My friends, we are here today
gathered around this work: "Boa Nova".
And there’s a fact that calls our attention in this...
let’s say gigantic work of the spirits.
Emmanuel, coordinator of the mediumship
of Chico Xavier,
author of five novels
which practically rebuilt
the story of primitive Christianity,
chose
to invite somebody
who could write
30 short-stories
about the times of Jesus.
And the project was so successful,
“Boa Nova”,
that Humberto de Campos
did the same thing in other works,
bringing other short-stories.
What calls our attention is this:
why didn’t Emmanuel write himself?
Why did he call Humberto de Campos?
What value does Humberto de Campos add
to telling those stories?
Why him?
What stories are those?
That is one reflection,
and every time we read one of those stories,
and today we’ll read
chapter 20, "Mary of Magdala",
this initial reflection comes to our mind:
why Humberto de Campos?
And it must be said that
Jesus didn’t write anything.
He could have written
a summary of the Gospel
better than anyone else.
Because nobody, nobody
would be able to surpass Him
when writing His own Gospel,
but He chose not to write anything.
In fact, Jesus chose
not to leave behind anything material,
foreseeing
we would stick to the material part
and forget the essence.
Imagine
if there had been a text written
by Jesus’ own hand?
Men would adore one more piece of parchment,
or papyrus,
they’d go on pilgrimages, they’d kneel down
before that text,
they’d beg for cures, miracles,
and forget the essence of the message.
Therefore, Jesus
gives His teachings verbally, orally,
with His conduct, with His life,
and leaves it
to hundreds of people to register the facts…
And here I would like
to call attention to one thing:
in this chaotic traffic
we have in the big cities,
accidents usually happen.
And when an accident happens,
and it’s witnessed by many people,
there’s something very funny:
after the accident,
you come to one person and say:
"The accident involved two cars,
which were the cars?”
“Ah, one was a Fiat Palio...
...and the other was a Fiat Uno.”
The other person goes: “No, no, no!
They were a Fiat Palio and a Volkswagen."
And there’s no agreeing.
“One was yellow and the other, green.”
“No, one was blue and the other, yellow.”
“The yellow car advanced...
and the green crashed the...”
“No, no! It wasn’t like that.”
Each one will give one version of the fact.
Because perception is something very subjective.
If you take away the elements
which are central to the event,
those facts that fill up,
that simply make up the scenery,
not always those who witnessed it
were paying attention.
And with the writing of the Gospels
the same thing happened...
The evangelists narrated,
first, with a purpose.
No evangelist wrote his book
without a purpose.
They wanted to convey a message.
They were not historians.
Even because historians
as we know today, in the 21st century,
didn’t exist at the time of Christ.
This concept of making history
as we understand it,
did not exist to a person who lived
at the time of Jesus.
This concept is ours, not theirs.
They were worried
about conveying the essence of a message.
And more than that,
the evangelists were
interested in making people feel moved.
Moved.
Because they were moved.
Anyone who had the opportunity
to witness something Jesus did
was marked forever.
Forever.
For all eternity.
And somehow
the person wanted to express that.
So they were not worried
if, when Jesus cured the blind man,
there were 10, 15 or 5 people around Him.
Because I believe, if you were there,
you would not pay attention.
You would not pay attention.
The figure of Jesus would attract you
with such power
that you wouldn’t have energy
to pay attention to anything else.
That’s the work of the evangelist.
Each one narrated… one perhaps
realized something the other one didn’t,
one approached the event
from an angle the other one didn’t use,
and that’s how the Gospels were written.
And since today we’re gonna talk
about this extraordinary figure,
Mary of Magdala...
And here she’s not identified by the name
of her father, her mother, her family...
Like Simon Peter, Simon bar Jonah,
Simon son of Jonah.
Not here. It’s Mary Magdalene.
It would be more or less like this:
Haroldo of Belo Horizonte.
José of Sabará.
Luiza of Nova Lima.
That’s how she’s identified.
By her hometown. Mary of Magdala.
The lake of Gennesaret is perhaps
a bit larger than our local lake.
And as amazing as it sounds,
it was surrounded by villages.
And one of those villages next to Capernaum
was the town of Magdala.
Which data do we have
about Mary of Magdala
or Mary Magdalene?
We have here a dictionary,
a Biblical dictionary published by Vida Nova...
And since our purpose at this moment
is that you feel totally lost,
and that you have the feeling
that, after I read this,
you know even less than you did before,
I will read
what it says about Mary Magdalene.
It’s a dictionary organized
by J.D. Douglas,
but there are several Biblical scholars.
several scholars.
And naturally they’ll speak of the material
they have in their hands.
