Good evening to all.
Just to explain a bit about the project
to everybody,
so that we can get used to it...
This is a project by SER.
Everybody probably knows www.portalser.org.
It is a group of people,
a spiritist organization,
but with a vocation
for openness, for welcoming,
in such a way that
despite our spiritist trait,
which is very striking, very strong,
we count on friends, supporters
from different religions:
Protestants, Catholics,
even some connected to Judaism...
This is due to a characteristic
that we made sure to point out,
the whole group, right from the start:
the characteristic of openness,
being open to dialogue, open to interaction.
This project today
is a project related to the book “Boa Nova”.
Today is the recording of chapter 11,
called “The Sermon of the Mount”,
it tells us about the Sermon of the Mount.
We’ll record a DVD for each chapter of the book,
and we’re experimenting here
with a new format of lecture, of speech,
to slightly get away from the traditional format,
and record a DVD that’s a bit different,
with a different look, more modern,
and we figured it’d be interesting to have a lecture
and then open for questions,
for us to have an interaction...
We could also have recorded without an audience,
but we believe
we lose some of the spiritual ambiance,
the interaction, the reaction of people,
when we just speak to a camera.
So that’s the idea,
and I invite everyone here to help me
with your good vibes,
so that this DVD is worthy of the book “Boa Nova”.
Because our effort is a modest effort
before the grandeur of this work
brought to us by Humberto de Campos,
which is the book "Boa Nova".
So that we have an idea of the grandeur...
We enjoy very much reading
the preface written by Humberto de Campos himself.
Humberto de Campos discarnated in 1932,
one of the best short-story writers
Brazil has ever had,
next to Machado de Assis
and others, member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters...
Two years after his death he began to dictate
short stories and short fiction-essays to Chico Xavier,
and the first book was "Crônicas de Além-Túmulo",
a tremendous piece of literature,
and he entered a whole new ground,
as Humberto himself defines it:
"On spheres closest to the earth,
our endeavors to captivate feelings..."
Captivate feelings...
"...following the example of Christ,
are also thorough and intense.
Numerous schools multiply themselves
for discarnate spirits.
And I, now a humble disciple
of this school of Jesus,
have realized that the spiritual realms
also have their folklore."
The spiritual realm also has its folklore...
"The heroic and blessed deeds...
The heroic and blessed deeds,
often unknown to the world,
carried out by unknown people,
enclose profound lessons here,
in which we find new strength.
All evangelical expressions have
their living history among us."
Living history.
"None of them is a superficial symbol.
Countless observations
regarding the Master and his followers
throb in studious and sincere hearts.
Of the thousands of episodes of this heavenly folklore,
I was able to gather thirty,
and bring them to the knowledge
of the generous friends who give me their attention.
I agree that it is not much..."
It's way too few, right...
"... but it should be worth as a useful attempt,
for I am certain I did not lack
the indispensable support."
In fact, they were not only 30.
Later on, in other books, he added more short stories.
Adding them all up, they're almost 70.
If we count all the short stories
and short fiction-essays about the Gospel
in Humberto de Campos' work,
psychographed by Chico Xavier,
around 14 books,
that's multiplied by two, almost three.
But what calls our attention here
is the word "folklore"...
When we use the word "folklore"
today, in 2012,
the first idea that comes to people's minds
is the popular and poor concept of folklore.
However, "folklore",
according to the dictionary,
is the set of traditions of a people,
the set of traditions of a community.
And we commonly hear some people,
when they refer to Humberto de Campos' preface,
saying: "But that's folklore!"
"Those little stories from 'Boa Nova'
are like stories out of children's books.
Like stories of talking dolls,
or stories out of comic books...
They fail to see that the member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters
Humberto de Campos is using the expression
in a strictly technical sense.
Let's check it out.
Look at what he says:
"I have realized that the spiritual realms
also have their folklore.
The heroic and blessed deeds,
often unknown to the world,
carried out by unknown people,
enclose profound lessons here,
in which we find new strength."
So what's he talking about?
He's talking about true incarnations
of anonymous people on earth
who gave such profound examples
that they make up the folklore of the spiritual realm
and turn into stories
used by the spirit friends
to educate other people.
That's what he's saying...
And he goes on:
"All evangelical expressions have
their living history among us."
Living history!
Then it's real. It's real.
When we do some research
and combine all the short stories
dictated by Humberto de Campos
about the Gospel,
we surprise ourselves.
For instance, in one of them,
Humberto de Campos has a conversation
with Nicodemus in the spiritual realm.
Nicodemus...
Nicodemus, from the Gospel of John, chapter 3.
And Nicodemus tells him about one of his memories
from apostolic times.
In "Crônicas de Além-Túmulo",
Humberto de Campos' first book,
which he wrote two years after his death,
there's a short fiction-essay in which he tells
of an encounter he had with Simon Peter,
at Raul Soares square, in Belo Horizonte.
So we're talking of real history here...
Real history... That's better be said.
There's no fantasy here. There's no fantasy.
Having said that,
we can start our journey.
Many of you must have taken a walk
in the outskirts of Belo Horizonte,
in the area of Serra do Cipó.
Serra do Cipó is a string of mountains
with numerous waterfalls,
where people like to go take a hike,
whether on foot, or on a bike...
And they walk dozens of kilometers
so they can have the pleasure to visit
a secluded waterfall
or maybe a virgin scenery,
which hardly anyone knows.
And when you decide to take a stroll like this,
you can choose the so-called tourist route.
What's the tourist route?
You're going to take the paved road,
the two-way road, with traffic signs, breakdown lane,
roadside inns...
It's interesting...
If you want to take a safer ride,
if you want to go straight to the point,
it's interesting to look for those roads.
But what's curious is that those who like to take hikes,
those who are really looking for adventure
and for that pleasure of finding unexpected sceneries,
that pleasure of arriving at heavenly places...
