Let us ask the Master for protection for our study,
for our reflection.
We will comment on chapter 25
of the book "Boa Nova": "The Last Supper".
Every time we read in the Gospel
passages related to a supper,
to a private and intimate moment
when Jesus joins together apostles,
disciples or guests,
or even in situations when He is the one invited
to some supper in someone's house,
it is common that our mind
compares the supper of 2.000 years ago
to the meals of today in the Western world.
But, in truth,
the supper at the time of Jesus
has a few meanings
and a few emotional and spiritual elements,
and if we are not aware of them,
we won’t be able to get into
those most profound aspects
of the lesson of Christ.
And to speak of these cultural aspects
which surrounded having a supper,
it’s necessary to follow the suggestion
of our friend Daniel
and go back to the patriarchs.
The symbolic message of the Old Testament,
when it speaks of the beginning of the project
of spreading the message of a single God,
it speaks of a calling.
Of a spiritual calling to a man and his family
who lived in Chaldea.
This patriarch is Abraham,
and he’s invited to leave his comfort zone,
his territory,
his relatives,
his language,
his customs,
and to face a challenging
and uncomfortable environment.
Every time we leave our natural environment,
we experience a discomfort.
Abraham lived in a region
that had cults,
gods,
religious practices.
And he is called on to travel,
he doesn’t know where,
to adore a single God.
He was the first missionary
of the First Revelation,
summoned by the spiritual world,
under the command of Christ Himself,
to convey to the incarnates
the message that there is only one God,
a single God,
Creator of the whole universe,
Creator of all beings,
and Father to a universal family.
The first invitation,
when Abraham gets to the region,
is an invitation to a meal.
Abraham is visited by messengers,
spiritual messengers...
In the Hebrew terminology,
the word “messenger"
is what we know as angel.
The angel is a messenger,
not one with wings,
from the symbology of the Western world,
because the angels that appear to Abraham
have beards,
they wear tunics like those
the fellas were wearing on the play here,
they walk through the desert...
And when they come,
Abraham performs the ceremony of reception,
and here we have the first aspect of the supper.
There’s no supper, in that culture,
without a reception.
And the first element of the reception
is to provide water to wash the feet.
Why?
If you have walked for hours
in the scorching desert,
I don’t know why,
but when you’re exhausted from the heat,
and awfully thirsty,
if someone gives you a bowl
and you put your feet in cold water,
I swear to you,
it refreshes even the perispirit.
Abraham offers
the first element of the reception:
cold water to wash the feet,
which is the symbol for refreshing the soul,
for welcoming
and making the person feel relieved.
After that relief,
drinking water is offered,
bread...
When the region allows for it, wine,
and oil,
oil,
a little bit poured on the head,
the kiss on the cheek,
a whole ritual in order to say:
“You are welcome,
the most important thing
is your presence.
The most important thing
that will happen now
is celebrating presence.”
And in this point the Eastern supper,
the supper of the Hebrew world,
differs from the meal of the Western world.
We can sit with someone
and have a quick sandwich.
In the Eastern world at the time of Christ,
and even before, at the time of Abraham,
sitting at the table with someone
is much more than eating,
it’s sharing presence,
it’s being intimate.
You don’t receive for supper
someone you don’t want to be close to.
You’ll never invite someone for supper
if you don’t wish to be closer to that person.
So when I receive someone for supper,
I am sending out a clear,
direct and objective message:
“I wish to establish a relationship with you.”
Social,
or friendly,
or spiritual etc.
It’s a sign that we want to advance,
to leave the surface
and establish an encounter of souls.
That’s important because,
when the Old Testament speaks of fasting,
it doesn’t always mean to refrain from eating.
The simple fact of eating alone
was also considered fasting.
Eating alone is fasting.
Even if you have grains,
if you have a piece of bread,
if you are alone, you are fasting,
because supper in the old world is being together,
is eating together, is sharing the table.
Sharing the table...
Food is but a detail,
it is just an element.
Jesus will have the opportunity
to say so to a Pharisee
who inquires of Him:
“Master,
why do not your disciples fast?”
And He answers it with a parable:
“Do guests by any chance fast
when the groom is with them?”
The Pharisee doesn't understand
what He was saying.
The Pharisee understood the cultural aspects, sure.
What does supper with the groom mean?
Having been invited to the wedding party.