The material that’s available
for incarnates to study.
That’s what they’ll talk about.
And it says:
“Mary Magdalene: this name probably
comes from the Galilean village of Magdala.”
Probably?
How so?
If Magdalene does not come
from the village of Magdala, where does it come from?
There we already notice the fear, the dread
of the author of the article.
He’s so afraid
that he doesn’t want to state anything.
“The name probably comes
from the Galilean village of Magdala.”
“Her appearance, before the narratives
about the passion of Jesus,
is restricted to Luke 8, verse 2.”
And it’s true.
It’s true.
And indeed the evangelists’ narratives
focus on the passion,
the moment of Jesus’ crucifixion
and the moment of resurrection.
Before that,
what is the reference to Mary Magdalene?
Well...
He says: chapter 8, verse 2
of Luke. Let’s see the reference:
“And it came to pass after that...”
After what?
After a passage Luke narrated,
which is a banquet at the house of Simon,
the Pharisee.
After that...
“And it came to pass, after that, that He would go by
every town and village, proclaiming
and evangelizing the Kingdom of God.
The twelve were with Him,
and a few women that had been healed
of evil spirits and infirmities:
Mary, called Magdalene,
or Mary of Magdala, from whom 7 daemons came out;
Joanna, wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward;
Susanna, and many others,
who served Him with their possessions.”
That’s the reference to her.
Mary of Magdala, next to Joanna, wife of Chuza,
Susanna and other women.
No other reference.
And before that? Before, on chapter 6, from verse 36
to verse 49 we have a curious case.
Jesus is invited to a banquet
at the house of a Pharisee.
It’s a very interesting passage,
because it’s full of cultural elements,
and if we don’t understand the elements
of the culture of the time,
we practically don’t understand the passage.
We don’t understand the passage.
Jesus is invited to a banquet,
He leans over, they start the meal
and a woman comes from behind,
begins to cry at His feet,
behind His feet,
dries her tears with her hair
and pours a jar of ointment
at Jesus’ feet.
And the Pharisee, seeing that,
tells Jesus: “If you were a prophet,
you would know
that a sinful woman
is touching you.”
Well, up until that moment,
Jesus obeyed the protocol
of a well-educated guest.
From that moment on,
Jesus says things to that Pharisee
that are very harsh.
Very harsh...
But who is that woman?
Unidentified.
There’s another case of a woman
who anointed Jesus, but in Bethany.
Researchers are divided, but there’s a current
that understands there were two women
who anointed Jesus: that one, who anointed Him
at the house of Simon, the Pharisee...
And where did he live? We don’t know.
The text doesn’t say.
And later,
that other anointment in Bethany,
at the eve of Jesus’ crucifixion.
And those are the data.
Some scholars tried to identify
Mary of Magdala as the adulteress,
but that’s a weakest current of thought.
Most understand they are different women,
completely different.
Even because there’s no reference,
not at all, in the Gospels, pointing
to whether Mary of Magdala was married or not.
And that’s the mess the scholars are in,
since the Gospels lack
more robust information,
but above all because of the lack
of knowledge on the part of the scholars
about the traditions of Jesus’ times.
Because the text has information,
but one must know how to extract them.
And at first we’ll make a few comments,
without resorting to the book “Boa Nova”.
We’ll get to the book very soon.
In a little while. It’ll be important.
As far as understanding
the cultural elements...
Kenneth Bailey.
This man went… this protestant
went to his church with a project.
He identified that, in the region
of Palestine,
Jerusalem and neighboring towns,
there were a few villages
that maintained characteristics
similar to those from Jesus’ times.
That was 50 years ago,
when he started the research.
And what did he propose, then?
That they gave him a scholarship,
that they financed a project,
and he’d go to those villages
do a research on the local culture,
attempting to find elements
of the culture of Jesus’ times.
What was the project?
He’d live for a while in those villages,
he’d read the Gospel to those people
and he would ask them:
“What do you understand here?”
A detail:
he read the Gospel in Syriac,
which developed from the Aramaic language.
So practically in a language
that was very close to Jesus’ native language.
And he started to ask around.
He got excited and ended up staying for 30 years.
30 years...
And produced 5 books. They’re all in English,
unfortunately, but the Vida Nova publishing house
translated a part of a book.
As amazing as it seems,
they didn’t translate the entire book.
“The Parables of Luke”, Kenneth Bailey.
And as amazing as it seems, to our luck,
to our luck, chapter 2 refers
exactly to the banquet at the house of the Pharisee
Simon, where that woman breaks
the alabaster jar with ointment
and anoints Jesus’ feet.