They avoid those paved roads.
We can enter this book, "Boa Nova",
by taking the paved road,
the common thing to do, the path already taken...
I'm not saying it's bad,
I'm not saying there's no emotion to it,
no extraordinary things, that's not it.
You can take that path.
And if you want to arrive quickly,
if you want a quick read
of chapter 11, for instance,
the one we'll comment on today,
the chapter about the Sermon of the Mount...
If you take this well-known road,
in 10min you go straight to the point,
you get what you're looking for...
And with that you have material for a lecture,
for conversation, for a Gospel lesson for children...
You use it for whatever you want.
But the path that we're taking here today
is one among thousands,
but it's not the tourist route.
We're going to take paths
that are less traveled by.
Changing metaphors,
using a different symbol,
for those who like diving:
while you're still learning,
the instructor says: "Now you're gonna practice,
it'll be your first time,
I'll take you to a swimming pool."
You dive there three feet,
maybe five,
but when you've trained enough,
you're invited to 10-feet dives,
20-feet, 30-feet, 50-feet dives...
The deeper it gets,
the deeper the dive,
the more revealing the scenery,
more interesting the discovery.
And our purpose with this work
is that we collectively take
a deep dive,
a deep dive.
With this deep dive,
we're in search of the unexplored.
And the unexplored causes a certain uneasiness.
The unexplored is uncomfortable.
Entering a cave you've never been to
is a bit scary,
a bit unexpected...
Some of the paths we're about to take,
some of the books we're gonna look up,
some of the approaches we're gonna take
are uncomfortable,
but they have the advantage of revealing
that this book is an ocean.
This work is a never-ending ensemble
of spiritual treasures.
And if we could have here 20 different people
commenting on this passage,
we would have at least 20 approaches.
All of them interesting, all of them curious,
but each one different from the other.
Let’s go?
Let’s take that dive?
When we open on chapter 11,
what’s the superficial script of chapter 11 of "Boa Nova"?
The script that is on the surface is this:
three people go up to Levi’s comfortable house
in Capernaum.
Three...
Lysander, who was handicapped,
Aquila, who had been abandoned by his own family,
and Paphos, a friend
who was full of problems, of affliction.
Three: Lysander, Aquila and Paphos.
They go up to Levi
because Levi, at this point,
was already an apostle,
had already been invited by Jesus
to join the college of the twelve.
Later on we’ll find out who Levi is.
And Levi, following the tradition of the time,
turns to the other three and says:
"You cannot help,
we need strong, cultivated men,
people without problems
in order to build the kingdom of God
and contribute to spread out the Gospel.
You, Lysander, a cripple, how would you help?
You can barely walk.
Aquila, you were abandoned by your own family,
what credibility do you have?
And Paphos, you have so many problems,
how will you find time to help Jesus?”
It was like this… sharp.
And the three of them convinced themselves
that Levi was actually right.
That's curious!
Levi, as Humberto de Campos mentions here,
represented the intellectual aristocracy
of the twelve apostles college.
That means he was the most well-educated,
the most intellectually prepared of the twelve,
a man who worked for the Roman Empire -
today he would be a tax auditor of the Federal Revenue -,
in the small town of Capernaum,
a village of 50, 60 houses,
a village of fishermen, farmers...
A man who spoke Greek,
which was like English back then.
He had a comfortable home,
unlike Peter, who lived in a hovel,
and the others too.
He had access
to everything good the Roman Empire had to give,
he knew a lot about Jewish culture,
he was in touch with important people
from the temple of Jerusalem,
with the religious elite of Jerusalem...
We'll see about that as well.
That was the top.
And, at that moment, when he looks
at those destitute people, full of problems...
In his concept and in the concept of that era,
those people were invalids,
those people could not
be of use to spread out the Gospel.
The three of them go away,
and it's curious...
People who are too intellectual
present a danger to us.
They convince you of something
even when they are wrong.
In Levi's case, he was wrong,
but the power of his argument, his intelligence,
ended up convincing the three of them.
And they convinced themselves they were invalids.
A while later,
Jesus, accompanied by Andrew,
comes into Levi's house
for a meal,
and Levi tells the story to Jesus.
We notice that he was
absolutely convinced of what he said.
He was absolutely convinced
he was right.
And he tells Jesus: "Three men came here,
and I told them: 'Lysander, you're a cripple.
Aquila, you were abandoned by your family.
Paphos, you're full of problems.'"
Then Jesus tells him...
At first, Jesus doesn't say anything, he just smiles,
and, since Andrew was by his side,
Levi realizes what he had just said.
Andrew was Simon Peter's brother,
a fisherman not even 10% as learned as he was.
What was he saying?
He was hinting at the fact
that Andrew, Simon and the others
could not be apostles either.
They were humble fishermen.
When he realizes how far he'd gone,
he takes a step back and says:
"It is fair that we expect something
from the fishermen of Capernaum..."
He made a concession:
"From the fishermen of Capernaum
we can expect something." Why?
"...because they are strong..."
Strong... Strong means healthy here.
"...courageous men,
and the good work befits them."
The material part of it, the hard work
will be done by them...
Someone must carry the load,
and these strong, healthy men from Capernaum,
these fishermen like Andrew, like Simon,
will have their use,
but not Lysander, he is a cripple.
He made that concession,
and then Jesus starts to work on
this striking characteristic
of Levi's spirit.
And let us not fool ourselves,
it was not just an idea.
Ideas are the result of emotional stands
we take for 20, 30, 40, 50 incarnations.
When you have an idea about something, or someone,
that is the result of a feeling, an experience
that you may have had or may still have
throughout dozens of lives.
That's why it's difficult to change ideas,
changing our mind is difficult.
Because you don't change someone's mind
with a lecture.
And here we have... we could call it
a crystallization of the soul.
