Good evening to all.
I feel very honored,
on Eurípedes Barsanulfo's birthday,
to be able to enter this sanctuary
constructed, built by his hands.
And even at a moment
when we celebrate his life,
to feel like a guest,
to be welcomed with so much love and affection,
it can only be Eurípedes' pedagogy.
Because this welcome is part
of the process of evangelization of my soul.
Augusto dos Anjos, 15min before he discarnated,
a materialist, an atheist,
wrote a painful poem,
a sharp poem: "The Last Number".
And one of its verses goes like this:
"I am the last number, and I die with you."
Not much long afterwards,
through the hands of Francisco Cândido Xavier,
he dictated the poem “Infinite Number”.
He came back from the umbrals of the tomb
to show men,
the incarnates, I don't know if dead or alive,
that life goes on.
And Zé Henrique has put to music
14 poems by Augusto dos Anjos
and gave us the honor to share
the release of this work
on May 17th, through SER as well,
and we hope
to learn with the book "Parnaso de Além-Túmulo"
some things that I would like
to comment on tonight.
This poem talks about the ether,
about the cosmic fluid.
And perhaps you wonder
if that's not a theme
only for scientists or philosophers,
or maybe you don't feel
sufficiently intelligent,
or intellectually prepared
to study a theme
of such transcendence
as the cosmic fluid.
But I would like to steal
a few words from Humberto de Campos
in the book “Contos e Apólogos”,
in which he says:
“My friend,
in the manner of old pilgrims
who journey without rest,
I seek your ears
through the doors of the heart."
And today I want to speak to your heart.
First of all to mine,
and then to the heart
of all of those who listen to me,
because despite the transcendence of this poem,
he says that the cosmic fluid is the book
in which the inimitable Creator records,
with His grand, unfathomable thought,
the story of destinies.
And where He composes His poems.
If we, human beings,
produce poems made of words
and immortalized on paper,
God writes poems of beings and universes.
Each being, each constellation, each world
is a poem out of the hands of the Creator.
Love poems, in love immersed.
Why am I saying all this?
Because Kardec wrote an essay on instinct.
He distinguishes it from passion,
let us not mix them up.
He reflects, or calls us to reflection...
Why do all the bees in the planet
know how to live in a beehive?
Why do all the ants in the world
know how to behave in an anthill?
Let us not fool ourselves,
there's a complex division of labor,
there's a perfect order.
But if you observe nature as well,
as I was talking to Ana today,
in the land of Ishmael,
if you observe plants,
they are a portrait
of thousands and thousands of years.
Each species,
a living book of experiences
of the best,
because each plant
is the best that survived all challenges,
all the storms,
all the difficulties.
If you take one of them in particular...
and now I begin to address our theme...
The vine,
the grape,
the best grape,
the one that will give the best wine,
according to the experts,
is the one that receives less water,
on the driest ground,
facing the greatest difficulties.
The grape that won all those challenges,
whose trophy,
whose victory is itself,
because its quality
portrays the greatness of its struggle,
its flavor and aroma
are a result of its persevering effort
and its tremendous power of regeneration.
This grape expresses
the work of God in it.
That is why Kardec will say -
though my companions from the Spiritist movement and I
have so forgotten those truths -,
Kardec will say:
“The instinct is not a suggestion of the spirits,
because it never fails,
and it is universal."
The African bee and the Brazilian bee
live in beehives.
The instinct is not
a set of virtues of that being,
because if you observe the ovenbird
building its house,
with a bit of effort you will notice
that there is a tremendous wisdom
that would not fit
that intelligent principle.
There is an intelligence that abounds,
that guides.
So Kardec concludes,
in his essay on the instinct...
He says:
“The instinct is God
taking care of His creatures."
But as intelligence develops itself,
the absolute guidance of the Creator
gives way to a divine pedagogy.
God stands back
so that the intelligent being
can make choices,
can develop itself,
can improve itself,
have wishes,
choose paths,
choose experiences.
So, at this moment,
that absolute Father,
infinitely wise and merciful,
stands back a bit and allows
the creature to choose,
to decide,
to select,
to make options
and, naturally,
to experience the consequences
of choices,
of options.