And he read that passage to those villagers
who had the same habits and lived
as people lived 2.000 years ago,
and started to ask those people:
“Hey!
Why did Jesus
call the attention of this Pharisee?”
And they were like:
“But that’s not possible! Didn’t you understand?
That man was extremely
rude to Jesus!”
“How so? Didn’t he invite
Jesus to have supper at his house?
“Yes...
He invited Jesus for supper,
but he didn’t comply
with any of the rules of social etiquette,
none of the rules
for someone who is a host...
The rules of hospitality,
he broke them all.”
Then Kenneth Bailey was astonished.
“How come, he broke them all?”
Imagine you invite someone
to come to your house.
The person rings the intercom or the bell
and you come down, open the door
and stare at the person.
And the person stares at you.
Is that right?
It’s not! There’s something odd.
Because, when you have someone over,
you open the door and what do you say?
“Good morning!” “Good afternoon!” “Good evening!”
“Come in.” “Won’t you come in?”
Rules of hospitality in our society.
Then the person comes in, stands there
and you stand there too.
Then the person looks at you and says: “My God!
Either this person who’s having me over
is a little bit crazy,
or I’m not welcome here.”
Right?
“I’m not welcome here.”
Because, when someone comes into your house,
you say: “Have a seat...”
Rules of hospitality in our society.
“Have a seat...”
Third question:
“Would you like something to drink?
Some juice? Some water? A soda?”
Rules of hospitality.
You sit down and talk.
What were the rules of hospitality
in the villages, at the time of Jesus?
The rule was: someone came into your house
and the “Good morning! Won’t you come in?”
was a kiss on the person.
If it was someone like you, a kiss on the cheek.
The kiss on the cheek is the same as “Good morning!”
“Good afternoon!” “Good evening!” “Please come in!”
But if you were having someone over
and that person was a master of the Law,
a master of the Torah,
you kissed the person’s hands.
The person came in. What did you do?
You asked
some woman... a woman...
to wash the person’s feet.
You’d bring a jar... Why?
I don’t know if someone here has ever had
the chance to walk in the desert.
I particularly had the privilege
to walk in the desert
from Jerusalem to Jericho.
And I can tell you one thing:
after 30min in the desert of Judaea,
if someone gives you fresh water
to put your feet in,
it refreshes even your perispirit.
When you put your feet in cold water,
it refreshes even your mental body.
And we have that experience here.
When it’s cold, you put your feet
in warm water, doesn’t it warm your whole body?
It warms you.
So there was a reason for this rule.
When you watered your guest’s feet,
you refreshed them.
Then what did you do?
If you were having someone over
who was an authority of the Torah,
you would pour a bit of oil
on the person’s head.
It was the anointment.
The sign that you were having over
a master of the Law.
Very well...
Simon, the Pharisee, invited Jesus
for supper at his house.
Jesus came into the house,
he did not kiss Him,
he didn’t offer water for Jesus’ feet
and he didn’t anoint Jesus’ head with oil.
What was he saying to Jesus?
“You’re not welcome.”
Meals were served on small tables,
people would kneel down,
recline with their feet behind them, and eat.
Since the villages were very small,
50, 40 houses, the whole village would come
and watch you eat.
Because having someone over
was an event.
So everybody would come
and there was nothing wrong with that.
And you didn’t have to be embarrassed
for not having enough food,
because you had no obligation whatsoever
to give food to the entire village.
People wanted to see
you welcome your guest and eat.
That’s why that woman
had access to that meal.
She came in, like dozens of people did.
And she stood behind Jesus
because Jesus was reclined to eat
with His feet behind Him.
But maybe you’re asking yourself:
“What’s this study about?
Is it about Mary of Magdala?
Yes. It’s about Mary of Magdala.
That woman comes in.
Since she is a sinful woman...
and here’s one more extraordinary element of the culture:
“sinful woman” is a polite way
to say... “prostitute”.
Just like saying “call girl”
is a polite way of referring
to female prostitution.
We also have those same strategies.
Right?
We have that strategy.
Why does “sinful woman”
strongly suggests female prostitution?
Because we lived in a society
that was absolutely patriarchal.
A woman didn’t have legal personality.
How so? It means that we had the father and…
the ox, the cow, the woman... the objects...
At the synagogue or at the temple,
to begin the prayer that opens up
a religious meeting, I need 10 people.
I’m being polite.
The rule is: I need 10 men,
because women are not people.
At least for that end.
In the Jewish society of the time,
women didn’t count as people
to make up 10 so we can start a prayer.
A woman is raised by her father,
who has the power of life and death
over her,
as in the Roman society of the time.
She leaves her father’s authority
to be under her husband’s authority.