Levi believed that those who could contribute
were only the healthy ones,
those who had material success in life
and an intellectual education above average.
If you're relating to this,
you don't need to raise your hand.
That was the thought.
So much so that this Jewish man, from Nazareth -
later on we'll look into his biography -,
became a tax collector.
The Roman Empire uses this man's services,
naturally, because they perceive in him
an intellectual ability above average,
because they perceive in him an ability
to administrate, to deal with money,
to deal with tax collecting,
and his life was built upon that quality of his.
And it's a good quality.
It's a good quality.
He built an estate, he built a career.
And for how many incarnations had he done that?
It was difficult for him to imagine
that people who had "failed"...
Failed in marriage,
failed in educating their children,
failed in their profession,
who could not support their family,
who had failed in their social life,
or who were born a failure,
according to the general concept at the time...
Because they were crippled,
that is, they had been born a failure,
that was the general concept at the time...
It was difficult for him to understand
that someone like that had something good to give.
2.000 years ago, in Palestine,
2.000 years ago,
there was no room for sufferers
and failures.
Maybe you think that I'm being rude...
I'll give you three examples:
here we have a text from that time,
from the Jewish culture of the time,
and here we have a wise man, Jochanan,
speaking of Moses,
look what he says about Moses:
"The Holy One", God, "blessed He be,
makes his divine presence lean
only on him who is strong, healthy,
wise and meek."
I'll read again.
God only leans on, only uses, only expresses himself
through those who are "strong"...
So if you are weak...
"Healthy"...
If you have an illness, you're no good.
"Wise"...
Here we're speaking of intellect,
of orthodox instruction.
And "meek".
That is a Jewish text.
Well, what was it like in Rome?
Many of you must have read Emmanuel's novels,
but if you also read books about Roman history,
you'll realize that, at the time of Jesus,
when a woman had a baby
and the child was born with some kind of disability,
soon after labour she took the baby
and drowned it in the Tigris River.
Why?
Because giving birth to a crippled child,
with a physical disability,
was a dishonor to the woman
and a dishonor to the Roman family,
By the way, that was no Roman practice,
that was a practice that came from Greece
and was adopted by the Romans.
Many of you must have seen "300", it shows that.
If you were born with a disability...
There were times in Sparta
when the need to maintain the army
was so great
that if a girl was born, they killed her.
She could be all perfect,
but, not being a man, she was murdered.
And all of you remember the famous
Valley of the Lepers...
If your father, who had raised you,
your mother who had raised you for 40, 50 years,
who gave you a home,
who supported and educated you...
If, when you turned 45 years old,
your father developed a skin disease
that could not be identified,
what did you do?
Did you build up a room to take care of him?
No. Your father and mother were sent
to the Valley of the Lepers
and abandoned in that common ditch,
as a sanitary measure.
We are saying this,
because this passage is about emotions...
This passage is about concepts,
social traditions that are strong...
and sometimes we have a tendency
to soften things,
believing that in those days
people thought as they do now.
It's not like that.
What Levi is demonstrating here
is nothing different from what society approved of.
In short, there was no place for sufferers.
There was a place for strong, healthy people,
who had a good financial situation.
The others, if they were healthy and strong,
they could be used in material labor.
If they were not healthy or strong,
well, they'd have a very sad fate.
That's how they stood,
that was the situation.
Even in religious assemblies,
since the time of David,
just to close the subject,
the blind and lame could not enter the temple,
they didn't allow the entrance of the blind, the lame
and the crippled into the temple of Jerusalem.
Wasn't the temple the house of God?
Yes, but what was the argument?
The argument is that the crippled
cannot walk on their own
into the house of God.
The argument is that the blind
cannot see the house of God,
so they're excluded, they're left out...
That's how Levi thought,
that's how he was educated,
the world had been like that for thousands of years,
but unfortunately the world is still like that.
Unfortunately...
Jesus then starts to educate Levi,
he goes like this: "Nevertheless, Levi,
we need to love and accept
the precious collaboration of the subdued of this world."
What's he talking about?
What kind of talk is that?
To accept the collaboration of the subdued ones?
"If the Gospel is the Good News,
how could it not be the divine message for them,
the sad and disinherited ones of the immense human family?
The winners of the earth
do not need good news.
In the bad twists of fate,
human creatures hear the voice of God louder.
Looking for the oppressed ones..."
I would ask for us to keep this in mind.
"Looking for the oppressed ones..."
Oppression.
Oppressed.
"...the afflicted... and the victims of slander,
we feel them so connected to the sky
in their hopes,
that we notice,
in the peaceful courage they reveal,
the sublime reflection
of the presence of Our Father in their spirits.
Have you ever seen winners in this world
with greater worries
than defending the fruit of their material victory?"
These are harsh words,
but they're not mine, they're Jesus'.
"Levi felt moved
and taking advantage of the short pause that followed,
he exclaimed, somewhat disappointed..."
Disappointed...
That was not what he expected.
And he tries to explain himself.
"Lord, my observations came
solely from my intense desire
to hasten...
hasten...
the supremacy of the Gospel
among those who govern the world."
Look...
There are two curious things in that speech of his,
when he says he wants to hasten things up,
he's saying that Jesus is slow.
The method adopted by Jesus is slow,
he wants more speed.
Speaking in modern-day language,
he'd say like this:
"Master, I want more efficiency! More effectiveness!
And I want the supremacy of the Gospel
among those who govern the world."
What's the matter?
How many of us identify ourselves with that feeling?
How many of us wouldn't like
to hand out this book in English to Obama?
And hasten the supremacy of Spiritism
among those who govern the planet?
Send a copy of the Codification
to the presidents of G9... G10, G12,
enroll them in a Spiritist study group?
"To hasten the supremacy of the Gospel
among those who govern the world."
Jesus answers him like this:
"He who governs the world is God."