And, at a wedding party, if you don’t talk,
if you don’t interact, don’t sit at the table,
if you don’t share the food, you are fasting.
And that’s an insult.
Going to a wedding and not sharing the table
is an act of extreme social insult.
The Pharisee understood that.
Nobody goes to a wedding to be isolated,
or not to eat anything.
Being isolated and not eating is fasting.
Nobody fasts at a wedding party.
What the Pharisee didn't understand
is that Jesus is the spiritual groom of the Earth.
The Earth has known, ever since His arrival,
an atmosphere of engagement.
And the wedding will take place
when the Earth progresses
and turns into a regenerated world,
where the Gospel is the rule of conduct
of all its citizens.
That will be the wedding day.
He is the groom.
But Jesus says: “The day will come
when the groom shall be taken away,
and then they will fast.”
Referring to the crucifixion,
when the Master would withdraw physically,
because He would return to His command post
in the spiritual world,
and then the apostles would fast.
Why? Because they would stop eating?
No, because they would eat
without the physical presence of Jesus.
Even if they ate fish and bread,
the physical absence of Jesus represents a fast,
which has lasted for more than 2.000 years.
So here we are at Madalosso, eating,
but we are fasting.
Fasting because, spiritually,
in terms of vibration of the heart and mind,
we are still distant from the sphere of Christ.
He is close to us
in the person of His messengers.
He is closer to us than we imagine.
But we are very distant from Him.
So we live,
and even if there's food on our plate,
we are fasting.
It was the parable that Jesus left.
Coming back to Abraham,
when He welcomes the spiritual messengers,
He offers a meal.
That means He begins to commune
with the spiritual world.
Just think,
many of us fall into reductionism,
we imagine the Old Testament is Moses.
We imagine the Old Testament
is limited to the laws
that Moses brought in the Sinai.
But the Old Testament also has Abraham.
It also has Isaac, Jacob, the prophets...
And what did Abraham do?
There weren’t 10 Commandments
at the time of Abraham.
There was no code.
There was no temple of stone,
there was no altar…
What was the religious behavior of Abraham?
What did he use to do?
What was his religious practice?
Do you know what it was?
What recommendations was He given
by the higher spirits?
That he had meals.
So all the religiosity of the patriarch
was experienced at the table.
In the family,
in the community where he lived,
in the society where he moved.
My God, such different religiosity!
Is it?
André Luiz, in the book "Agenda Cristã", says:
“Treat your relatives as if they were visitors.”
Difficult, very difficult.
Because living with our loved ones
creates an intimacy
that makes us forget the miracle
of our being together with them,
the gift of having our beloved by our side.
And many times,
only when they go to the spiritual world
and wait for us there,
we realize what a gift it is
to have our loved ones by our side.
So the guidance Abraham received was:
“Abraham,
celebrate at the breakfast table,
celebrate at the lunch table,
celebrate at the dinner table.”
Sharing with people we love
is a gift.
That is the supper.
That is the meaning of supper.
And what's God's proposal to Abraham?
He was called Abram.
In the Eastern culture,
every time a god called someone,
he made a pact.
And in that pact he changed
the name of the contractor.
So the god would come up like:
“Look, I want to make a pact with you.
I am the god of fertility.”
At the time of paganism, of polytheism.
So that god suggested
that the person who'd be his messenger
changed his name,
so that the word fertility
made part of the name of that person.
The name, in the Orient, is very important,
because it reflects the spiritual essence.
Changing names
means changing the course of your life.
It means that your life
changed its spiritual content.
Abraham was called Abram.
What does Abram mean? Abram!
But when God comes to him,
what does He say to Abraham?
“Abraham, I am a Father.
And from now on,
your name shall have the mark of the Father.
Abraham, Father of multitudes.
People will look at you, Abraham,
and what I want them to see
are the traces of fatherhood
so that they remember that I,
God and Creator, am a Father."
And what does a father do?
What does a father do at the time of Abraham?
A father,
he directs the supper table.
It’s the father who shares the bread,
it’s the father who calls everybody,
who gathers people together
for the communion at the table.
It’s as if the higher spirits
wanted to say to Abraham:
true religiosity is that of communion.
Of fraternity, of love,
of the true spiritual relationship.
It’s no temple of stone,
it’s no religious rule, it’s no code of law.
