THE COMING OF THE PARACLETE

In the 16th century, during the Age of Reason – of anthropocentrism – the materialistic rhetoric gains momentum due to the social, political, economical and religious transformations that were occurring in Europe. Faith extinguished itself in its own source; the religious ideal disappeared. In that scenario, the only concrete reality is matter in motion, to which, given its richness, can produce some surprising effects, which are called psychic or mental ones. Strictly speaking, the current Christianity - accepted by most people – did not have appropriate answers for the problems of civilization.

Nowadays, after two millennia of historical ebullition, of the man's painful maturing, of criminal deformations of the Christian message, would it be possible to re-establish the fundamental teachings in their primitive purity, after all? In The Gospel According to Spiritism , Kardec and the Superior Spirits reveal that Spiritism is "Jesus' Promised Consoler", "The Spirit of Truth", the "Paraclete", according to John's Gospel. "If you love me, follow my commandments; and I will ask my Father and he will send you another Consoler, to be with you forever: - The Spirit of Truth, that the world cannot receive, because does not see it and does not know it at all. But as of you, you will know it, because it will be with you and it will be in you. - However, the Consoler, that is the Holy Ghost, that my Father will send in my name, will teach you all of the things and will make you remember everything that I have said" .. ( 1)

If, however, the Sprit of Truth should come later to teach all things is because Christ had not taught everything at that time. If it would come to remind us of what Christ had said, it is because we would have forgotten or misinterpreted it. In line with his assertion, His teachings were incomplete, for he announced the coming of that which should complete them. This way, if Christ could not fully develop his teachings, it is because men lacked knowledge that could not be acquired except with time, and without which they could not understand it; some things might seem contradictory in their current state of effective knowledge, then.

Kardec also reminds us that Spiritism comes at the right time to fulfill Christ's promise: the Spirit of Truth presides over its establishment, reminding men the observance of the law; teaching all things, making them understand what Christ had said through parables. Christ said: "Hear those who have ears to hear"; Spiritism comes to open eyes and ears, because it does not use images or allegories; it lifts the veil intentionally left over certain mysteries; it finally comes to bring a supreme consolation to Earth's disinherited and to all those who suffer, giving a fair cause and a useful purpose to all their pains. Spiritism gives them an unshaken faith in the future, and the painful doubt no longer lingers on their souls; making them see things from above, the importance of the terrestrial suffering is lost in the vastness and in the splendid horizon that involves them, and the perspective of happiness that waits for them gives them patience, resignation, and courage to go all the way in the road. ( 2)

Some brethren say that many are the comforting doctrines. Why would on Spiritism be the Consoler? We ask: do other doctrines offer humanity the tools [reincarnation, exchange with the unbodied, plurality of inhabited worlds, etc] that Spiritism does? Certainly not! Especially because the Spiritis Doctrine is not a group of ideas, dictated by one thinker or by any group. It is the manifestation of the Spirit of Truth, which was done using the system of universality, precisely as not to allow personal opinions or the opinions of groups to endanger the future of the liberating message.

The Third Revelation [or the Promised Consoler] is based on the opinion of a group of intelligences [Spirits], that have manifested themselves to more than a thousand spiritualistic groups all over the world, at that time of the Codification. (3) Those intelligences established the moral and philosophical principles of the Spiritualistic Doctrine, which can not be changed by the will of this or that disagreeing thinker.

That is why it is a Revelation, and not a common Doctrine that comes to be modified or interpreted, like the human philosophies of all times. Or else, let us see, The Book of the Spirits is considered for many scholars the most advance work in Philosophy to date, dealing with matters that refer to all fields of knowledge: God, the soul, man and his immortality, divine justice, reincarnation, the plurality of inhabited worlds, etc. With it starts the "age of the Spirit and mediated Faith", no longer a blind faith! Spirit Bezerra de Menezes said: "The Book of the Spirits, if carefully, long and systematically studied, for a hundred years, will not be totally tapered into." (4)

Contemporary Christians say that communication with the spirits is not possible, for it was forbidden by Moses (5), therefore those would be demons (6) trying to deceive men. Yet, why could only bad spirits communicate with us? Wouldn't the good spirits be entitled to do so? And what about the so-called angels, who revealed the prophecies, wouldn't they perhaps be spirits, too?