Remember when I said
you could take the trails to Serra to Cipó
instead of the paved road?
This is a bitter speech to listen to.
Sometimes we read this chapter so quickly,
but it's a bitter,
bitter speech...
Do we really believe
that he who governs the world is God?
Or do we say things we don't mean
in lectures and Spiritist centers?
"'He who governs the world is God',
stated the Master with conviction,
'and love does not act out of uneasiness.'"
Levi wants to hasten the supremacy of the Gospel,
and Jesus says love does not act out of uneasiness...
It's tough...
Well, the speech goes on, the talk goes on,
we'll go over parts of it,
but before that I have to take other paths,
add more flowers to our bouquet,
before we go back to the talk
between Jesus and Levi.
What's certain is that Jesus says amazing things to Levi!
They're in this book.
Leaving Levi's house after lunch,
the other apostles join them,
and Jesus climbs a mount nearby,
and it's really close,
it's about half a mile walking distance from Capernaum
up to the mount where Jesus gave the Sermon.
Very close...
We call it a mount, but it's not really like that.
Those who live in Belo Horizonte
would laugh a little
of the mount from where the Sermon was given.
It's a small, modest elevation.
But they climbed up
and Jesus then gives the speech
that's in chapter 5 of the Gospel of Matthew.
"Blessed are" - he begins -
"the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Blessed are the afflicted,
for they shall be consoled."
Is there any resemblance between this sermon
and his conversation with Levi?
It seems like it.
Because Humberto de Campos has recovered the real story.
Humberto de Campos has opened the doors to the making-of,
he has told what's not in the Gospel,
what's behind the Sermon of the Mount.
When Jesus finishes the Sermon,
do you remember the three friends who looked for Levi?
They were embracing,
the three of them happy because in the Sermon of the Mount
Jesus makes it clear there was a place
for the weak, for the failures,
for the sick, for the sufferers.
They were happy.
Then Humberto de Campos says:
"The tax collector from Capernaum, Levi, came up
and greeted them, exhilarating with joy..."
He went up to greet the three of them...
"...understanding that the teachings of the Master,
in all of their light,
encompassed the never-ending future of the world."
Jesus' speech
encompassed the never-ending future of the world.
"Great hope and indefinable peace
had penetrated the core of his being."
Why great hope and indefinable peace?
Because... how long had Levi been struggling
not to be weak?
Have you imagined carrying the weight
of not being able to be weak?
"Great hope and indefinable peace
had penetrated the core of his being.
The following day, the ex-publican
opened his doors to all the guests
of that memorable dusk.
Jesus joined the feast..."
Matthew threw a party
for the crippled, the blind, the lame,
the sufferers, the sad ones, the obsessed...
He opened up his house, threw a party.
"Jesus joined the feast,
broke the bread..."
Jesus liked that.
In various passages,
when Jesus is gathered with the apostles,
eating something,
he likes to break the bread and hand it out.
He likes that.
It was he who broke the bread!
And it must have been a lot of bread... A lot of bread!
"He broke the bread and rejoiced with them."
He rejoiced with them!
Have you imagined a party at your house...
Flat bread, which was what they ate,
not rolls...
Flat bread... eggplant... fish...
The food of the time.
And Jesus breaking the bread, handing it out,
rejoicing with you and your guests?
Can you imagine that?
Jesus rejoicing in your home?
"And when Levi embraced the cripple Lysander..."
How about that...
Levi went there and hugged the cripple!
"... with the sincerity of his faithful soul,
the Master contemplated him
with affection and said:
'Levi, my heart revels with you today...'"
I'll translate it,
because here Humberto uses language
of members of the Brazilian Academy of Letters...
"My heart revels..." He's saying:
"Levi, I'm so darn happy at you..."
"Levi, I'm very happy at you!"
"I'm awfully happy at you!"
"... because blessed are also those
who hear and understand
the word of God."
He added one more blessedness.
"Blessed are also, Levi,
those who hear and understand,
because most people hear and don't understand."
The question is:
how has this experience
affected the writing of the first Gospel?
That is the question.
Do you think the experience affected Levi?
No doubt, we have no doubt about that.
That experience profoundly affected
Levi's soul forever.
Levi experienced peace.
He said: "I can be sick,
I can be weak, I can fail,
I can lose my possessions...
because in no circumstance whatsoever
will God abandon me.
Whatever the circumstance,
God will be leading me,
because, after all, he who governs the world is God,
not Caesar.
It's not Caesar.
It's God.
It affected Levi.
Did it affect the Gospel?
Humberto de Campos said in the spiritual world there are schools,
and there the living history of the Gospel is registered.
So there you have Mary's ultrasound
when she was three months pregnant.
It's registered... it's all registered...
All the minor details
of the time the Spiritual Governor spent on the globe
are registered with sound, image... and...
If you've ever seen on TV
those Disney amusement parks,
when they show a Donald Duck 3-D cartoon...
The cartoon comes towards you,
you think Donald Duck is there,
suddenly you can smell the apple pie.
It sets off a scent,
the pie is there, it comes towards you,
you even feel like taking a bite...
You can smell it,
and Donald Duck spills some water,
and the water spills on you.
It's 5-D, it's not 3-D.
In the spiritual realm it's probably like this:
you get into a booth to watch the Sermon of the Mount,
and you feel the breeze from the Lake of Genneraset...
You can see the face
of Jesus, of all the apostles, everything...
You can see, you can smell... everything...
Humberto de Campos had access to those files
and brought us one story about Levi. Why one?
Because he must have made a huge effort of selection,
among thousands of stories.
Levi followed Jesus for 3 years, side by side...
We'll see here who Levi is...
He followed...
Why did Humberto de Campos choose one story?
Because that story
defined the contours
of the Gospel of Matthew.
This story is the spinal cord of the first Gospel.
This story is the summary of the Gospel of Matthew.