To prove the bitter and the sweet,
the sweet and the citric,
that is,
to engrave in the soul
a set of victories
and defeats,
because we also evolve
with scars.
And Kardec ends
his essay on the instinct saying,
although it is an essay,
although he doesn't mean to end the discussion,
although he doesn't intend to say the last word,
he concludes:
“With this thought,
the maternal instinct is enhanced."
While materialism
transforms the maternal instinct
into something vile,
lowering it,
that proposal,
says the codifier,
elevates the maternal instinct to the highest degree.
Because in the maternal instinct
we have God,
through mothers,
taking care of the creatures who are born.
"God, by means of the mother,
watches over all newborn creatures."
But how?
How?
How can it be, this omniscience,
this constant presence of God?
And the codifier explains:
the universal cosmic fluid.
We are immersed
in the cosmic fluid,
like fish in the ocean.
So,
we live and we move
in God,
because the cosmic fluid,
in the happy and precise expression of André Luiz,
in the book "Evolução em Dois Mundos",
is the breath of the Creator,
the nervous force of the All-Wise,
God's nervous network.
We move in God.
That means
I've come here today to speak
of the Gospel,
the Gospel of God.
I've come here today to speak
of God conducting
my life and your life.
I've come here to speak of God as a pedagogue,
asking Eurípedes to excuse me
and embarrassed if he can see me.
About God as an educator.
But at certain times
my words will be bitter like medicine
or like eggplant,
because there has appeared in the Spiritist movement
a thought of a God
that created the world and took a vacation.
And the more I travel the world and Brazil,
I find spiritists who are orphans.
They know they have a Father,
they know that God exists,
but they don't feel like His children.
They know God is the supreme intelligence,
but they can't perceive
a trace of intelligence in their destiny.
They know God directs the infinite creation,
but they can't distinguish,
in their life,
when it's them and when it's God
that is in control.
So they are upside-down believers,
because they believe in God
with their intellect,
but live as if they were atheists.
They believe there is an intelligence
directing creation,
but they feel emotionally abandoned,
alone, forgotten, neglected.
Neglected!
I was left behind,
I was put in second place.
Or worse, or worse,
when the process of cold intellectualism
gets to the limit
of vanity and pride
and empties itself of feeling,
we, spiritists, create
a pseudo-intellectual process,
in which God is a banking system.
And our life consists
in a cold bookkeeping of payment
and debt, debt and payment.
As if God were a bookkeeper.
And life
turns into a routine.
What'll happen has to happen,
what I have to pay, I have to pay.
And in that cold and inhuman system,
there's no room even for prayer,
after all, why am I going to pray?
If the divine bookkeeping is cruel?
And when we realize
this feeling takes over
those who were called
to be the salt of the earth...
“If salt becomes insipid,
what will we use in its place?”
Who will conserve,
who will give flavor to the world?
Who will add season to life,
if salt has become insipid?
So I want to speak today
of spirituality and everyday life.
Recalling the preface of Emmanuel
to the book "Our Home":
“In truth,
we need spiritualism and spiritism,
but we’re in much more need of spirituality."
Because spiritualism and spiritism
are what you have contact with on the outside,
spirituality is what you've built on the inside.
Spiritism is concession,
spirituality is acquisition.
Spiritism is what you've received,
spirituality is what you've conquered.
And maybe you'll receive a lot from spiritism,
but get to the spiritual world like brother Jacob,
poor in hope,
poor in light,
poor in feelings,
feeling abandoned,
neglected
or believing that the universe
is the mechanism of a Swiss watch,
cold, implacable and precise.
But it's not like that.
And that's what I'd like to talk about.
Emmanuel writes on the preface
of the book "The Way, the Truth and the Life":
“The Gospel cannot be reduced
to a breviary for the kneeling-board”.
Difficult words, what is he saying?
The kneeling-board is where you kneel,
and the breviary is the prayer book.
And for more than 1.800 years
we have believed that the Gospel
is a book of outward religiosity,
of rituals,
so that we could kneel
and perform rites of adoration.
But Emmanuel explains:
"No,
it is an indispensable script
for legislation and administration,
for service and obedience.