She should wear, in the Jewish culture,
in the Jewish culture,
adequate clothes, covering everything,
she couldn’t talk to men
who weren’t members of her family,
or in the presence of members of her family...
In such a way that
a woman talking to a man
who is not her relative, on the street...
Inadmissible!
Those were the rigid rules.
Very well! And here we have
an important fact.
Very important.
To the religious sensibility of that time,
a person who lives by the Law, who is religious,
talking to someone who is a sinner
is something unadvisable,
because they imagined that,
if you talk to someone who is a sinner,
if you touch that person
and that person touches you,
the person’s impurity is transmitted to you.
You become impure.
You can imagine Simon Peter’s reaction
when he sees Jesus talking to prostitutes.
Have you tried to imagine?
Sometimes we have a tendency
to not get into those matters,
because they hurt our sensibility.
They hurt our sensibility.
In that specific case,
a sinful woman,
which is a polite way
to say “a prostitute”... or...
Because, when I say “prostitute”,
according to their concept, it’s not necessarily
the concept of “call girl”.
It’s not necessarily that concept.
The concept is: if you’ve never married
and you have a relationship with a man,
you’re a prostitute.
Because a woman must remain a virgin
up until her wedding
and she can only have relations
after her wedding and with the person
she married, evidently.
If... if...
the husband divorces her...
and she gets another husband,
she’s a prostitute.
So the rules that defined the conduct
of women were extremely restrictive.
If your husband abandoned you
and you were left alone,
found someone else and got married,
you were a prostitute.
Let alone
a woman who didn’t get married
and had boyfriends...
That was the concept.
The question is that Jesus was a master of the Law.
Jesus was a rabbi.
And a prostitute touches Him.
That’s inconceivable!
It’s inconceivable for a woman of “ill repute”
to touch a priest or someone religious,
let alone a master of the Law...
That woman touched Jesus.
But let’s look closer?
The Pharisee who treated Jesus very badly,
who did not follow any
of the rules of hospitality,
criticizes Jesus
and finds at that moment
the reason to ridicule Jesus,
which was his purpose.
His purpose was to ridicule Jesus,
that’s why he didn’t give him the kiss,
didn’t offer water for His feet,
that’s why he didn’t anoint Jesus.
His purpose was to ridicule.
When that woman touches Him, he says:
“Now I am certain
that you are no prophet,
because, if you were a prophet,
you would know an impure woman had touched you.”
Then Jesus tells him: “Simon...
A man, a creditor, had two debtors.
One owed him R$ 50.”
I’ll adapt the parable
to the Brazilian monetary system.
“One owed him R$ 50. The other, R$ 1 million.
The creditor called them both
and forgave the debts of both.
Which one was more grateful?
Which one loved the creditor more?
And he answers: “The one who owed R$ 1 million...”
Now imagine that!
He had a one-million debt forgiven.
“Very well, Simon...”
Jesus, indirectly, told him:
“You owe 50; she, a million.”
Jesus tells him this:
“I came into your house, you gave me no kiss,
you did not wash my feet and you did not anoint me.
This woman, since she came in,
has not ceased to kiss my feet."
The obligation, when you meet a master,
is to kiss his hands, not his feet!
She kissed Jesus’ feet.
“You did not wash my feet,
she washed them with tears
and dried them with her hair.
You did not anoint my head,
but she took her ointment...”
And here comes... the “ace in the hole”:
she takes out a box
and pours that oil over Jesus’ feet.
That’s such an expensive product,
so expensive!
And she... We can tell from the word,
the recipient she was carrying,
she surely was a prostitute.
She was a prostitute.
And she used the whole product
she usually wore to smell good...
She pours it over Jesus’ feet,
meaning that
that was a point of no return.
It’s like a criminal who lays down his weapons:
“I don’t want them anymore!”
Lays them down.
That’s the passage.
Those are the cultural elements,
the elements of the culture of the time
that Biblical researchers pass by,
unaware,
without noticing.
And after Luke tells this story,
he says...
He just finishes this story...
“And those who were reclining at the table
began to say to themselves:
‘Who is this who also forgives sins?’
He, however... said to the woman:
‘Your faith has made you safe, go in peace.’”
Because he had said to her before:
“Your sins are forgiven.”
And Luke begins chapter 8 like this:
“And it came to pass, after that...
that He went through every town and village
proclaiming and evangelizing
the Kingdom of God.” How come?
Does it give an idea of movement?
Because these villages are in Galilee.
Wasn't He in Galilee?
Where was He?
“And some women who had been
cured from evil spirits and infirmities:
Mary, called Magdalene, from whom came out
seven daemons..." and mentions Mary Magdalene.
