain safety in their pride, and when they challenged somebody they used to say that it was to defend their honor, it was not as nowadays which one says: Forget it! Nowadays we do know that to be Christian it is not a case of defending the honor, but to know to forgive, to have capacity to make peace some with the others and even to be humiliated if necessary, but one wonders: What do I gain with that? Well then, one gains peace with a tranquil conscience and one sleeps better instead of coming to mind in the silence of the night improper concerns etc.

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The Gospel according to Spiritism, 15: 10. Job. 8: 9.

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Summarizing to forgive or to be forgiven does us well, especially because Jesus taught a condition of spiritual balance in the prayer of the' Our Father', that is: Forgive our offenses as we forgive them who offend us' 4 We consider asking excuses as part of our culture and we teach the children to ask excuse or pardon, but even a child has difficulty in saying 'I am sorry', or ‘excuse me’ when the child becomes trained to say 'thank you', on that the children do not have difficulty of saying, now to say: 'I am sorry' there the difficult exist.

Let us see in the Spirits’ Book, question, 918 Characteristics of the Virtuous Man. “918. By what signs can we recognize a man as having accomplished the progress that will raise him in the spirit-hierarchy? "The elevation of an incarnated spirit is proved by the conformity of all the acts of his corporeal life with the law of God, and by his comprehension of spiritual life." The truly virtuous man is he who practices the law of justice, love, and charity, in its greatest purity. If he interrogates his conscience in regard to the acts accomplished by him. he will ask himself whether he has done nothing wrong, whether he has done all the good in his power, whether no one has cause to complain of him, and whether he has done to others all that he would wish others to do to him. Being filled with the sentiment of charity and kindness for all, he does good for its own sake, without hope of reward. And sacrifices his own interest to justice. He is kind, benevolent, humane, for all, because he sees a brother in every man, whatever his race or his belief. If God has given him power and riches, he considers them as A TRUST confided to him for the general good; he Is not vain of them, for he knows that God. who has given them to him, can take them from him. If the constitution of society has made other men dependent on him, he treats them with kindness and benevolence, as being his equals in the sight of God; he uses his authority to raise them morally, and not to crush them by his pride. He is indulgent for the weaknesses of others, knowing that he too needs indulgence, and remembering the Words of Christ, “Let him that is without sin cast the first stone." He is not vindictive, but remembers only benefits; following the example of Jesus, he forgives all offences, for he knows that he will only obtain forgiveness in proportion as he has forgiven. He respects the rights of others, as established by the law of nature, as scrupulously as he desires those rights to be respected in his own case.” ***** Let us notice these enlighten words:' he is not vindictive, but remembers only benefits; following the example of Jesus, he forgives all offences, for he knows that he will only obtain forgiveness in proportion as he has forgiven. To be a Christian it is a serious thing, because with the knowledge that life continues, makes the difference of the' to live of any way one can', because there is the responsibility of our spiritual future and of our future happiness with Jesus our Master and God our Father! The Spirits therefore in this subject answered, that: A Spirit proves his elevation, when all of the actions of his corporeal life present the practice of the law of God and when he understands, in advance, the spiritual life." Subsequently we know, that the person's spiritual degree is not revealed by his social or religious position, but by practicing the law of God, and for understanding the spiritual life. Spiritism came for that, to help us to understand the spiritual life and to reveal us the existence of the invisible world to the which all will go, in the continuation of the eternal life of the Spirit and as for the pardon 'he knows that he will be forgiven accordingly to as he has forgiven.' *****

As support to the study, let us see in the Spirits’ Book, Part four - chapter, II: Conclusion, VIII: CONCLUSION 4

Matthew, VI: 9-13.