So Humberto de Campos was precise like a surgical knife.
He was sharp, he went straight to the point, the key aspect...
But what aspect is that? What core is that?
Let's take another trail...
Who is Levi?
Who is Levi? Is he Matthew?
Who wrote the first Gospel?
Was it Mark? Or was it Matthew?
In what year did he write?
Naturally,
we'll look for
a good Biblical dictionary.
"Dictionary of the Bible", volume 1,
"The People and the Places."
Great! I found it!
Jorge Zahar... a well-respected publishing house.
This is a collective work, but who's the coordinator?
Bruce Metzger.
Who is that man?
He has just passed away, he was over 90 years old.
And he was considered the greatest scholar,
the greatest specialist in Biblical studies in North America,
and surely, surely
one of the greatest in the world.
Bruce Metzger.
That man is a giant,
a giant!
That man is one of the people responsible
for the study of 5.200 manuscripts
of the New Testament that exist
and for the edition of the definitive text in Greek.
Aside from the modern languages, French,
German, English, Italian, Spanish
and Portuguese,
Bruce Metzger spoke Syriac, Arabic,
Coptic Egyptian, Latin,
Greek, Hebrew,
Aramaic, Sanskrit and other languages...
Then it's an excellent dictionary,
let's look it up to find out who Matthew is.
"Matthew... is mentioned
as one of the original disciples
and was traditionally identified
as the author of the first,
but not the oldest Gospel of the New Testament.
In the other Gospels, Mark, Luke, John
and in Acts, the name Matthew simply appears
on a list of disciples of Jesus."
On the Gospel of Mark, of Luke and of John
Matthew does not appear as an apostle.
But he appears on a list
of disciples of Jesus...
"But on the Gospel that bears his name...
he appears..."
On the one he wrote he appears.
"...twice..."
Twice...
"...and there he is mentioned as a tax collector."
What am I trying to say?
The Gospels do not say that Matthew is Levi.
They say that Matthew is a tax collector.
On the other three he doesn't appear,
except on a list of disciples,
and on his Gospel, he appears twice.
"This association persisted
all through the subsequent Christian history,
although in the parallel texts Matthew 9:9,
Mark 2:14 and Luke 5:27,
the tax collector is called Levi, not Matthew."
It got complicated, huh?
What he's saying is:
in the Gospel of Matthew, the tax collector is Matthew.
In the other Gospels, the tax collector is Levi,
but the others don't say that Levi is Matthew...
Difficult, huh? Difficult.
According to Papias, a Church priest
who wrote on the year 130 A.D.,
Matthew arranged the sayings in order
in the Hebrew dialect,
and each one translated them as they could."
He goes on and then he says:
"It is common knowledge that 'Matthew' was written
around the year 85 or 90 A.D."
According to academic research,
the Gospel of Matthew was written
between 85 and 90 by an unknown Christian,
who belonged to a church
located in Antioch of Syria."
If you are following us
on this hike through the trail,
I've got news for you: we are really lost.
If you feel that we are lost,
I'm telling you: we're lost indeed.
We have no compass, I haven't brought water or food,
and I have no idea where we're going.
But I ask you all to be patient
so that we remain lost 30 seconds more.
"Even though the apostle Matthew
might have been active in founding the church
in which the story attributed to him appeared,
it is improbable that he should be
the author of that story."
What's he saying?
"Even though I admit that Matthew might be Levi,
might be one of the apostles of Jesus,
surely he didn't write the Gospel of Matthew."
And then he goes on:
"Specialized opinion states
that the church for which 'Matthew' was written
was composed of Christians of Jewish and gentile origin."
Christians of the church of Antioch.
And we are here with one of the best dictionaries
that Biblical scholars have ever produced.
Lost... Lost.
Well,
this dictionary... was edited...
Let's see if it says the edition,
because these... usually do.
Authorized translation of the first
North-American edition published in 2001,
by Oxford University Press.
2001.
Oxford.
Ok.
I have in my hands an unknown work,
edited on July 8, 1941.
This is from 2001... and this is from 1941,
but if you're watching this video
and if you're a Biblical scholar,
I have good and bad news for you.
Good news: there's lots of information in this book.
Bad news: it was psychographed
by a man who only studied until 4th grade,
in the town of Pedro Leopoldo.
While this one was produced
by one of the greatest Biblical scholars on earth
in the 20th century.
Very well,
I selected three passages from "Paul and Stephen"
which mention Levi and his Gospel,
but to get to those 3 passages
and to go on our way,
and now we're no longer lost...
There's a chapter in the book "Boa Nova",
chapter 5, entitled "The Disciples",
in which Humberto de Campos says:
"Peter... Andrew... and Philip
were sons of Bethsaida,
whence also came James and John,
descendants of Zebedee."
Very well,
on that first sentence,
he says James the Greater and John the Evangelist were brothers,
sons of Zebedee,
characters from the previous chapter, by the way,
chapter 4, entitled "The Zebedee Family".
"The Zebedee Family".
"The Zebedee Family" is a very interesting case,
worth reading,
because it's the story of a mother who asks...
Like all mothers, she asks something simple of Jesus:
to place one son at his right
and another one at his left,
therefore the two main posts...
That's the story... very interesting.
James the Greater and John the Evangelist were brothers,
descendants of father Zebedee
and Zebedee's wife.
There's something curious here...
Peter, Andrew and Philip were from the town of Bethsaida,
but here, he doesn't say on this paragraph,
but he'll say it later on,
that Peter and Andrew are brothers...
The apostles Andrew and Simon Peter are brothers.
Philip also came from Bethsaida,
but he wasn't Peter and Andrew's brother...
Philip had daughters, great collaborators,
and he also ended up moving
to the church of the Way with his daughters,
and helped around.
Let's see...
"Levi... Thaddeus... and James..."