That is all secondary.
It's important, but not essential.
It’s an accessory to help us.
The most important is communion.
What does Abraham do? He follows the advice!
Every place he goes,
he sits at the table for a meal.
His son Isaac does that,
his grandson Jacob,
and they’ll all do.
They’ll all do!
That is such a strong symbol
that Jesus compares
the regeneration of the Earth
to a banquet.
The parable that Jesus tells
of the regeneration of the world
is a banquet of a wedding party.
So some are asking themselves:
why have Instituto SER and Meimei
organized a dinner at Madalosso?
It’s explained!
It’s because we want to share.
We want there to be, with the physical food,
the spiritual food of love,
of respect,
of affection,
of the true experience of Christianity,
which is loving our neighbor
as we love ourselves.
And Jesus compares
the regeneration of the world
to a meal.
And a solemn meal.
Because, in the parable,
one who was not properly dressed
was taken away.
Because it is not physical clothing,
it is the spiritual clothing,
made out of the threads of our thoughts,
our feelings and our actions.
All that we think, all that we feel,
and all that we do is a thread
that makes up our spiritual clothes,
our spiritual outfit.
Some of us are wearing…
faded-out, torn-out clothes…
We need to renew thoughts,
we need to renew feelings
and, above all, we need to renew habits.
So it is a meal in which people
are true and genuine.
For almost 500 years,
all the missionaries
of the First Revelation
were always having meals.
Only with the arrival of Moses
is that an ethical, moral code was received,
a sanctuary was instituted
and a cult was taught.
The outward aspects would only come later.
And it’s for that reason that,
at the most difficult moment
of Jesus’ mission on Earth,
He says:
“I am eager to eat this Passover with you.”
Now, do you think Jesus was really
longing to eat some lamb?
It was Friday,
almost 6pm,
when Passover starts,
from Friday 6pm to Saturday 6pm.
However, in the succession of events,
on that very day, He would be arrested.
On the next day, He would be dying
on the arms of the cross.
And nobody can say He did not know,
because at that supper,
which was the last one,
He said,
He revealed it would be the last,
that He was leaving.
So would Jesus be longing
for a piece of physical bread?
For a piece of lamb?
For some herbs?
No.
What Jesus wanted to convey to His disciples
was that His heart was longing
for spiritual communion.
He gathered the twelve
who were the closest ones.
What did He expect from them?
Comprehension of His mission.
Comprehension of the unexpected end of that mission.
Because they all imagined that,
since He had entered Jerusalem
with everybody throwing palm leaves,
everybody celebrating,
that He'd be a general, like a Roman general,
He would dominate and from then on
it would be political victory, economical victory,
victory in the eyes of the world.
And, however, He knew
that for the time being, for the time being,
all the victory in the world
represents fireworks,
in comparison to the true spiritual victories.
And the lesson would be tough.
Because Jesus would end His mission
with the cross.
So He expected the look of comprehension,
the involvement of friendship,
expected that vibration,
when you feel supported
at a difficult time of your life.
So He says:
“I am eager to eat this Passover with you.”
And André Luiz... no...
Humberto de Campos... I’m mixing the spirits up...
Humberto de Campos says,
poetically:
“Being together, the disciples,
in the company of Jesus,
on the first day of the Passover festivities...”
It lasted 7 days, right?
“... as He had done before,
as He had done before,
the Master broke the bread
with the usual tenderness."
There’s a meaning here!
Who breaks the bread? The patriarch!
Jesus played the part of a daddy, of a father.
He broke the bread.
As if He were… Not as if!
He actually was in the presence of spiritual sons
He was taking care of.
He breaks the bread.
But what’s most incredible,
in the Hebrew people tradition,
when you break bread,
it’s like birthday cake in Brazil.
The first piece is trouble.
You have to give it to someone
and those who don’t get it are jealous.
You say: "The first piece goes to..."
And it gets tense right away.
At Passover as well.
The patriarch breaks the bread,
and the first piece goes to someone
he wants to pay tribute to.
Someone he wants to point out.
At that supper, Jesus honored,
out of the twelve…
He wanted to give the first piece of cake
to pay tribute to a disciple,
a very dear apostle.
An apostle that should receive that distinction.
All of His affection.
Judas.
Judas was honored.
And before Jesus paid homage to him,
He told him he would be the traitor.