Then we open up chapter 20
of the book “Boa Nova”,
with all these doubts
that we have now,
with all these questions,
and Humberto de Campos says:
"Mary of Magdala had heard the preachings
of the Gospel of the Kingdom
not far from the princely village
where she lived, giving herself away to pleasures
in the company of Roman aristocrats,
and was filled
with profound admiration for the Messiah.”
A woman who lived in a village,
which was Magdala, a princely village,
because Magdala was occupied by the Romans,
and since the Romans had very good taste,
that village was lovely.
And Mary of Magdala
“gave herself away to pleasures
in the company of Roman aristocrats", plural.
Does anyone here have any more doubts
or can we go on?
A Jewish woman,
because he'll give that detail here,
who gave herself away to pleasures
in the company of Roman aristocrats, in the plural?
Roman aristocrats?
Look how Humberto de Campos
recreates the evangelical story!
Those are pieces that were missing in the puzzle.
Pieces that were missing in the puzzle,
and he's handing them out on a plate to us.
"What new love was that,
proclaimed to the simple fishermen
by such divine lips?
Up until then, she had walked
over the crimson roses of desire,
intoxicating herself with the wine
of reproachable joys.
However, her heart was thirsty..."
Thirsty.
"And despondent.
Young and beautiful,
she had emancipated herself
from the strong prejudice of her race."
The lamp even flickered.
She had emancipated herself
from the strong prejudice of her race?
She didn't follow any
of the rules of conduct established
for women in the Jewish society.
That's why she was taken for a prostitute.
"Her beauty had enslaved
to her feminine caprice
the most ardent admirers."
So she had a legion of fans.
"But her spirit hungered for love."
Hungered for love.
“The prophet from Nazareth had planted
new thoughts into her soul.
After she heard His words,
she observed that amenities in life
brought mortal boredom
to her sensitive spirit.
The voluptuous songs
did not find an echo in her soul,
the Roman ornaments of her home
had become barren and sad.
Mary cried for a long time,
though she did not yet understand
what the unknown prophet pleaded for.
However,
His amorous invitation seemed to echo
in the most sensitive nerves of her womanhood.
Jesus invited men
to a new life.”
That’s the indication.
We have understood, from reading this work,
that all spirits have a touchstone
that marks a period of their evolution.
It’s often one characteristic.
One characteristic.
Those who have a problem
with dealing with money
have been having this problem
for the last 30 incarnations.
Those who stumble in power
have been having trouble with power
for three, four thousand years.
It’s the same with sexuality, and in other aspects.
It is generally one element,
an element of your psyche
that makes you cling to the ground, to the earth.
You develop yourself in other aspects,
you sublimate other characteristics,
but that one keeps you chained to the ground.
In Magdalene's case,
she had a profound thirst for love
and she tried to quench her thirst
with unbridled sexuality.
Unbridled...
To the superficial people
of that time, and of today...
she was a sinner.
To Jesus,
who can see into the depths of our soul,
she was someone who was thirsty,
searching in the wrong well,
or searching in a well that didn’t exist,
until Jesus came.
Because humanity did not know love.
Humanity only knew love
the day Jesus stepped on Earth.
I’m talking about divine love,
I’m talking about celestial love,
unconditional love, love without limits,
love which is an ocean...
Humanity did not know that.
Jesus knew how to look deep into our souls.
Deep into our souls.
Mary of Magdala’s search was legitimate.
The problem was how and where she searched.
And Humberto de Campos says:
“After a night of great meditations
and before the famous banquet at Nain,
where she had publicly anointed Jesus’ feet
with the fragrant balms of her affection...”
I’ll read again:
“And before the famous banquet at Nain...”
So the banquet at the house of Simon, the Pharisee,
was in the village of Nain,
next to mount Tabor,
which is very, very close
to the Sea of Galilee.
I say “very close” because I’m from Minas.
Very close by car. About 20 or 25 miles.
Nain. The banquet was at Nain.
And we read, and read,
we read the book, but we don’t see it!
We don’t see it...
Where she had publicly anointed Jesus’ feet
with the fragrant balms of her affection.”
Why didn’t Emmanuel write it?
Because Humberto de Campos is a man of letters.
He’s a master of Literature!
“Fragrant balms of her affection” are...
They are the perfumes she used
in order to smell good
and welcome Roman aristocrats, plural,
in her sumptuous residence,
in the village of Magdala.
“Fragrant balms of her affection.”
Only a man of letters
could write a sentence like that.
And Emmanuel,
an extraordinary spirit,
knew...
that Chico Xavier’s mediumship
needed to be marked
by the character of universality.