James the Lesser, from the church of the Way,
connected to Judaism.
"...sons of Alphaeus and his wife Cleophas,
related to Mary,
were Nazarenes and loved Jesus
since childhood,
being many times called
'the Lord's brothers',
in view of their profound emotional connections."
What's Humberto de Campos saying?
When it says in the Gospel "Jesus' brothers",
they're not brothers, they're cousins.
Levi, Thaddeus and James the Lesser,
sons of Alphaeus and Cleophas,
who was related to Mary.
Then someone will ask:
"Related? In what degree?"
And I would love it if I could invoke
the spirit of Humberto de Campos
and ask him
in what degree
Cleophas and Mary were related.
If they were called brothers,
the word "ach", in Hebrew,
or "achi", my brother,
is used by blood brothers
and 1st, 2nd and 3rd cousins.
So from this word we infer
that she was either Mary's cousin, or aunt...
It's the most we can think of.
Levi is a brother of James the Lesser.
James the Lesser had connections
with high authorities at the Sanhedrin
and at the Temple of Jerusalem.
We know that from reading
"Paul and Stephen".
And Levi was the tax collector,
an employee of the Roman Empire,
who had a comfortable home in Capernaum
and was a learned man.
So we're talking about an elite family,
a family with a good financial situation,
an influential family,
economically and politically speaking,
and of people with an intellectual background
much above average.
And more: born in Nazareth.
They grew up together with the boy Jesus
and they had such an affectionate connection to Jesus
that they were called "Jesus' brothers".
That's Levi.
Now we understand
why Jesus went into his house for lunch.
Such a connection.
That's Levi!
That's Levi.
"Boa Nova". Moving ahead on our journey...
And our goal here,
let's remember our goal,
since it's been a while we've been walking
and we may get lost,
we may forget where we want to go.
The goal is to understand why Humberto de Campos
brought that story about Levi,
why the story is relevant
to the writing of the Gospel of Matthew
and what characteristics in the Gospel of Matthew
relate to that story.
That's our goal.
That's why we're walking these roads,
and now we get information
that's nowhere to be found in the world
except in the book "Boa Nova".
So if you wish to study the Gospel
and you google something,
you'll get material that's completely different
from what's in the book "Boa Nova".
Moving on,
after Ananias cures Saul,
who turns into Paul,
Paul tells him this:
"'Ananias, my master',
said the former rabbi enthusiastically,
'where can I get a copy of the sacred Gospel?'"
Well,
Paul's conversion took place in 36 A.D.
We're speaking of a dialogue
that took place in the year 36 of the Christian era.
Not in the year 90, or 85,
in the year 36.
"'Where can I get a copy of the sacred Gospel?'
The old disciple smiled kindly
and remarked:
'First of all, do not call me master.
The Master is and will always be Christ.
We, by extension of divine mercy,
are disciples, brothers and sisters
in need and in the work of redemption.
As for acquiring the Gospel,
only at the church of the Way
in Jerusalem could we obtain
a complete copy of Levi's notes.'"
Let's freeze time here.
If you're watching this video, take a break.
Now come back.
In 36 A.D., the only place where you found
a complete copy of Levi's notes
was in Jerusalem, in the church of the Way.
And whose were these notes?
Levi's.
Ananias doesn't say he doesn't have the Gospel of Matthew,
because possibly those notes
were not complete enough
or the size
of the Gospel of Matthew we have today.
Naturally, as the years went by,
Matthew may have extended and organized the material,
but Levi's notes were there.
So the first Gospel of the world
is Matthew's... or Levi's notes,
because Levi and Matthew are the same person.
Matthew and Levi are the same person,
we'll see about that.
Levi's notes.
In other examples, Humberto de Campos
will make it clear that Levi wrote on time.
He took notes as things were happening,
because he was the only one who could write,
out of the twelve.
Or at least the only one who could write quickly,
he was a tax collector, he was trained,
because it was not just about knowing how to write.
Writing required the technical ability
of handling the feather, the ink,
so as not to stain the roll, which was very expensive.
Or the papyrus, very expensive as well.
Levi's notes...
Ok, let's move on a little bit
in "Paul and Stephen".
When Paul of Tarsus spends 3 years in the desert,
he comes back to Damascus
and decides to go to Jerusalem and talk to Simon Peter.
He leaves Damascus on foot
and heads to Jerusalem,
but decides to stop by Galilee.
"When he arrived at Capernaum,
a golden sunset
cast an enchanting light
over the bucolic countryside.
The former rabbi walked down reverently
to the shores of the lake.
He became enraptured as he contemplated
the lapping waters.
Thinking of Jesus,
of the power of his love, he wept,
overcome by singular emotion.
He wished he had been a humble fisherman
in order to have received the sublime teachings
at the source of his kind and immortal words.
Saul stayed there for two days
in gentle rapture.
Without revealing who he was, he looked for Levi,
who welcomed him with delight.
Saul revealed his devotion
and knowledge of the Gospel,
and spoke of how fortunate his notes were.
The son of Alphaeus was happy
as he listened to those intelligent
and comforting words.
In Capernaum Saul spent marvelous hours of delight
for his emotional spirit.”
He talked to Levi,
the one who had taken the notes,
the one who had taken the notes.
And let us not forget,
a little while before this story,
an original copy of Levi's notes
kept by Simon Peter
was given as a present to Gamaliel
and Gamaliel gave it to Paul.
So Paul had in his hands
a parchment roll with Levi's notes
that belonged to Simon Peter.
And he talked to Levi.
It's quite a lot.
Later on, when he decides to take his first trip,
he says to Barnabas:
"We need to shake up
the apathy of the Jerusalem church..."
He's speaking of the house of the Way,
the church of the Way.
"...calling the uncircumcised,
the sinners
and the outlaws.
Otherwise,
within a few years
Jesus will be regarded simply
as a commonplace adventurer.
