The Spiritist psychiatrist Alyrio de Cerqueira Filho, in the great and fantastic book Therapeutic Parables, dissects with mastery the meaning of the many parables of Jesus. He also takes the opportunity to speak about the Blisses, with which the Christ begins the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted, etc. There are nine in all.

According to Alyrio, the text of all of them refers to passivity. Are we going through difficult times? Is the world bad? It does not matter. Let's wait without reacting, let us suffer quiet and wish for better conditions. The reward will come after the death of the physical body.

Only, according to the Therapeutic Parables, Christ's proposal is quite different, since passivity does not exist in the Universe. Everything is life, movement, dynamism. After all, as Jesus himself said, My Father works until now, and I work too. (John 5:17)

Are there contradictions in the Sacred Texts? No, it is just a matter of translation.

As Alyrio explains, in the Hebrew original of the Gospel of Matheus, the word used by the Master is ashréi, derived from ashar. Meaning: righteousness, joy and security of one who marches toward the Kingdom of God. Therefore, there is nothing of passivity or inertia.

The Sermon on the Mount begins by giving us nine ways to march toward the Kingdom of Heaven, which is the state of wholeness, unconditional love of neighbor, a sense of duty fulfilled, a clear conscience, and deep realization, for we are feeling more and more in unison with the greatest force called love, which rules the Universe.

 To give substance to this chapter, I decided to take a Blessing. The one which, in my point of view, calls us to go on the march: - Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, because they will be satisfied (or satiated, depending on the translation). Or, from now onwards: In march those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied.

We are all thirsty and hungry for justice. And I am referring not only to the set of laws and rules of coexistence and harmony that characterize human justice as Divine, but a feeling of restlessness that leads us to struggle for solidarity, fraternity, health, well-being, prosperity, quality information, freedom, ethics, transparency, education, equality, knowledge and the alike, so that we are in fact a fair society with everyone.

If we are thirsty and are hungry for that justice, what must be done to satisfy it? Let us immerse ourselves in the causes of injustice - whether they are within us or around us - and move so that they cease to exist. Thus, we will change for the better the social landscape of the planet. This is the march to be undertaken: let us start working and, with our own effort, we will satisfy the hunger and thirst that destroy us.

The world has always offered us active people in search of this satiation. This is the case of Francis of Assisi, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Gandhi, and other Spirits who have come to Earth to show that it is possible - often with few resources - to march to satiate personal and collective needs. But there are also wonderful stories being put into practice by the crowd, i.e., people like us. In the book Words of Light, the medium and tribune from Bahia, Divaldo Pereira Franco, tells the life of a woman who went marching and was satiated. I will talk about her and about other people whom I read about and who fascinated me.

United States, late 19th century. A young black woman named Mary Jane Mac Leod Bethune (1875-1955) finishes a teacher’s course thanks to a scholarship she earned from a Quaker seamstress (a religious group from British Protestantism). In a country that was then strongly racist, no school accepted her. She improvised a school under a tree, in the background of a garbage dump, having as working material three onion crates. In this place, Mary Jane began to alphabetize the children of the slaves.

It was necessary, however, to go further. What did she do? She marked an interview with Henry Ford, founder and president of the Ford auto industries. He was staying at a local hotel. Only, because she was black, she was barred at the entrance. Mary Jane did not hesitate; she climbed the fire escape to the ninth floor, jumped from the access window onto the hallway, and rang Mr. Ford's apartment doorbell. The butler, who was also black, said that the boss did not receive blacks. She replied loudly, saying that she had marked the interview. Ford heard her and told her to come in.

According to Divaldo, Henry Ford, who was a humanitarian and reincarnationist, said he did not know the visitor was black. She then countered, saying that she doubted he knew someone with whiter teeth and eyes than hers. Ford thought the answer was fantastic. This was a woman who deserved to be heard because she was above pettiness and preconceptions. She then spoke of her dream of expanding the school and took him to the garbage dump. Surprised, Ford was shocked with the place. Mary Jane then said: I always forget the details! In fact my school is in my head. I want you to – with your money – take it from here (and pointed her head) and put it there”.

After such an extraordinary argument, Ford gave her $ 20,000. And there was Mary Jane, from school to school, being responsible for the training and education of thousands of black citizens (mostly) and whites too in the United States.

When the United States entered World War II, the then President Franklin Roosevelt canceled the school grants. Mary Jane went to the White House to confront him. "You will not cut the subsidies from my schools. He said, "Do not forget that I am the President." "Do not forget that I'm your voter, and I'll remember. Her schools were the only ones that did not have the subsidies suspended at that time. For sure, Mary Jane is still marching.

There are many episodes that highlight the strong personality of Mary Jane, a remarkable woman who also became an UN and Unesco counselor for racial matters. In Divaldo's opinion, her story is one of the most beautiful of the 20th century. Let's move on to other stories.

The Rio de Janeiro’s newspaper, O Globo, in its Sunday edition contains the Globo Magazine. In it, the column Two Coffees and the Bill, in which the journalist Mauro Ventura chats and has a coffee, a juice or something alike, with people who left in march towards a better world. Rodrigo Freire is one of them.

Young, handsome, a lawyer who lives in the Southern Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Rodrigo had everything to be just another goer to the beach, the kiosk or the juice bar. Like all good “cariocas” (name given to those who are born or live in the city of Rio de Janeiro), Rodrigo marks his presence in all these places. But he also frequently goes to the dump at Jardim Gramacho - a suburb in the municipality of Duque de Caxias, within the area called Grande Rio.