Because sometimes people think
of “universality in the teaching of the spirits”,
figuring one must have
several mediums
in order to receive the same message.
The thing is that “The Spirits’ Book”
was received by two mediums
and revised by one.
So we have two kinds of universality.
We have the universality of several mediums,
channeling various entities
that say similar things,
and we have
an extraordinary medium
channeling various spirits,
all of them in unison,
saying the same thing.
Here, Emmanuel... as he did in “Parnaso”!
In "Parnaso de Além-Túmulo",
he called dozens of illustrious poets,
each one to write a poem
about one of the Moral Laws
of “The Spirits’ Book”.
Because "Parnaso de Além-Túmulo"
brings the Moral Laws in the form of poetry.
And here he calls a man of letters.
“Please, I...” He should have said:
“Use everything you know about Literature,
because, Humberto, I want you
to reconstitute the Gospel of Christ.
Tell the stories the incarnates do not know,
give them the missing pieces of the puzzle,
but do it...
do it in a sublime literary form!”
Then comes this man,
member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters,
and he writes this:
“She had publicly anointed Jesus’ feet
with the fragrant balms of her affection.
It was noticed that a smooth sailing boat
led the sinner to Capernaum.
She had decided to look for the Messiah
after much hesitation.
Her fellow countrymen
had never forgiven her
for leaving home and for her life of adventures.”
Why didn’t she get married?
Why didn’t she follow the path
that they traced for women?
Why didn’t she submit herself?
Why did she go after her freedom,
to pursue what was considered a life of adventures?
They didn’t forgive her for that,
much less Simon.
Simon was an older man,
a traditional man,
a man that stuck to traditions.
It was difficult for him to understand
that young woman,
it was difficult for him to accept that woman.
To everyone, she was the lost woman
who would have to be stoned
in the public square.
In the Jewish culture, a woman like that
was stoned in the public square.
Why wasn’t she?
Because she counted on the protection
of Roman aristocrats.
“Her conscience, however, asked her to go.
Jesus treated the crowds with special tenderness,
she had never seen in Him
any expression of despise
for the numerous women
who led mistaken lives and surrounded Him.
Would you be prepared,
if Jesus came to Belo Horizonte today,
and if He was surrounded
by call girls from Belo Horizonte?
What would your reaction be, as a Spiritist?
Frankly speaking,
what would your reaction be?
Be frank.
“Besides,
she felt seduced by His generosity.
If possible, she would wish to work for the execution
of His pure and redeeming ideas.”
And there he goes...
“Lord, I have heard Your comforting words
and I come to meet you...
You have the clairvoyance of the heavens
and you can guess how I have been living.
I am a daughter of sin.
Everyone condemns me; however, Master,
behold, behold
how much I thirst for true love...”
Behold!
It’s Mary Magdalene asking Jesus:
“Look inside me, Master!
I know you have the divine clairvoyance.
Look how thirsty I am
for true love!”
"'My existence, like all pleasures,
has been barren and anguished...'
The first tears
sprang from her eyes,
while Jesus contemplated her
with infinite goodness.”
Jesus contemplated her with infinite goodness.
“Nevertheless, she went on:
‘I heard Your amorous invitation to the Gospel,
I wished to be one of Your sheep,
but would God accept me?’”
Imagine that...
A woman who was a sinner, to follow
a master of the Law?
If not even a pure woman,
dedicated to her home, a wife,
could take part in the religious ceremonies!
“...would God accept me?"
"Mary!
Raise your eyes up to the sky...”
Wow! Look...
“... and rejoice on your way,
because you have heard the Good News of the Kingdom
and God blesses your joys.”
Wow!
“Could you imagine that anyone in the world
would be condemned to eternal sin?
Where then the love of our Father?”
To imagine that someone
will be lost forever
is for people who don’t love.
You only think a person
will stick to evil indefinitely
if you don’t love that person.
Because those who love never think that.
“Haven’t you ever seen spring bloom
over a house in ruins?”
Spring bloom
in a broken vase?
“The ruins are human creatures,
but the flowers are the hopes in God.
Over all the failures
and misfortunes that are characteristic of men,
God’s paternal blessings
descend and invite.
You feel today this new sun
lighting up your destiny!
Now walk under its light,
because love covers
the multitude of sins.”
He quenched her thirst.
“The sinner from Magdala heard the Master,
drinking up His words.”
Drinking up. Humberto de Campos is a genius!
He’s a genius!
He says that she was thirsty
and now she’s drinking up Jesus’ words...
“No man had ever talked like that
to her misunderstood soul.”
What man had ever talked to her like that?
Imagine what the Roman aristocrats
would say to her:
“How good you smell!”