Christ does not draw
a line between church and workplace.
The whole earth is his prayer altar
and his work arena,
simultaneously."
There is no holy place.
The whole earth is holy.
The whole earth is an altar,
but the whole earth is a workplace.
So when I'm at the courthouse,
am I working or praying?
Both.
Right now, am I praying or working?
Both.
Because Christ does not draw lines,
those lines were drawn by us.
"By praising him in the churches while denying him in the streets,
we have become shipwrecked..."
Shipwrecked.
"...a thousand times due to our own fault.
However, any place
can be consecrated to divine service."
Any place.
"Christ..."
Emmanuel says:
“Many disciples in the various Christian denominations
have gotten involved in theological investigations,
transforming the Lord’s teachings
into a dead relic on altars of stone.
Nevertheless, Christ hopes
that all of us may make
his Gospel of Love and Wisdom
a prayer companion,
a textbook
for our daily learning experience,
an inspiring source
for our humblest actions
in our daily work,
and a code of good manners
for fraternal interaction."
And that's where I got the theme
for our reflection of today.
They say there was a wise Hasidic man -
Hasidism is a charitable
and mystical branch of Judaism -,
and that someone asked about this wise man,
who, according to them,
had a rare and uncommon life...
Someone asked about this wise man:
what was the most important thing to him?
And one of his disciples answered:
whatever he was doing
at that moment.
The most important to him
was what he was doing at that moment.
So
maybe you open the Gospel in a hurry,
thinking you'll find on the pages of the Gospel
a philosophical treaty examining
the intimate nature of God.
But you won't find that there.
There is not one speech of Jesus
in which he tries to explain the nature of God.
God's motivations,
in a philosophical speech. No.
Curiously,
as amazing as it seems,
frustrating all expectation,
when we open chapter 2 of the book "Boa Nova",
we find a piece of information
that frustrates many spiritists.
Where was Jesus from 12 to 30?
Some fertile imaginations
saw him in a flying carpet in Arabia.
Others imagined
that he crossed all the deserts,
of all the places in the world.
And some, even more creative,
imagined him learning Spiritism
in some corner of the planet.
However, when Jesus comes back to the temple
and Mary, his mother,
who had asked
for him to be admitted
at the temple, as a student,
so he would have a formal education,
and who knows build a religious career at the temple,
considering his intelligence,
his uncommon natural gifts,
after she arranges everything...
And what mother does not worry for her son?
What mother doesn't think of the profession,
the career… how he’s going to survive?
She arrives and finds Jesus at the door.
And Humberto de Campos says...
He asks her a question.
"Woman..." -
which was the most respectful way
to treat females at the time -,
"... haven't I given testimony
of my communion with the Father?"
It's an enigma.
Every time Jesus opens his mouth,
you need a week.
“Haven't I given testimony
of my communion with the Father?"
I don't know if she understood,
but from the vibration she must have noticed
that what she had done at the temple
had not pleased him.
She says: "My son, I only did this
thinking about your future."
He then goes inside the house
and asks his father
to let him help at the carpentry.
And many people are frustrated.
The spiritual governor of the globe,
so many years in a domestic carpentry.
In the Gospel of John,
and I don't judge anybody who was there,
because, if you were there,
I don't know if you would have seen it,
because certain things are invisible
to the eyes of the flesh.
In the Gospel of John we will find
the Pharisees saying: "But isn't that
the son of the carpenter and Mary?
Many people here know him, from Nazareth.
Isn't that the carpenter?”
And now comes the question:
the most part of Jesus' life
in a domestic carpentry.
But Mary adds,
in chapter 2 of the book "Boa Nova":
“He filled the house
with joy and hope.”
Not rarely, she says,
to her cousin Isabel,
she found the child
by the roadside, talking
to criminals wanted in Judaea,
to women of bad reputation,
to people who were
left at the margin of that society.
And she, fearful of her son's safety,
when she would fetch him,
witnessed in his words
comfort, faith, guidance,
to all of those who were
shipwrecked in their own mistakes,
lost in their own human strategies.
Because every time we live our life
only with our strategies,
we get lost.