Of course, after Simon’s death,
the enemies of the principles taught by the Master
will find it very easy
to corrupt Levi’s notes.
The Good News will be defiled
and anybody asking about Christ
50 years from now
will be told
that the Master was a common criminal
who paid for his sins on the cross.
Restricting the Gospel to Jerusalem
would be the same as condemning it to extinction.
Other disciples, for example,
could write about what they saw and heard,
because from what I’ve been able to tell,
Levi did not write down
all there is to know about the Master.
There are situations and facts
that he did not record.
Wouldn’t it be also fitting if Peter and John
wrote down their most intimate impressions?
I wouldn’t hesitate to say that coming generations
will many times refine
the task that was entrusted to us.”
That's Paul, making a direct comment
on Levi's notes.
That's precious too.
Because there was no Gospel of Mark,
which results from the recollections of Peter,
there was no Gospel of Luke,
which, according to "Paul and Stephen",
was only written in the year 60.
Here we are more or less...
This dialogue with Barnabas took place around 48.
There were only Levi's notes,
and there was no letter,
Paul had taken no trip.
The only Christian documents in the world
were Levi's notes.
But,
almost getting to our waterfall,
the goal of our pilgrimage...
what is relevant
about the Gospel of Matthew?
What characteristics can we consider
central to the Gospel of Matthew?
A curious Gospel...
It starts with Jesus' genealogy.
The Gospel of Matthew begins like this:
"Book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,
son of David, son of Abraham.
Abraham begot Isaac,
Isaac begot Jacob,
Jacob begot Judah and his brothers,
Judah begot Phares and Zarah, of Tamar,
Phares begot Hezrom, Hezrom begot Aram,
Aram begot Aminadab, Aminadab begot Nahshon..."
And the genealogy goes on until it gets to Jesus,
why?
And when we observe the genealogy,
he skipped names... entire generations,
and included people that... quite frankly...
We wonder...
Tamar...
It's common to hear people say:
"My great-grandmother was a very noble lady.
She was a teacher,
a delicate, sensitive woman...
Let's take a look at Jesus' forefathers.
Tamar...
"Judah married the daughter
of a Canaanite, who gave him 3 sons:
Er, Onan and Shelah.
Judah’s first son, Er,
married Tamar,
but they did not have children.
After his decease, his brother Onan,
due to the Levirate law..."
The brother had to marry the sister-in-law
so that she would have a baby.
"...he married Tamar, however, he also passed away
before she conceived."
That's an awful woman for you to marry.
"Judah promised Shelah would marry Tamar
as soon as he became a man."
Because he was still a boy.
"The promise was not fulfilled,
so Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute
in order to seduce her own father-in-law.
Judah mistakes his daughter-in-law, Tamar,
Er’s widow, for a cult prostitute."
He thought she was a call girl,
and she conceived two twins, Phares and Zerah.
Is that the grandma you'd like to have?
But Matthew includes that woman in a genealogy.
If you look at the whole of the Old Testament,
there's not one genealogy including a woman's name.
Genealogies only include men's names,
we're talking of a patriarchal society.
And he includes a woman like that.
It's wonderful!
Sensational... What does that mean?
We know that Levi learned the lesson.
In Jesus’ genealogy,
he included all the excluded.
All the black sheep in the family
made it to the genealogy.
You know that relative
you don’t like to say it’s your relative?
"So he’s your relative? Yeah, he’s connected..."
You’re embarrassed to say it.
He included everyone... in the genealogy.
In the genealogy he included everybody.
That is a singular fact.
Matthew’s genealogy is selective
because it wants to show that Jesus embraces everyone,
including Tamar.
All who failed,
all who made mistakes,
all the afflicted,
the desperate... are included.
Consider the impact
that talk to Jesus had on him.
Very well,
many years went by until this man,
Warren Carter,
wrote about the Gospel of Matthew.
It’s a Catholic commentary:
"A Sociopolitical and Religious Reading -
Matthew and the Margins."
The margins?
A Biblical commentary, edited by Paulus,
extraordinary.
What this man realized...
And he didn’t read “Boa Nova”.
He didn’t read "Boa Nova".
But he noticed what many of us, spiritists,
do not realize, with “Boa Nova” in our hands.
He realized that the Gospel of Matthew
is the Gospel of the margins,
not the center.
It’s the Gospel of the marginalized,
the Gospel of the excluded,
the disinherited... the sufferers...
It’s the Gospel of Lysander, of Aquila...
An extraordinary work,
though scholarly
and complex in its concepts,
but it highlights that it’s a Gospel of the margins,
the Gospel of the margins.
And the name of Jesus, Yeshua,
which in Aramaic and Hebrew
means salvation...
The name of Jesus is salvation.
In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 1,
he ends the genealogy saying:
"He shall salve..." A pun on words.
Yeshua, salvation, shall save.
In Hebrew it’s even more beautiful: "Yeshua yashar."
"Salvation shall save."
Jesus shall save, it’s a beautiful pun on words.
Jesus uses that
when he enters Zacchaeus' house.
Zacchaeus says: "If I've caused anyone to lose money,
I will pay them back double.”
Article 42 of the Brazilian Consumer’s Code of Rights,
double refund.
"I pay back double."
Jesus says:
"Rejoice, Zacchaeus, for today salvation
has entered your house."
Does he mean him as salvation or salvation itself?
Notice the pun on words.
In Aramaic it sounds better, right?
Yeshua has entered your house.
He came to save his people.
To save the people... starting from the margins.
Not from the center of power,
not the center of the Roman Empire,
not the center of the Temple of Jerusalem,
the margins of Galilee.
Emmanuel comments this verse
on chapter 174 of the book “Vinha de Luz”.
You know what title he gives? Curious, huh?
"The Platform of the Master."