“What beautiful hair!”
“You are so beautiful!”
And things we won’t mention,
because the DVD is G-rated, for all audiences.
“The most frivolous ones perverted
her good inclinations.
The seemingly virtuous ones
despised her mercilessly.
Engrossed in comforting thoughts
and listening to Jesus’ references to love,
Mary gently pointed out:
‘However, Lord,
I have loved and I thirst for love.’”
“I have loved...”
“‘Yes...’
‘Yes’, replied Jesus, ‘your thirst is real!
The world has corrupted the fountains of redemption
and it is indispensable to understand
that, along its paths, virtue has to march
through a very narrow door.”
Why does virtue have to march
through a narrow door?
Because we have corrupted all the doors.
That’s what Jesus is saying.
We only have to walk through a narrow door
because we have corrupted everything,
and in order to leave addiction, you have to go
through a period of detoxification.
Hence the narrow door.
“Generally, a man wishes
to be good like others
or honest like others,
forgetting that the path everyone crosses
is of easy access
and of march without edification.
Virtue in the world has been transformed
into the wide door of one’s own convenience.
There are those who love
the ones who belong to their intimate circle,
those who are true to their friends,
those who defend their relatives,
those who adore the gods of favor...
Those who truly love, however,
know the supreme renunciation
to all possessions in the world
and live happily in their line of work
for the difficult access to the lights of redemption.
Sincere love
does not require passing satisfactions,
which fade away in the world
with the first illusion.
Work always, without bitterness and without ambition,
with the joys of sacrifice.
Only love which renounces
knows how to walk towards supreme life.”
"Only love of sacrifice
may quench the thirst of the heart?"
She asked:
“Only love of sacrifice
may quench the thirst of the heart?”
“Jesus nodded and went on:
‘Only sacrifice
contains the divine mystery of life.
To live well is to learn how to sacrifice oneself.
Do you believe the world
would to be able to keep its balance
merely with the antagonistic
and sometimes criminal caprice
of those who raise themselves up
to the gallery of conquerors?
All human light
comes from the experienced and tender heart
of those who were sacrificed.
A warrior covered in laurels
utters his cries of victory
over the dead bodies that cover the ground,
but only those who fell
keep silent
so that the message of God
can be heard in the world.
The first ones can have the experience
of a day.
The others, those who fell,
build the definitive road in eternity.
In your condition of womanhood,
have you thought of what a world it would be
without mothers annihilated
in silence and sacrifice?
Aren’t they
the cultivators of the garden of life,
where men fight their battle?
Many times, the flowery field
is covered in mud and blood.
However, in their silent task,
maternal hearts do not despair
and rebuild the garden of life,
imitating Divine Providence,
which scatters over a cemetery
the fragrant lilies of its love.’
‘How unfortunate I am, Lord,
for I will never be a mother...’”
“I’m lost, I will never be a mother...”
“And what mothers are greater
in the eyes of God?
Those who devoted themselves
only to the children of their flesh,
or those who consecrated themselves
to the children of other mothers?’
"Lord, from now on I shall renounce
to all passing pleasures of the world
in order to acquire the celestial love
that you have taught me.
I shall embrace like daughters
my sisters in suffering,
I shall look for the unfortunate
to relieve the wounds of their hearts,
I shall be with the crippled and the lepers.”
Time went by...
And that woman always followed Jesus,
even though despised by the apostles,
who avoided any kind of contact with her.
But the crucifixion of Jesus takes place
and when Jesus is about to leave
the most glorious lesson of the Gospel,
the lesson that none of us is going to die...
When He appears for the first time,
who does He look for?
His mother, right? No.
He doesn’t look for his mother.
Simon Peter? No.
He doesn’t appear to Simon Peter first.
But Simon, the leader of the apostles?
No. To whom does Jesus appear
in the first place? Mary Magdalene.
Mary Magdalene.
And Emmanuel will explain why.
Chapter 92 of the book “The Way, The Truth and the Life”,
because Chico Xavier’s psychography is like...
A lace towel...
The threads must be intertwined.
The message is called “Magdalene”.
"Jesus said to her: ‘Mary!’
Turning back, she said: ‘Master!’
Among the most significant facts of the Gospel,
the first visit of Jesus, after the resurrection,
is one of those facts that invite
substantial and accurate meditation.
For what profound reasons
would the Divine Master leave
so many figures who were closer to His life,
to appear in the eyes of Magdalene
in the first place?
We’re naturally compelled to ask
why wouldn’t He have appeared first
to the selfless and amorous heart
of that who had served as His mother,
or to His beloved disciples?