And he advised them.
And when he decides
to make publicly known
the message of the Gospel,
many would hope
that he'd make a speech,
a deeply philosophical
and scientific one.
However,
the Gospel began
at a wedding party.
With Jesus as one of the guests.
By the way, they say
it was the wedding party
with the best guests ever:
Jesus, Mary, Joseph,
some who would become apostles...
And he turns water into wine.
A wedding party.
And he begins to call apostles
walking on the shores of the Tiberias,
but let us not fool ourselves,
many of Jesus' teachings
were given on the boat,
while he was fishing
with the apostles.
Many lessons were given
when Simon Peter's mother-in-law,
a sick woman, who lived with him,
Jesus cures his mother-in-law in his house.
What about when he went walking
and crowds went to look for him?
And in a very special moment,
very special,
when he's two steps from the crucifixion,
what does he propose?
What does he propose to the apostles?
Did he write a manual?
No. He said:
“I am so eager
to eat this Passover with you”.
And it is around a table,
reclined,
that he eats bread, herbs,
they sing Psalms, eighteen of them,
eighteen,
they say prayers...
And one detail:
he presides over supper,
because at the Passover supper
it is the oldest patriarch who directs the ceremony
and it is him who breaks the bread.
Just like at birthday parties in Brazil,
the best cake,
the first piece of cake,
goes to someone we want to distinguish.
At the Passover supper,
the first piece of bread
goes to whom the patriarch,
who is presiding, decides to favor.
And Jesus then, wanting to distinguish
one of the apostles,
wanting to show that apostle his love,
gives the first piece of bread, or if you will,
the first piece of cake, to Judas.
It would be more or less like this:
at your birthday party,
that relative you haven't talked to in 20 years,
you don't like him much and he likes you even less,
you take the first piece of cake and say:
"The homage of the night, the first piece of cake,
goes to this relative I don't talk to."
It's weird.
But after the crucifixion,
when a few disciples
were on the way to Emmaus,
a pilgrim starts to talk to them.
It's curious because that pilgrim
starts to speak of the Old Testament,
the prophets...
And he explains that all of what happened
was founded on the texts of the prophecies.
And they liked it.
They liked it,
they felt comforted,
but didn't recognize who the pilgrim was.
Why?
They felt comforted
and invited the pilgrim
to stay at the same inn.
And then? What does the pilgrim do?
They have supper.
Supper.
And all of a sudden,
the pilgrim, who was a strange man,
takes on the role of patriarch,
and breaks the bread.
And when he breaks the bread,
the disciples say: "Master, is that you?"
When he breaks the bread.
If you're not getting
anything of what I'm saying,
and that's been the purpose so far,
I'll explain.
I'd like you...
No need to say it out loud, please.
No embarrassments.
I'd like you to make
a mental list now,
with dates, places,
dates and places:
what were the risks you've faced
on this present incarnation?
The most dangerous moments of your life,
those when you were about to make
the greatest mistakes of your incarnation.
Please, don't speak, just think.
Please list,
list all the doors
that closed in your life.
List them. I can give you an example.
There was a door in my life
that God locked up very carefully
and swallowed all the keys.
My dream was to become a maestro.
All that I did
with that purpose went wrong.
But make another list,
make a list of all doors that opened
and you, with a sulky face, rejected.
I can tell you one.
I had been through 7 civil servant examinations
and was always one point short
to get the job I wanted,
until someone came to me and said:
“Examinations are open for judges."
I said: "The last thing I want
is to be a judge."
“Why are you so against that profession?”
I said: "I've worked in courthouses for 11 years,
I don't wish that to anyone,
much less to me."
But the person
was my mother-in-law.
God...
What do I mean by that?
I mean that God is in the unpredictable,
because if you foresee God, it's not God.
Because the relative cannot foresee the absolute.
It's impossible for limited intelligence
to predict unlimited intelligence.
If you foresee what God will do, it's not God.
You're adoring a golden calf.
God spoke through the mouth of my mother-in-law.
And she said to me:
“Look...
I understand this anger you have
of judges..."
She was a judge at the time.
