Momento Espírita
Curitiba, 28 de Março de 2024
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It is said that some time in the last century an American tourist went to Cairo, in Egypt, to visit a famous rabbi. When he finally got to the man's house, the American was quite surprised. He saw that the rabbi lived in a very simple room, crammed with books and the only furniture to be seen in the room was a table and a bench.

Where's your furniture? Asked the tourist.

The rabbi replied quickly: Where's yours?

Mine? Said the tourist. But I'm only passing by.

 So am I. Stated the rabbi.

*   *   *

Life on Earth is only a passage. Nevertheless, we live as we would stay here forever. Our biggest worry is to accumulate things. We must have a house in the city, another one at the beach, in the countryside, abroad.

We must have cars of different colours, different types and power, for different occasions; as well as numberless pieces of clothing, dozens of shoes, buildings, land, jewellery. That's what matters. The more you have, the more you want.

It is fair for a man to long for a comfortable house, clothes according to the season and enough food to feed his family. All these things are part of the material world. We need them to have a secure and dignified life.

However, why do we need to keep so many things, spending a lot of our time working continuously, without caring about our spiritual lives?

We say we do not have time to pray, to read or to learn about the spiritual world. We do not have time to try to understand why we were born and why we are here.

Our main issues are our professional lives; we worry about how to be successful and how to earn more money.  This trend of thought is so strong in our society that when our children ask for help to decide what profession they should follow, we usually suggest that they choose a job that will give them economical stability, and not the one they would enjoy themselves at. The one that will allow them to make more money most quickly.

We worry about their grades at school, how good they are at sports and arts. That's fine! But what about the spirit? When will we have time to talk to them about God, about the soul, talk of Jesus, of love?

When will we have time to visit a religious place ourselves and maybe gather spiritual treasures, developing the virtues inside us?

We can live in comfort but we must do it in a wise way. We should also cultivate spiritual matters, preparing ourselves for the afterlife.

*   *   *

        Spiritual life is the true life. Life on Earth is brief and its objective is spiritual progress. Our passage on Earth is like that of the person who arrives from a distant place, stops at any station, remains there for a good while and later on takes the conveyance back to the place where he or she came from.

      That is how our forward and back trips from the "spiritual motherland" to Earth are.

This is the reason why Jesus told the man that filled his cellars and prepared himself to make the most of it alone: fool. Tonight still, death will come to take your soul.

Spiritist Moment Team, based on Stories of the soul, stories
 of the heart, by Christina Feldman e Jack Kornfield,
publishing house Pioneira.
March 30.2010.

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