However, Jesus’ gesture
is profoundly symbolic
in His divine essence.
Among the figures of the Good News,
no one was so violent to oneself
in order to follow the Savior,
as the unforgettable obsessed from Magdala.
Not even Paul of Tarsus would do so much.
Not even Paul of Tarsus would do so much,
later on,
because the conscience of the apostle to the gentiles
was passionate about the Law,
but not about vice.”
Paul was in love with the Law,
Mary Magdalene was in love
with the vice of the flesh, the sensations.
Taste, smell, touch, sound, color.
“Magdalene, however, knew the bitter end
of habits which are difficult to break,
she had been weakened
from the contact with perverse spirits,
she remained dead in sensations
that paralyze the soul;
however, all it took was the meeting with Christ
for her to abandon everything and follow His steps,
faithful until the end,
in the acts of self-denial
and in the firm resolution of taking the cross
that belonged to her in the redeeming Calvary
of her anguished existence.
It is understandable that many students
investigate the reason why
the Master did not appear first
to Peter, to John, or to His mother or friends,
however, it is equally reasonable
to recognize that, with the unforgettable gesture,
Jesus confirmed the lesson
that His doctrine will be
to all apprentices and followers,
the golden code to lives transformed
for the glory of good.”
Lives transformed for the glory of the good.
“And no one like Mary of Magdala
had transformed hers,
in the light of the redeeming Gospel.”
It was the gift that Jesus gave
to Mary of Magdala.
After that fact, she asks...
She gives the news to the apostles
that Jesus was alive.
They go there to check, Jesus appears to them
and she asks if she could remain with them,
she asks them to work,
and the apostles do not let her.
They don’t allow her to collaborate
in spreading the Gospel or working for it.
They don’t even allow her to stay
at the House of the Way taking care of the sick.
I’m not talking about Haroldo Dutra Dias,
I’m talking about Simon Peter,
John the Evangelist, James...
I’m talking about the apostles of Jesus.
So she stays alone,
but one day a crowd of lepers
enters Jerusalem.
The lepers came out of the Valley of the Lepers
and went into town
to get food and water.
And when people saw
the lepers were coming,
they all closed their doors,
closed everything, put water and food
in the middle of the street...
Everything was deserted, the lepers would go by,
get the food and leave.
However, that day
they found a beautiful woman
who decided to join them.
Mary of Magdala.
And she went to the Valley of the Lepers.
If Jesus invited you today
to a task in the Spiritist movement:
“Son, there’s a task for you
in the Spiritist movement.
You will teach the Spiritist Doctrine
to lepers, in the Valley of the Lepers.
You would be very happy.
She went to the Valley.
There she took care of the lepers,
there she spoke of Jesus,
there she spoke of the Gospel,
there she loved.
Are we capable of loving
sick people we don’t even know?
People with contagious diseases...
For the rest of your life,
would you love people with contagious diseases
that you never met before?
That woman is a giant of the Gospel!
Her transformation is much greater
than Paul’s.
She’s a heroine!
That’s why Jesus gave her this gift,
appearing to her first.
So what happens?
Years go by,
Mary of Magdala develops leprosy.
And... noticing she was already
at the doors of discarnation,
she went back to Jerusalem.
No longer the perfumed woman,
no longer the pretty woman,
now a leper
missing body parts...
She’s taken in.
“One night, the deep pains she felt
reached their heights.
Her soul was enlightened
by tender reminiscence,
even though her eyes
were sealed
by swollen eyelids...”
Have you imagined that?
Her eyes couldn’t even open anymore.
“...she saw with the eyes of imagination
the dear lake, the companions in faith...”
The companions, she saw...
those who abandoned her, the apostles,
she gladly remembered
those who abandoned her.
“...the beloved Master...
Her spirit seemed to cross
the boundaries of radiant eternity.
Minute by minute
one could hear her deaf moan,
while her brothers in belief
surrounded her lit of pain
with the sincere prayers
of their friendly and watchful hearts.
At a certain moment, it was observed
that her chest did not heave anymore,
Mary, however, experienced
a consoling sensation of relief.
She felt as if she were under the trees of Capernaum
and waited for the Messiah.
Birds sang in the nearing branches
and the whispering waves
came to kiss her feet.
It was then she saw Jesus coming near,
more beautiful than ever!
His look had a reflection of the sky
and His face had undefinable joy.
The Master, reaching out His hands to her,
and she threw herself to the ground...”
She kneeled down.
“...exclaiming as she did in the past: ‘Lord!’
Jesus embraced her softly
and muttered:
‘Mary, you have crossed the narrow door.
You have loved a great deal. Come! I await you here!”
Good evening. Thank you all.