So it was a conscious gift.
It wasn’t fortuitous forgiveness.
It was foreseen and conscious forgiveness.
It was forgiveness given before being hurt.
Jesus forgave beforehand.
And only for that
He left a profound lesson
that was never given
by any philosopher of the world.
There was never any spirit on the Earth
that has given a lesson
that gets to the feet of that one.
Forgiveness before being offended
at supper.
“He broke the bread with the usual tenderness.
His gaze, however,
although it did not betray serenity at all times” -
Jesus did not lose serenity -,
“... showed a mysterious glow,
as if His soul, at that moment,
vibrated even more
with the high spheres of the invisible.”
So at that moment,
I imagine...
Emmanuel says, on “On the Way to the Light”,
that Jesus is member of a Community
of Christs of the Solar System.
So His friends, one is Christ of one planet,
the other of another constellation...
They’re quite... select friends, you know?
And here He was vibrating
with the high spheres of the invisible.
Imagine how many spiritual Christs
were at that supper!
What was the spiritual ambiance of that moment?
How many of His spiritual ministers were there,
at that moment?
And He was already in tune
with regions of the spiritual world
that we cannot even imagine!
So by now we begin to foresee
the purpose of the supper.
Jesus wanted to convey to the apostles
this spiritual environment.
What He wished to share was not bread,
wine, herbs, a lamb...
What He wanted to share
was this communion with the divine spheres.
He wanted to connect
the heart of the apostles
to the spheres of the spiritual governorship
of the planet.
And then He says:
"Beloved, the time has come
for the prophecy of the Scripture to be fulfilled."
"Humiliated and wounded..." -
humiliated and wounded -
"...I shall have to teach in Jerusalem
the need for self-sacrifice,
so that not only one kind of victory triumphs,
a kind of victory as fleeting
as the edifications of human selfishness or pride.
At that moment, Jesus distinguished victory.
If He had been received
like a general, like a politician,
if He hadn’t been crucified,
it would have been victory,
but what kind of victory?
In a world corrupted by meanness,
by selfishness, by pride,
what victory would that be?
A passing victory.
So He preferred to teach
another kind of victory,
the spiritual victory,
that which cannot be measured
by physical indicators.
Not always can it be seen.
Not always can it be appreciated
through the criteria of the world.
And for that same reason
it would be a permanent victory
because today
any incarnate who suffers
knows that Jesus suffered.
And that, therefore, He is a brother
who shares with us
because He's been through the things
we are going through.
His suffering was archetypical.
Jesus’ suffering
synthetized human suffering,
all kinds of human pains:
being betrayed, being abandoned,
being misunderstood, being beaten,
being insulted, being humiliated,
losing, having to wait…
He, spiritual governor of the globe!
The spirit who rules planet Earth,
at that moment, abdicated from ruling.
And surrendered.
He didn’t rule, He let himself be ruled.
Great lesson,
because we want to work for Christ,
but we want to always be in command.
We say we want help from spirit friends,
but we're not willing to let our spirit friends
change the course of our decisions.
I want to go through that door, but they say:
"Mustn’t go this way, must go that way."
In my prayers I say:
“Spirit friends, guide me,
but always to where I want to go.”
That’s not guiding.
Many times,
being guided by the higher spirits
is difficult.
It’s challenging, it’s challenging.
Jesus summed it up in one sentence,
one sentence that was said to Simon Peter.
He said to Simon Peter:
“Believe me, I will take you
where you do not wish to go.”
Where you do not wish to go.
And Simon Peter learned that
with great difficulty.
Walking through a road you do not want to.
Suffering insults you don’t want to suffer.
Suffering injustice you don’t want to suffer.
Being abandoned by friends
that you’d wish by your side.
Being misunderstood by your brothers at work!
And even so,
knowing that is the way
the higher world has traced for your feet,
that is the supreme challenge
of the incarnate.
The supreme challenge,
that Jesus exemplified in a sublime manner,
sublime because he let divine goodness
guide His feet.
Of course Jesus wished
His Gospel would triumph immediately,
that it was accepted by everyone,
and He worked for that.
All He did was for an effective
and efficient victory.
However, He,
the spiritual governor of the globe,
has waited for 2.000 years.
And sometimes we're not patient enough
to wait for two, three years.
We want our will to be done now.
Right away! Now!