"But why don't you do this:
you pass the exam,
take the exam, pass it,
and after you pass it, you try another one.
It's preferable to be at a better job,
if you pass it, you'll be more stable,
then you decide."
I said: "There's no contradicting such an argument."
And there was the pressure of her daughter.
So I went to take the exam.
And it all worked out, to my unhappiness.
Make a list of all the doors that were opened
and you sulked.
And the ones that closed, and you sulked.
And the ones that opened and you smiled.
And the ones that closed and you smiled too.
Make a list of the risks you've run.
Make a list. List your life there.
But I want you to start at the womb.
Answer me sincerely.
Has nothing extraordinary happened in your life until now?
Think. Think about that.
Reflect about that.
I was about to take the oral exam,
the last stage of the examination for judges.
It was two in the morning and I couldn't sleep,
and the exam was in the morning, 8 o'clock.
At 3:30am I took a nap,
a quick nap.
And I had a nightmare.
I was before an examiner,
an examiner of Criminal Law.
I drew an item from a small bag,
when I looked at the item,
he asked: “What is it?”
I read it out loud to him, and I didn't know.
I woke up and said: "My God! I don't know that!
What now?”
At 4:30am I woke up and went to the office
and picked up a book to study the item
I had dreamed about.
And I went to take the exam.
Guess who was the first examiner?
Because they were seven. One for each subject.
Guess who was the first? Criminal Law.
I drew an item from the small bag.
Guess what it was?
The one I didn't know
and studied at 4:30am,
on the day of the exam.
When I answered the question,
and I moved on to the second examiner,
I thought: "I've passed.
I don't know if I laugh
or if I cry.
But I'm sure I've passed."
Because there was an intervention.
But I'm telling this
because there was one in your life too.
There was one in your life too.
Think it over.
Do you know what's going on?
There's something going on in your life
that's in the parable of the father and sons.
A parable in which the youngest son says:
“Father, this is the thing:
you are God,
you are the supreme intelligence,
you are infinite love,
but... let's level with each other.
You're kind of suffocating.
That business of cosmic fluid...
I'm immersed in you, Father.
I can't think anything you don't know.
I can't go anywhere.
I move in you.
And you call my cell phone all the time.
You put people in my life,
you speak through the mouths of people
what I don't wanna hear.
And you generally choose someone I don't like.
You interfere.
I need some privacy,
let me get away from you
and give me my inheritance,
because after all I need to survive."
And he leaves.
And people read the parable
and think that the one who got away
was the prodigal son.
Because they don't understand
that the one who distanced himself more from God
was the son who stayed.
Because the eldest son stayed at the house,
respectful,
silent,
obedient,
following rules.
When he comes home and finds a feast,
the feast of mercy,
the feast of forgiveness,
the feast of blessings,
he says:
“I won't go in."
He reveals himself.
Because he was only physically at the house.
So I only want you to think:
aren't you the spiritist "eldest son",
who thinks you're in the house with God, but you're not?
Because being with God
is being in communion with Him.
And how does God act?
He acts like this...
And maybe after what I'll say here
I'll never be invited to give another lecture,
but it's in the parable.
If you go to the East,
if you go to Dubai, Abu Dhabi,
to Eastern countries,
and you observe an elderly man,
he doesn't wear jeans,
he doesn't wear Nike tennis shoes,
he wears a long tunic,
with sandals.
And the elderly man,
in an Eastern community,
he is known by his walk.
The more nobly he walks,
the more noble he is.
You won't see an elder,
at the time of Jesus,
running in the streets.
First, he may stumble on his tunic and fall,
a tragedy in a patriarchal society.
Second, because his nobility
is in the moderation of his acts.
He is calm, he is serene,
he walks slowly,
he acts prudently,
he's contained.
His sons kisses his hand.
A father, in the East, at the time of Jesus,
he'd never do what I do to my son,
because I grab my son,
I bite him, I kiss him, I hug him tight...
And he doesn't like it.
Not a father of the East.
His greatest expression of affection
is a kiss. A little kiss,
a little peck
on the son's face.
But the father of the parable,
when he sees the son from a distance,
he starts running.
The father of the parable,
when he gets hold of his son,
he kisses his son like I kiss mine.
