Humberto Werdine

Refugees: hope and strength hanging by a thread

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed
me as a guest. (Mathew 25:35).

The situation of refugees here in Europe is calamitous, filled with prejudices and intolerable xenophobia. We see almost daily, both on television and in the newspapers, the terrible images of hundreds of people who every day risk their lives to cross the sea in flimsy rafts. Entire families are seeking salvation in Europe. Others come on foot after crossing several countries to find walls and barbed wire fences just recently built to prevent them from entering Europe. I have heard comments from several people, including spiritists, justifying these measures, such as: "If there are not enough jobs here in Europe for all Europeans, why accept more people who will also be unemployed and further overburden the hospitals and the social security institutions?

Others argue based on religious and racial bias, especially when refugees are Muslim. Some say that violence will increase, that terrorist attacks will be frequent. This works to further reinforce a climate of xenophobia and fear that, unfortunately, leads to the seeds of racial and religious hatred being dispersed. A question then comes to mind: Why are these people risking their lives and those of their youngest children? They come full of fear, hunger, thirst and cold, crossing the sea on these unsuitable boats, with the real possibility of death. What desperation drives them to make such drastic decision?

And the answer is clear: to escape from certain death by war and starvation; to have the chance of a better life for their children. Let us really understand this: these refugees are gambling the certainty of death for a chance at survival.  What if it was us, or our children, that were the ones being threatened? Wouldn’t we do the same? Recently, a friend told me a real story.

Over a conversation at dinner, a young father, about 35 years old, commented on the situation of the refugees with his wife. His ten-year-old son was listening (children hear everything, even when we think they are in their world). The father was unemployed and looking for work, told his wife how absurd he thought the government was to accept these refugees, as there was no work for the country's own citizens. As such, the refugees should stay on their own countries, with their own problems. The woman nodded her head in agreement. And then suddenly, his 10 year old son said: "Daddy, if we had bombs falling on our house would you rather we die?"

Wouldn’t  you try to run away to save mommy and my little sister? The father, frightened and surprised at the intervention of his little son, looked at his wife and his newborn daughter. Then he looked at his son and with tears in his eyes, said: "Of course, my son. ... I would do anything to save you”. And he got up from the table to so not let his son or his wife see him cry (we men do not like to show our emotions openly ...).

No one in their right mind likes change. We all seek stability, be it in our home, our family, our work, etc. Now imagine war. Everything changes in war. There is no stability. The need for survival speaks louder than anything else. No one leaves his or her country if there is no compelling, urgent and emergency reason. The certainty of death by the bombs or living in degrading conditions are more than valid reasons.

Refugees seek survival first, then they seek to regain their dignity in another country, with a different language, a different religion, and whose citizens are afraid of them. And unfortunately, when they hit European soil, after often leaving dead companions at sea, they find barbed wire fences, walls, flimsy tents to house them, soldiers armed to the teeth, facing them as if they were criminals. Where is the human dignity, where is the charity? How hard are such trials!

But this is the reality and there is no way to run away  from it. We, spiritists, have to evaluate  how we approach our feelings of solidarity, understanding and tolerance; what thoughts do we throw into space when the topic of the refugee crisis cuts us to the soul? Are these thoughts made up of prejudice, this direct son of selfishness and pride? At this crossroads, we must remember the words of Jesus: "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me as a guest. And even in the Old Testament, the Torah, the sacred book of the Jews that Jesus taught and preached, there are several passages about the treatment of strangers. In Genesis 25: 9 it is said, "Do not be hard on the man from a strange country who is living among you; for you have had experience of the feelings of one who is far from the land of his birth, because you yourselves were living in Egypt, in a strange land." Another important passage is in Job 31.32: "the traveller did not take his night's rest in the street, and my doors were open to anyone on a journey.”

We are in times of great changes. The planetary transition of our planet to the category of planet of regeneration, is already occurring; high evolved spirits of Emmanuel's standing are already reincarnated and others, like Joanna de Angelis, are preparing their reincarnations. However, there are many spiritists who doubt this statement, justifying their arguments, especially with the emergence of the terrorist group DAESH (Islamic State) and its beheadings and mutilations shown on social networks shamelessly as well as on television news and the first pages of newspapers. These things, they emphasize, show that the world is not changing for the better. 

It is very important to note that these hardened spirits are having their last opportunities here on the planet, and many are failing since they are responsible for these crimes against humanity. This is how the Spirit of Truth told us in chapter XX of the Gospel according to the Spiritism, on the parable of the workers of the last hour, "But woe to those who, as a result of their dissensions, have held back the time of the harvest, because the tempest will come and they will be taken away in the turbulence”. 

In fact these spirits will no longer reincarnate here on our planet, and will be replaced by morally better spirits. Let us remember Kardec, in Genesis cap. XVIII item 20: "This  generation which will disappear will carry with it its errors and prejudices; the generation which is being educated has drunk at a purer spring is imbued with healthier ideas, will impress in the world an ascensional movement by way of moral progress which must mark the new phase  of the humanity”.

The refugees are largely the direct consequence of wars between different Muslim factions that dispute power in the region, and are the "neighbour" to whom Jesus refers in his parable of the good samaritan. Those responsible for the war fall into the category of scandal-seekers and offenders, whom Jesus referred to when he said in one of his parables described in Matthew 18, verse 7: " Woe to the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh!

We spiritists, who are aware of these truths, should pray that our politicians and rulers may, while they sleep, be inspired in their dreams by the superior spirits to make them aware of the great responsibility that lies  in their hands, so that they can act quickly with charity and compassion to end this humanitarian crisis.

In conclusion, as the politicians work to combat the causes of conflicts, we must arm ourselves with faith, love, charity, tolerance and understanding, and help as much as  we can these unhappy brothers and sisters  who have been forced to flee their countries to save their children.

Humberto Werdine is disseminator of Spiritism in Europe. He is a contributor to “O Consolador” magazine and writes for the “Revista Internacional do Espiritismo.”