However, we need the wisdom to trust
that at the right moment
God will manifest Himself on our regard.
That was a grand lesson.
He also says:
“Men have applauded, at all times,
the golden tribunes,
the resonant march of armies
that glorify themselves with bloody plunder,
and the great ambitious men
who dominated by force
the uneasy spirit of the crowds.
However, I came from my Father
to teach how they triumph,
those who tumble in the world.
In the book “Two Thousand Years Ago”,
while senator Publius Lentulus is called
by the Roman Emperor to be paid an honor,
his wife Lívia was sacrificed in the circus.
When he discarnates,
in a condition of spiritual misery,
it is Lívia, radiant,
who comes to welcome him.
So I ask: who won?
The senator? Or the housewife?
What was the biggest triumph?
The triumph of the world
or the spiritual triumph?
In “The Gospel According to Spiritism",
chapter "My Kingdom is Not of This World”,
there's a spiritual message from a queen,
the Queen of France.
She says: “I was a queen in this world.”
And begins to share with us
the anguish of arriving at the spiritual world
and getting to know true royalty,
true royalty.
Because, when you get to the spiritual world,
after we discarnate, we realize
how relative our importance is.
We were talking to Julio yesterday,
and he was telling me,
we're going through such a nostalgic time
in the Brazilian Academy of Letters...
They're founding one in the spiritual realm,
leaving the material Academy empty.
So Ariano Suassuna went away...
Everybody’s going... away.
So you imagine: a writer, a great writer
from the Northeast, like Ariano Suassuna,
gets to the spiritual world.
And when he gets there, who does he meet?
Humberto de Campos, Machado de Assis, Olavo Bilac...
He says: "My God, I thought I was important!"
You think you play soccer very well,
you get there and meet Garrincha,
the great players of the past…
You realize how relative your importance is.
Better yet,
discarnating places us
in the lucidity of our insignificance.
The more we have done,
there we’ll find a phalanx of spirits
who, as a whole, did much more than us.
That’s the spiritual triumph,
it’s not a physical triumph.
"My victory is of those who know
to be defeated among men,
in order to triumph with God
in the divine construction of His works,
sacrificing themselves with joy
for the glory of a higher life…”
Because God will regenerate the world,
not us.
God is the one in command,
He’s the one who moves workers around,
He’s the one who gives time,
who performs,
we just contribute.
However, many times, as incarnates,
we feel like we own the work of Jesus!
And here I mention the apostle Judas.
Because many think that Judas’ treason
was a cheap treason.
Judas’ treason is a complex treason,
I cannot go into detail
because it’s chapter 24, to be recorded.
But what was Judas’ treason?
Judas didn't want to push Jesus away,
says Humberto de Campos, and that's clear,
he loved Jesus very deeply.
Loved Him very much.
Only he thought Jesus was slow.
Too peaceful, too understanding.
And I identify myself with Judas a bit.
Because, sometimes,
my wife catches me complaining of Jesus.
And I say:
“My, I think Jesus is slow.
This time He is slow,
it’s so difficult to make this happen!”
And what happens?
We begin to create human strategies
to do that
which will be done by the divine strategy.
What was Judas’ problem?
Excess of human strategy!
Or as Divaldo said
in one of his beautiful lectures,
he says Joanna de Ângelis told him that.
He told me this:
“There are many workers
going to hell by way of the sky.”
I was silent,
crickets began to chirp, I didn’t get it.
“Divaldo, I didn’t get it.”
“My son, the path is right.
The task is right,
but the way we are doing the work
is infernal!”
It’s not enough to be at the right place,
with the right task,
it’s necessary that our working strategy
is also in tune with the higher world.
Or you complicate your incarnation doing good,
doing good, because you think...
That’s what happened to Judas.
What was Judas’ plan? He thought:
“I’ll make a deal,
we’ll keep Jesus in prison for a while,
we'll feed Him, we'll treat Him well,
with all affection, but He’ll be in prison.
I take charge,
I do the part that... let's say...
Jesus doesn’t have the heart to do,
the violent part, the killing,
the conquering, the combatting...
When it's all conquered,
we put Jesus back in charge,
because He is the commander.”
Haven't we been doing that for 2.000 years?
The Crusades, the Inquisition...
All at Jesus’ service!
Under the pretext that we were helping
to implement the Gospel in the world.