We’re used to hearing the word “platform”
in political speeches,
but here he says:
"In truth, 2.000 years ago,
people believed that Jesus would be
a revolutionary commander,
like so many others,
striving for political claims,
at the cost of many people’s death,
sweat and tears.
Even today,
we see compact groups of undisciplined people
who, either giving or receiving orders,
refer to Christ
interpreting him as patron
of individual rebellions,
thirsty for civil war.
Nevertheless, the Gospel does not inspire
any project in that sense."
The platform of the Master is different.
“That Jesus is the Divine Governor of the planet
we cannot doubt.
What he will do of the redeemed world
we do not know yet."
When earth is redemeed, what will become of it?
We do not know.
"... for the plans of the general
are kept from the humblest of soldiers."
The soldier doesn’t know the plans of the general.
"The Good News, however, is very clear
as to the first platform
of the master of masters.
He did not display titles
of reformer of political habits,
contaminated by the bad inclinations
of rulers
and subjects of all times.
The celestial revelation announced to us
that he would save us
from our own sins,
deliver us from the chain
of our own mistakes,
driving us away from the selfishness and pride
which still rule
over the world of our conscience.”
Still legislating inside of us,
still dictating the rules
are pride and selfishness.
“We find ourselves, up until now,
in a simple beginning stage
of evangelical apostolate –
Christ delivering human beings
from their self-inflicted wounds,
so that sound human beings
may be able to purify the world.”
First, inner cleansing
so that afterwards we can cleanse the world.
“The individual kingdom that is able to accept
the liberating service of the Savior
shall find new life.”
What is the platform of the Master?
Working inside so that you can work on the outside.
Then we go back to the dialogue from chapter 11.
"He who governs the world is God, Levi,
and love does not act out of uneasiness.
Now imagine, Levi,
if the conquerors of the earth came to us,
laying down their exterior weapons.”
If the American army, the French army,
came here now to spread out the Spiritist Doctrine,
with their tanks, planes, aircraft carriers…
"Let us imagine a few Roman generals
arriving at Capernaum,
with their numerous and bloody trophies,
expressing their wishes
to accept the Gospel of the Kingdom of God
and offering to cooperate
with our effort."
Imagine that.
“Certainly they would bring legions
of guards and soldiers,
employees and scribes,
chariots of triumph, swords and prisoners.
They would begin by protesting against our preaching
along the simple roads of nature.
Since they would not be, on the inside,
disarmed of the vanities of victories,
they would edify sumptuous temples of stone,
upon whose construction they would fiercely fight
for inferior domination;
some would wish for superb palaces,
others would start building
marvelous gardens.
Recalling the action of deadly swords,
maybe they would intend to fight
to establish the Kingdom of God,
exterminating one another,
for not yielding to one another,
to their points of view,
since all winners in the world consider they possess
a greater sum of rights and importance.
Under the pretext of fighting in the name of Heaven,
they would possibly spread fire
and devastation throughout the earth.
And would it be fair, Levi,
if we worked to do
the will of Our Father,
annihilating his children, our brothers?"
That’s what happened.
That’s the story of Christianity.
Crusades, religious wars, Inquisition...
That’s the story, all of that happened.
"Until the sponge of Time
absorbs earthly imperfections
throughout centuries of necessary experience,
the conquerors of the world are poor beings
who walk through tenebrous abysses.
It is indispensable, therefore, that we pay heed
to the mild and humble soul of the conquered.
To their hearts, God carries
blessings of infinite kindness.
They have broken the strongest links
that chained them to illusions
and they march to the Infinite
of love and wisdom.
The lit of pain,
the exclusion of all amenities in life,
the incomprehension of the most beloved ones,
the wounds and scars of the spirit
are lights, lights that God lights up
in the dark night of human creatures.
Levi, it is necessary that we intensely love
the unfortunate of the world.
Their souls are the earth fertilized
by the compost of tears
and the most ardent hopes,
where the seeds of the Gospel
shall bloom to the light of life."
And to wrap up,
one of the greatest teachers
of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
a jew... a great scholar... in Jerusalem,
wrote a book called
"Judaism and the Origins of Christianity".
It’s professor David Flusser, now retired,
and in my opinion, he wrote, while incarnated,
one of the greatest comments on the “Sermon of the Mount”
that I’ve ever read in my life.
And what does he say?
Now we’ve arrived at the waterfall.
He’s going to say
that poor in spirit... are, in fact,
the oppressed... the anguished... the sufferers,
the humble, the afflicted... from Isaiah,
chapter 66, verse 1,
and he concludes like this,
regarding the Sermon of the Mount:
"Matthew underlines the spiritual side
of Jesus’ message,
but we have already tried to show
that Matthew’s expression “poor in spirit”
also has a social content...
It also has a social content..."
We know it does.
Now we know.
Lysander... Aquila...
We know there is a social content.
Besides, the comparison of Matthew 5:3-5
showed that the expression “poor in spirit”
and the 2nd and the 3rd blessedness in Matthew
are part of a literary whole.
Therefore it is certain that Matthew 5
faithfully preserves Jesus’ sentence.
If we accept this blessedness as original…”
Then he’ll make a few comments,
and he’ll say this:
that this is connected
to the message of Isaiah
that the Messiah would come
to console the oppressed,
the poor and the sufferers.
That was why
Humberto de Campos,
out of hundreds of stories,
picked out the most remarkable story of Levi’s life.
He wanted to define the contours of this Gospel,
which is the Gospel of the margins,
the Gospel of the oppressed, the sufferers.
Thousands of years went by,
1.850 years went by,
more than 1.800 years went by,
until the Spiritist Codification adopted the motto:
"Out of charity, there is no salvation."
We only have to read “The Gospel According to Spiritism”
in order to understand
the Spiritist Doctrine’s proposal
of consoling those oppressed in their souls
and those oppressed in the flesh.
The message of consolation. Thank you very much.