Jesus: guide and model

 Jesus: guide and model

 

Marco Milani

 

Text published in the Spiritist Leader Magazine, ed. 198, Nov/Dec 2023, p. 17-18

 

In question 625 of The Spirits' Book, Jesus is indicated as the most perfect type that man can have as a guide and moral model on Earth. This indication was not the result of an opinion but arises from the universal agreement of the Spirits' teachings, characterizing Jesus as the one who expressed the divine laws with the greatest purity.

At no time was man devoid of access to the knowledge of these laws since they are in Nature, but the effective understanding of reality depends on the evolutionary process of the being.

Before Jesus, different individuals proposed to reveal the truth according to the interests and cultural limitations inherent to each one. A common mistake was to confuse the laws that govern the life of the soul with those that govern the life of the body or to consider as divine what was nothing more than a transient human law to serve passions and domination.

Even though Jesus brought the purest explanations and guidance aligned with natural laws while incarnated, he often taught through parables and allegories, respecting the cognitive capacity of the people of his time. He also emphasized that he did not intend to teach everything, which is why he announced the coming of the Comforter for that purpose, in addition to reminding of his teachings that would be forgotten or misinterpreted.

Fulfilling this role, Spiritism expands the understanding of reality directly, without symbolism and without exclusive messages to a small group of initiates, shedding light where the darkness of ignorance and superstition prevented the understanding of the nature, origin, and destiny of Spirits, as well as their relationships with the corporeal world.

By signaling Christian morality as an integral part of its own doctrinal principles and values, Spiritism thus expresses the Good News in its essence, interpreted and explained directly by the Spirits, but not limited to the historical records attributed to Jesus. The moral consequences that Spiritism points out in view of the current knowledge of the reality of being and universal relations are more objective and comprehensive, typical of the progressive process of human knowledge. It is inappropriate, therefore, to treat Spiritist doctrine and Christian moral essence as separate elements, since the latter is already considered in the theoretical body of Spiritism.

The examples and teachings of Jesus permeate all the basic works of Spiritism, not being confined to one book or another. Certainly, there is a greater number of citations about him in the work that develops his moral teachings. In The Gospel According to Spiritism, there are 274 mentions of Jesus in the text elaborated by Allan Kardec. The second book, with almost as many citations, is The Genesis, with 261. Following with a lower concentration of mentions are: The Spirits' Book (44), Heaven and Hell (36), and The Mediums' Book (20).

Since Jesus and superior Spirits participated in the structuring of Spiritism, Christian morality remained in development, and new clarifications were provided about spiritual reality.

Kardec's method to legitimize the teachings of the Spirits through universality is what guarantees the internal consistency of the Spiritist theoretical body.

To assume Jesus as a guide and model, one must understand and practice doctrinal teaching, achieving moral and intellectual improvement. As the Spirit of Truth has already affirmed: Spiritists, love one another and instruct yourselves.

 

Source:https://usesp.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/reDE-198-novembro-dezembro-2023.pdf