On the other hand, Jesus also said: "one has to be born again". (7) (my highlight) Admitting that God is infinitely Good and Fair, why would there be so many children with innate handicaps? "Because of their parents' sins", they will say. But would it fair for God "to punish" an innocent child because of his/her parents' mistakes? Recognizing that in the Statutes of God there is no room for injustice, we can only conclude that such children are not as innocent as one might suppose, because they certainly erred a lot in their previous existence.

Besides, we do think of those tragedies as punishment, but rather as a correction opportunity for the individual's own future benefit.

And what about the extraordinary exceptionally gifted or little genius children? Either we have to admit a picky Creator, that privileged those souls, or forcibly these much-above-the-average intelligences are the result of the vast stock of accumulated knowledge from past lives, manifesting early in childhood the talent they bring from the past.

Also in the spiritualistic hordes there are those who want separate the scientific, philosophical and religious aspects of the Doctrine, and Chico Xavier, commenting on that, remembered that " The Spiritualistic Doctrine is science, philosophy and religion. If we take out the religion, what is left? (...) we have a body without a soul, if we take out the science, we have a headless body, and if we take out the philosophy, we have a limbless body .(8)

Thus, let us not forget that the Consoler takes up three aspects: The Scientific one, the Philosophical one, and the Religious one. As science it demonstrates through logic and experimentation. As philosophy it operates the work of the reason in the search of knowledge and wisdom. As religion it elucidates and clarifies, aiming at elevating the souls, connecting people to one another and to God, building and illuminating the feelings, promoting the inner change.

What we tried to demonstrate here, generally speaking, is that the Doctrine of the Spirits is the Third Revelation, as a complement of the two previous ones, because if the First, with Moses, brought the notion of Justice to the barbarism and the Second, with Jesus Christ, brought the notion of the High Love to a still simple people, it came to bring men the comforting notion of the Duty, as promised by the Master when he said: "Many things I still have to tell you, but you cannot stand them now But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost (10), that the Father will send in my behalf, will teach you all things, and will remind you of everything that I have said . (11)

Jorge Hessen

E-Mail: jorgehessen@gmail.com

Site: http://jorgehessen.net

SOURCES:

1- John, chap. XIV, vv. 15:16: 17:26

2- Kardec, Allan. O Evangelho Segundo o Espiritismo (The Gospel According to Spiritism), RJ: Ed FEB, 1999, Chap. VI.

3 - Could it be that only one man could formulate all the scientific and philosophical concepts of the Spiritualistic Doctrine?, However notable was Kardec's genius, we do not believe that would be possible. In reality the High Spirits took the New Revelation from one pole to the other, manifesting it all over the world, without granting anybody the exclusive privilege of hearing their words. It is in this universality of the doctrinaire precepts that lies the inexpugnable force of the Spiritism and also the cause of its extremely fast propagation.

4- Reformador from January, 1974, page 30, ed. FEB

5 – The Deuteronomy says: There shall not be found among you [any one] that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, [or] that useth divination, [or] an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things [are] an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee. (Chap. 18: 10, 11 and 12.)".

6 - The word" Satan", means opponent in Greek. Diabolos, means opponent in Latin. The word demon (daimon), in its Greek etymology, means human spirits or souls, later being understood as evil spirits. So much that some authors at the dawn of Christianity used the expression "evil demons", and one of them was Saint Justin, martyred in 165 A.D., who wrote "Apology of the Christian Religion."

7- John, chap. 3:1-12.

8 – "Interviews with Chico Xavier", available in access on 03/27/2005

9- John, chap, 16:12.

10 – When Jesus prophesied about the coming of the Consoler, he referred to the Good Spirit; he did not use the expression Holy Ghost at all, which was a certainly a change in translations. Nowadays we know that the expression Holy Ghost symbolizes the Spirits that work for God and back then evolved Jesus' disciples, at the party of Pentecostes, provoking the appearance of the mediunic talent, allowing them to speak in different languages to the foreigners of the place (xenoglossy)

11- John, chap, 14:25.