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VIII "Do spirits," it is sometimes asked, "teach us anything new in the way of morality, anything superior to what has been taught by Christ? If the moral code of Spiritism be no other than that of the gospel, what is the use of it?" This mode of reasoning is singularly like that of the Caliph Omar, in speaking of the Library of Alexandria: “If," said he, "it contains only what is found in the Koran. it is useless, and in that case must be burned; if it contains anything that is not found in the Koran, it is bad, and in that case, also, it must be burned." No; the morality of Spiritism is not different from that of Jesus; but we have to ask, in our turn, whether, before Christ, men had not the law given by God to Moses? Is not the doctrine of Christ to be found in the Decalogue? But will it therefore be contended that the moral teaching of Jesus is useless? We ask, still further, of those who deny the utility of the moral teachings of Spiritism, why it is that the moral teachings of Christ are so little practiced. And why it is that those who rightly proclaim their sublimity are the first to violate the first of His laws, viz., that of universal charity" Spirits now come not only to confirm it, but also to show us its practical utility; they render intelligible, patent, truths that have hitherto been taught under he form of allegory; and, with this reinculcation of the eternal truths of morality, they also give us the solution of the most abstract problems of psychology. Jesus came to show men the road to true goodness. Since God sent Him to recall to men's mind the divine law they had forgotten. why should He not send spirits to recall it to their memory once again, and with still greater precision, now that they are for-getting it in their devotion to pride and to material gain? Who shall take upon himself to set bounds to the power of God, or to dictate His ways? Who shall say that the appointed time has not arrived, as it is declared to have done by spirits, when truths hitherto unknown or misunderstood are to be openly proclaimed to the human race. in order to hasten its advancement ? Is there not something evidently providential in the fact that spirit-manifestations are being made on all points of the globe? It is not a single man, an isolated prophet, who comes to arouse us; light is breaking forth on all sides, and a new world is being opened out before our eyes. As the invention of the microscope has revealed to us the world of the infinitely little, the existence of which was unsuspected by us, and as the telescope has revealed to us the myriads of worlds the existence of which we suspected just as little,-so the spirit-communications of the present day are revealing to us the existence of an invisible world that surrounds us on all sides, that is incessantly in contact with us, and that takes part, unknown to us, in everything we do. Yet a short time, and the existence of that world, which is awaiting every one of us, will be as incontestable as is that of the microscopic world, and of the infinity of globes in space. Is it nothing to have made known that new world, to have initiated us into the mysteries of the life beyond the grave? It is true that these discoveries, if such they can he called, are contrary to certain received ideas; but have not all great scientific discoveries modified, and even overthrown, ideas as fully received by the world, and has not our pride of opinion had to yield to evidence ? It will be the same in regard to Spiritism, which ere long will have taken its place among the other branches of human knowledge. Communication with the beings of the world beyond the grave enables us to see and to comprehend the life to come, initiates us into the joys and sorrows that await us therein according to our deserts, and thus brings back to spiritualism those who had come to see in man only matter, only an organized machine; we are there-fore justified in asserting that the facts of Spiritism have given the death-blow to materialism. Had Spiritism done nothing more than this, it would be entitled to the gratitude of all the friends of social order; but it does much more than this, for it shows the inevitable results of evil, and, consequently, the necessity of goodness. The number of those whom it has brought back to better sentiments, whose evil tendencies it has neutralized, and whom it has turned from wrongdoing, is already larger than is usually supposed, and is becoming still more considerable every day; because the future is no longer for them a vague imagining, a mere hope, but a fact, the reality of which is felt and understood when they see and hear those who have left us lamenting or rejoicing over what they did when they were upon the earth. Whoever witnesses these communications begins to reflect on the reality thus brought home to him, and to feel the need of self-examination, self-judgment, and self-amendment. ***** People wonder if Spiritism brings 'a new moral in addition to what Christ said', logically every spiritist already knows that Spiritism has as moral, the morals of Jesus as the most superior and it says: “the Spiritist moral is the one of Jesus" (the Gospel According to Spiritism, Chapter, XV. - (The Spirits’ Book, Question, 625) Spiritism repeatedly reminds us of the existence of a Moral World, which awaits us, and in their communications they speak about the penalties and joys that await us, according to our merits, in that respect we

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should be thankful to the Spirits for alerting and helping us, therefore if that is true, why should we allow ourselves to fall in illogical teachings whose we ourselves have noticed that they are not being the truth. Let us believe that God hopes his children to mature themselves and be stopped believing in antiquated superstitions and out of reality, for that very reason God has allowed the Spirits to come to unmask the spiritual realities and to lift up the veils which covered our eyes. Spiritism does not know everything, but of the same way that the blind man of the Gospel said": I know that once I was blind, but now I see", the Spirits come to reveal us the Beyond saying: 'once I did not know about the existence of the World of the Beyond, but now I know', and of that knowledge to their way the Spirits also want us to know it for the good of our future, since the future is real. The spiritist is not a Christian refugee in the Spiritist doctrine, for it being more branded, the lightest, the most tolerant, the least demanding no, it may even give that impression, but it is not, it is not, because instead of offering a Heaven easily to acquire the Doctrine constantly says: 'make yourself an effort', 5 the future is accordingly to our merits, it is the same as Jesus has said: “To each one according to their works", 6 the spiritist follows the advise of Jesus: “Seek and you shall find",7 to seek is to research, to seek is to study, to study to understand, to seek is to go beyond the common limits, it is to expand oneself, it is to progress, it is to enter in the reality of life as much the material as the spiritual. And, if Jesus has said: “Forgive each other, Spiritism could not say anything else, in spite of it explains that pardoning is for our own good, being appreciated that all causes bring an effect, and forgiving brings an effect exclusively good, and our living in goodness is our goal preferably chosen as final goal, in view of the fact that all want to be close to God, be it in this life or in the future life" May God be with us as formerly, today and always!

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The gospel according to Spiritism, 7: 4. Matthew, 16: 27 - Luke, 13: 34. Matthew, 7: 7. - Luke, 11: 9-13.

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