What happened to Judas?
He didn’t realize that,
in his excess of human strategy,
he was a puppet
in the hands of darkness.
So he did his share,
he handed Jesus over,
Jesus was arrested...
And he asked to be in charge,
but the Pharisees said:
“We’ll not keep our end of the deal.
We do not want your plan,
we want to kill your Master.”
So he felt betrayed,
he felt cheated,
the word given to him was not kept,
and he became the traitor,
the pivot of a mistake.
Why?
He couldn’t wait for God to manifest Himself,
he wanted to speak above God.
And that's what Jesus had to tell him:
“Do not be disturbed by my assertions,
because, in truth, one of you will betray me.
The hands I caressed now turn against me,
however, my soul..." -
that's Jesus saying, -
"my soul is ready
for my Father’s will to be done."
My God, what a grand lesson!
“I will be betrayed, but my soul
is ready to do God’s will,
my Father’s will.”
At that moment, everybody grew pale,
and began to ask: “Is it me?"
Judas was quiet.
But he didn’t give up his strategy.
He didn’t step back.
He could have stopped there,
he could have broken the deal.
However, he didn’t step back,
and see what will happen.
John the Evangelist comes to Jesus
with his usual tenderness:
“No, Master, we understand…”
That love...
And then Jesus starts
a more private conversation with John,
and says to the disciples
that, despite apparent defeat,
there would be victory,
the Kingdom would be implanted on Earth.
He just didn’t say when.
He didn’t say when
because nobody gives such news at dinner:
“It’ll happen, but it’ll take 2.000 years.”
Everybody would lose their appetite.
He said it would take long,
but it would happen.
When Jesus gives the news
that there would be spiritual victory,
the Kingdom would be implanted,
the apostles forget all He'd said before,
and begin to argue who among them
would be the greatest
when the Kingdom was implanted.
Now, imagine
how easy it is for a discarnate
to be distracted...
Jesus was saying
He’d go through all the trouble,
and they argue who’d be the greatest.
Jesus is having a conversation with John
when He hears: "Who’ll be the greatest?"
"Who'll be the greatest?"
Jesus interrupts the conversation
with John the Evangelist,
and does something incredibly strong.
Incredibly strong.
Humberto de Campos is descriptive in the scene,
I hadn’t paid attention
to the details he describes.
He says Jesus takes off His tunic,
takes off His simple tunic,
wraps it around His kidneys,
this area of the hips,
wraps it with cloth...
Imagine, so He’s exposed!
Wraps himself with cloth.
At that moment, if you’re a citizen
of Jerusalem at the time of Christ,
you won’t find it hard to understand
that Jesus dressed Himself as a slave.
It was how slaves were dressed.
But an explanation is in order.
We’ve seen the movie "12 Years a Slave",
we’ve studied slavery in Brazil,
we admire the work of Castro Alves...
But slavery at the time of Jesus
is very different
from the slavery of populations,
of those African tribes, very different,
and from other kinds of slavery.
In Ancient Times,
if you had a debt and didn’t pay it,
you and your family
became enslaved to the creditor.
So what happened?
It was very common for families
to have in their homes
slaves that were illustrious Greek professors!
The man was a professor in Greece,
a man of great culture, vastly learned,
but couldn't pay off a debt.
He and all his family became
enslaved to the creditor!
And what did families do?
With such a noble family of slaves,
they reserved for those slaves
the intimate domestic service.
So it was that slave
who helped the kids with homework,
every mother’s dream,
a Greek philosopher
doing homework with the children
is the dream of every mother, right?
They waited on tables,
they carried shopping bags...
I see a gleam in the women's eyes.
They talked...
They were refined people,
of higher education.
At that moment, what did Jesus do?
He dressed Himself as a slave
who waits on tables.
When the apostles looked at Jesus,
they were startled, startled…
because, hours before,
Jesus had come into town riding a donkey,
and the people of Jerusalem hailed Jesus!
Well, the whole prophecy said:
only the Messiah would enter Jerusalem
riding a donkey!
The most important figure of the prophecy.
Hours earlier,
Jesus entered Jerusalem as the Messiah.
A few hours later, He dresses Himself as a slave.
Imagine the apostles’ perplexity
when they looked at Jesus.
They were shocked! And more:
it was even more serious
because, at that supper,
Jesus broke the bread, like a patriarch.