He sends for sandals for his son,
he sends for a tunic,
puts a ring of son on his finger...
After the son had committed
the biggest mistake a son can commit on the East,
which is disobeying a father.
If you lived in that village,
you would be shocked
at that father from Jesus' parable.
So I almost had the nerve,
to change the name of the parable in the translation.
It's not the parable of the prodigal son,
it's the parable of the prodigal father.
Because the prodigal one there is the father.
Prodigal of love.
But... do you think it's too much?
Do you think it's too much?
Do you know what he does?
If you've ever walked in the Eastern desert,
you'll understand this:
one sheep has to last two months.
If you kill a lamb, it has to last two months.
There are no steakhouses in the desert,
this waste we see in Brazil.
However,
that father has an ox killed.
A whole ox is for a whole village to eat.
In Jesus' parable,
if that father were a mother, if it were Alzira,
it would mean that, on Eurípedes' birthday,
she would invite the whole town for dinner.
That father is prodigal.
And to make matters worse,
to make matters worse,
when the eldest son
refuses to enter the house,
what does the Eastern custom say?
If that son,
who lives in the house,
refuses to obey the father,
he is kicked out and loses all his inheritance.
Only the father of the parable, you know what he does?
He leaves the house
to talk to the eldest son.
What do I mean by that?
What I mean is
that God searches for us passionately.
In the most difficult moments of your life,
He went running in your direction.
In the moments of frustration,
He made a fuss,
He sent people to get you,
He made a book get to your hands...
Because He searched for you passionately.
That's what Jesus means.
It's provident and cautious love.
Provident because it takes care.
Cautious because it knows how to protect.
But... but...
to benefit from this love of God
you must allow yourself to fall in love with life.
So,
your breakfast
has to be a spiritist meeting.
The most common aspects of our life
must be filled with spirituality,
with meaning.
Why?
Because all of our life
is God's evangelization.
Your job is the way
God found to educate you.
The person who sleeps beside you,
every night,
is the person,
the male or female teacher
that God has sent you.
The father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law
every weekend at your house, opening the fridge...
People who criticize and offend you
are your personal trainers,
sent by God to improve
your moral conditioning.
So people are surprised,
because, when they went to visit Chico Xavier,
they thought they'd find a magician, a juggler,
a magician who set off fireworks,
and who impressed us with physical phenomena.
But you know what they found?
Someone who, in the way he drank coffee,
taught a Gospel lesson.
Because God is in everyday life.
In a way, that's what I think
Eurípedes is trying to say.
We are in a classroom.
You know when you enrolled in this course?
When you entered the womb.
And you know when you're leaving?
When you enter the tomb.
On this grade, because there's the other grade,
if you don't flunk out,
which is what follows in the spiritual world.
So the most profound encounters with God
happen at the table, at a meal,
when you're traveling,
facing an obstacle,
in a traffic jam,
it's in everyday life.
Because God is surprising.
Surprising!
Once a person came into Chico's yard
and he was sweeping the ground and singing
a popular song of a Brazilian samba singer.
And the person said: "Chico, what's that?”
He said: "My child, that's the hymn of the spiritist."
It went like: "Get up, dust yourself off and bounce back."
Because...
God has not enrolled us yet
in a school of angels.
God has enrolled us
in a school of human beings.
Therefore,
if you are incarnate,
you're in an intensive course
to learn to be somebody,
to learn to be human,
not to be a angel.
And every moment in life
is a lesson.
And God hides
behind the most unexpected circumstances.
That's the Gospel that has challenged me.
Lately I haven't slept well
because I am learning
what Paul said when he wrote:
“My God is a fire that consumes me”.
He surrounds me,
He tries to find me,
He tries to pull me in every way.
But He doesn't want little lambs,
He wants human beings in love with life,
looking for Him with the same passion
and the same intensity
with which He looks for us.
When that happens,
then Eurípedes' poetry comes to life,
because then I'll see God in lettuce,
in collards, in a garden, in the stars,
in coffee, at the table, in bed...
in all of my life I will notice
the searches of God.
His and mine.
Thank you very much, good evening to all.