Rodrigo, who always liked volunteer work, heard about the dump and went there with two friends. Purpose: to take toys for the children. They packed the car and drove off.  When they arrived, they were surrounded by armed drug dealers. - We came from Ipanema to distribute toys. One of the drug dealers said: - I like what I see. Then the drug dealers themselves organized a queue. In less than ten minutes, the toys were gone. There were children that did not get a toy.

In addition, elderly people came asking for food and clothing. The boys had none, but Rodrigo promised that he would always return. He came back and never stopped. And not just in the dump. He also goes to various “favelas” (shanty towns all over Rio de Janeiro and suburbs) and choses the most miserable spots, preferably where no one goes. Not to mention the visits to nursing homes, day care centers, orphanages and also the many kilometers that he drives to pick up toys, food and clothes. Rodrigo does not stop. He takes furniture and even manages to take material to build burnt down houses. And since he has no sponsor, he organizes bazaars, charity lunches, funds raising campaigns. The sentence with which he ends the interview is exemplary. Rodrigo says: - I have to unfold myself, but we always find time to do well. Keep marching, Rodrigo Freire!

The following week, the column provided the readers with the story of the dentist Marcelo Schettini, founder of the NGO SOS Dental, which provides dental and free emergency care in favelas. Winner of eight awards, the NGO has as main project: the “Dentist in the Favela”. In this project, local merchants pay R$ 2.00 (two Reais – an insignificant amount) per month and earn cards to be distributed to whomever they want: relatives, clients, employees, neighbors, etc. If one of the beneficiaries has a toothache, they just have to call a 0800 number and receive a home visit from a dentist with a mobile dental office.

Usually the NGO takes care of simple cases, such as sutures and replacement of broken teeth. But since the most serious cases do not always find adequate care with Public Health, Marcelo launched the campaign "Adopt a Smile", in which a sponsor pays R$ 110.00 for a patient's smile. There, procedures are performed such as filling, gum treatment and restorations.

Marcelo also organizes “mutirões” in which groups of dentists attend patients in places that make available the necessary space, such as evangelical churches and Spiritist centers. He has already done this work abroad, in countries like Haiti and Honduras. His childhood as a poor boy doing odd jobs to pay for his dental treatment made him love his profession. He almost stopped college because he had no money to pay his studies. This did not happen, because the Dean issued a personal check to guarantee his studies until the educational credit was granted. Marcelo, himself, felt how difficult it is to maintain his own oral health. Today, he has ten popular clinics in the Baixada Fluminense, where he first treats the patient and then he asks if the patient can afford it. Keep marching, Marcelo Schettini!

One of the most respected Brazilian writers is Graciliano Ramos (1892-1953), author of classics such as Vidas Secas, São Bernardo and Memórias do Cárcere. But the book I now mention is not written by him, but it is about him. Title: O Velho Graça (The Old Graça), the author of which is the journalist Denis de Moraes.

The work - a biography - reveals remarkable facts about the life of this great citizen who was Graciliano Ramos. Born in the town of Quebrangulo (AL), Graça, as he was known, was the eldest son of a cloth merchant who settled in another Alagoan city: Palmeira dos Índios, of which Graciliano became mayor.

Once he fined the merchants who displayed their merchandise on the sidewalk, disturbing the flow of pedestrians. One of those fined was his own father, who went to complain to his son. Graciliano replied that politicians have no relatives. If the father had received the fine from the City Hall, it was because he was in an irregular situation. So he should pay it.

Years later, Graça became the Secretary of Education of the capital, Maceió. One of the municipal schools had not started classes at the beginning of the school term. The school, according to the principal, had not received funds for the students' uniforms and shoes.

Graciliano started a march. As the son of a fabrics merchant and with influence in the area, he explained the situation to some suppliers. He needed fabrics to make the uniforms, but since the money had not yet been granted, he gave his word as a guarantee. Once the money was released, he would pay for everything. He did the same with shoe traders. They all provided the necessary material. When the fabrics were delivered, he cut them himself; he had learned from his father. Then he took everything to seamstresses of his confidence, who began the work. Soon, the uniforms and shoes were delivered. The school could finally start classes. When the money was released, merchants and seamstresses were paid. This is to be hungry and thirsty for justice and marching to quench it!

The journalist and environmentalist Andre Trigueiro (Hello there), in the book Sustainable World, tells the story of Kenya's Wangari Maathai (1940-2011), the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize (in 2004) thanks to the Green Belt Movement, which reforested both Kenya and several neighboring countries. For that purpose, Maathai recruited black and poor women. Kenya, because of a poor infrastructure in the area of ​​energy, leads people to use firewood to cook and heat their homes. As a result, only 2% of the territory in 1977 was covered with forests. The Green Belt reversed the process and promoted the planting of 30 million trees, ensuring the return of the green and ending with the desertification of the soil, loss of biodiversity, death of rivers and springs and loss of animals.

Maathai, a woman like few, trained 10,000 people with her training courses. In addition, she created the African Green Network, which disseminated sustainable practices throughout Africa. "When we plant trees, we plant seeds of peace", she said. And we plant much more than this! We plant an economic gain helping towards environmental and sustainable gains, which reduce poverty and violence rates.

Wangari Maathai, a seeder who went out to sow! It is a march in various shades of green.

These are marches that inspire us; marches of people like us; marches that can be the march of each one of us. Let us march too!