So, in their heads, nothing made sense.
Jesus rode into town as the Messiah,
broke the bread as a patriarch
and was now dressed as a slave?
It didn’t make sense!
But Jesus was willing
to leave them even more perplexed.
Dressed as a domestic slave,
He takes a bowl of water
and begins to wash
the feet of the apostles
who were arguing which one was the greatest.
You know those moments
when we want to be an ostrich,
bury our head on the ground
and stay there for two days, embarrassed?
You are fighting over who is the best,
then the Master dresses as a slave,
and starts to wash your feet?
They were...
Humberto de Campos describes...
...the perplexity:
“The feelings of strangeness
remained in all of those assembled there.”
Strangeness.
"Jesus, then, rose
and offering each companion
a piece of bread, exclaimed:
'Take this and eat! This is my body.'
Then, serving everyone
from a jar of wine, he added:
'Drink, for this is my blood,
in the new testament,
confirming God’s truths.'"
Then He'll explain the symbols.
"'Beloved' - said Jesus, with emotion..."
He was emotional!
"'...it is very close
the last moment of our work together
and I wish to repeat
my recommendations of love,
made since the first day
of the apostolate.
This bread means
the banquet of the Gospel.'"
Because bread, in the tradition,
is God’s revelation.
Remember the manna from Heaven?
"Man does not live on bread only..."
It's the spiritual nourishment.
The bread is the Gospel, we are nourished!
Like Daniel said it so well here,
we leave here with our soul nourished,
because the Gospel has entered.
Not only knowledge,
but spiritual vibration, it touches us...
It’s nourishment, we feel nourished.
“This wine is the sign
of the renewing spirit of my teachings.”
Why? In the Jewish tradition,
wine is the divine revelation.
So, in the Jewish tradition,
we could say we had 3 wines -
the wine of the First Revelation,
the wine of the Second
and the wine of Third, Spiritism.
In all Scriptures of the Jewish tradition,
wine is a synonym
for the higher spirits’ guidance,
that’s why Jesus said: “I am the true vine.”
And when He talks
of regenerating the world,
He says “the workers of the vineyard".
Of the vineyard.
We are the workers of the vineyard,
of the revelation.
It’s a deep symbology.
But the perplexity here... is that...
Jesus was washing feet,
dressed as a slave, at the final moment?
They were so perplexed
that Simon Peter, the eldest, said:
"You will not wash my feet, that's absurd!”
Simon Peter felt offended!
"No, that can’t be."
And Jesus calls his attention:
"Simon Peter, don’t feel superior
to your fellow apostles."
If I don’t wash your feet,
you have nothing to do with me.”
Why?
In the Gospel ethics,
he who serves the most
is the most important.
Something happened today...
I won’t say the names,
because of lawsuit secrecy.
There were two enchanting women
kneeling at my feet,
sewing the hem of my suit.
My friend Jean passed by and said:
“How about that?
Two women kneeling at your feet!”
Then I thought: “My God, I’m the smallest!”
He who serves is the greatest.
He who serves is the greatest!
I was the smallest there.
That’s the logic.
In the Gospel of Christ,
the greatest serves the most.
Why? Who serves the most
in the universe?
God.
Does anyone work more than God?
We were created,
God is eternal, He was not created.
He has worked infinitely longer
than any one of us.
He supports the entire universe!
Who works more than God?
He serves the most!
The greatest serves the most.
That’s what Jesus wanted to say.
It’s an honor to serve,
it’s an honor to serve.
Being served is a gift,
it’s a treat from God.
We take it as a gift, but it’s a treat,
not because you're important,
because you're receiving something.
The giver is the important one.
And James, son of Alphaeus, says out loud:
“Where is God,
that He won't remove that danger?”
He was angry at God,
and that happens a lot to us.
Then Jesus was firm with him:
“James, silence the voice
of your little confidence
in the wisdom that rules our destinies.
One of the greatest virtues
of the disciple of the Gospel
is to always be ready
for the calling of the Divine Providence.
No matter where and how
is the testimony of our faith.
It’s essential that we reveal
our union with God,
in all circumstances.
It’s indispensable not to forget
our condition as God’s servants,
so that we answer His calling properly,
in hours of tranquility
or in hours of suffering.”
And He ends up by saying:
“Listen, John, the designs of God,
if they’re unfathomable,
they’re also invariably just and wise."
And he leaves, after supper,
towards His supreme martyrdom.
What’s certain is that,
after the perplexity of the crucifixion,
it seems that a shadow
invades the heart of all the apostles,
as it invades ours
when you have a project,
and everything goes wrong,
everything takes too long...
It’s like a shadow.
You say: “My God, what shall I do?"
They were in that state.
And two of them were going to Emmaus,
feeling very sad...
Then a pilgrim comes along...
The pilgrim asks: “Why are you sad?”
They say: “Don’t you know happened?
They’ve crucified our Master.”
And they tell the story to the pilgrim.
And the pilgrim starts to give a speech,
explaining the Scripture,
the verses, the tradition,
that it had to happen,
that it wasn’t a failure,
that it was a spiritual victory,
it was foreseen,
nobody was caught by surprise...
The spiritual world was prepared for it.
So he explains, quotes the texts...
And they feel spiritual comfort.
Comfort.
But notice how interesting,
they didn’t recognize the pilgrim,
which shows us that the speech,
the spoken part,
is a small percentage.
The greatest part of the work is exemplification,
not speech. Speech is important,
because, if the pilgrim hadn’t talked to them,
there'd be no comfort.
So when we go see a spiritist lecture,
what are we looking for?
Enlightenment and consolation.
It’s important, very important.
But it’s not the main thing.
The main thing is exemplification,
it’s communion,
it’s the opportunity to join hearts,
exchange feelings,
exchange joy, hopes,
strengthen our heart in our work,
that’s what’s important.
And when they get close to their destination,
an inn, it was getting dark...
Those words were so delightful,
the pilgrim talk was so affectionate,
so delightful...
In Minas Gerais we call it...
that nice chat...
a heart-to-heart...
And then they call the pilgrim
to stay at the inn with them.
And what happens?
It gets dark, it’s the moment for supper.
It’s the moment for supper,
which is coming, okay, folks? Don’t worry.
It’s coming.
So they wash the feet,
recline at the table,
like the one that was here, for the play.
They recline.
All of a sudden, the unexpected happens:
the pilgrim gets the bread,
breaks it and begins to give
a piece to each disciple.
Then they realized.
“Master, it’s you!”
Because that’s the mark of Jesus.
“Where two or more united in my name,
I shall be among them.”
So that’s why I can say for sure,
and if I could I would shout it,
that He is here right now!
Among us. Why?
Because we are united in His name,
our hearts are fond of the Gospel,
we’re seeking to contribute
to a work of the good,
which will help hundreds of creatures.
We are here exchanging hopes,
emotions, feelings,
consoling one another,
enlightening one another,
exchanging experiences...
So He is among us, together with us.
He is walking around the tables.
And at that moment He gets emotional, why?
Why? I wonder...
I would like to end our reflection tonight
with this question:
The pilgrim talked and spoke for hours,
didn’t they recognize Jesus’ voice?
No, what impressed the apostles the most,
what marked the presence of Jesus among them
was the fact that Jesus had,
at all times,
sat at the table with them
and shared the bread.
The most important thing in the Gospel
is when we meet and share.
Nobody greater than nobody,
there’s only one Master,
we are all servants, His pupils,
and we are united
so that He shares the bread once more
and hands a piece to each one sitting here.
That bread is the bread of the Gospel.
And the bread of the Gospel,
says Chico Xavier, quote:
“If I had any authority,
if I were someone important,
if in my hands lied any power of the world,
I would ask to be put on a big billboard..."
For the Brazilian soccer team,
on the day of the game,
not the 7 goals one, the one before.
"A big billboard like this:
'Love one another as I have loved you.'"
And Chico goes on:
"Because this lesson has surpassed",
says Chico,
"the lesson to love our neighbors
as we love ourselves."
"Love one another as I have loved you",
because Jesus’ love is unconditional.
Love that does not expect reward,
love that understands beforehand,
that forgives beforehand,
that waits,
that suffers it all, believes it all...
It’s the great message He left.
Thank you very much for your presence,
I wish that on your plate,
with the physical food,
Jesus places the spiritual bread of love.
You are deeply loved,
you are very important to all of us,
thank you for your presence here.
May Jesus sit for a while
at your table and break your bread.
Thank you very much, so be it.