“The only way to avoid or mitigate the future consequences of a fault is to repair it, undoing it in the present. The longer we take to repair a fault, the more painful and rigorous the consequences will be in the future.” ⁽¹⁾  

Pride, invisible enemy! Where its influence is evident, rebellion and bitterness appear, preparing disturbance and discord. In this way, invigilating and unhappy, transformed into terrible ghosts of incomprehension and intransigence, we get involved in our own shadow and, in the pitiful isolation of the Spirit, we do not know how to understand and forgive in order to also be forgiven and understood. Life answers us in all things and in all creatures according to the nature of our call. We will thus be able to understand that we will collect from the Father the stimuli for the future and suffer the reflections of the past to project on our existence.

The mistakes made, the unexpected offenses, the disagreements and disgust, from the human point of view, appear before us as invitations to inertia, but in its core, similar struggles are just and indispensable tests that are equivalent to consultations on the spiritual plane about the capacity of overcoming our weaknesses, examining our degree of humility, understanding and love.

However, the day comes when we are intimidated by the test of personal dignity, either by criticism of insult or by the thorn of disregard. We are targeted by self-love and, if we do not have enough humility and compassion, then the wounded pride will resemble in us the fire of anger that erupts, producing uncontrolled thoughts, which annihilate precious spiritual buildings of the present and the future. Let us be alert to such lethal power by praying and blessing, serving and excusing, forgetting evil and restoring good.

We must not forget that anger is no solution, and we make it clear that if we make a mistake, we will have to correct it, sincerely repairing the consequences of our faults; however, if the obligation fulfilled guarantees us a clear conscience – when the provocation of darkness challenges us – then let us have the courage not to pay any attention to evil, abstaining from having to take the blame of any disturbance that injury or slander presents to us.

Let us be the lighted lamp for those who are in the blindness of denial; let us be the support for those who stumble on the road; the good word that readjusts the Spirits of those who lie traumatized by the assault of darkness. Let us master ourselves so that we can control circumstances, leading our emotions, aligning them on the road of balance and discernment, so that our phrase does not slip into intemperance. The prudent man is slow to anger and is honored to ignore an offense. Therefore, blessed are the peacemakers because they will be called the children of God.

So, let us try to guard against such a persecutor, dressing our heart with the tunic of humility, because this strange executioner who encourages selfishness everywhere is called pride. In view of this, when we receive bitter complaints that hurt us unfairly, let us know how to listen to them patiently, refraining from pushing the brothers out of the way into the webs of shadow, working sincerely to undo them.

Therefore, in the face of those who go astray in the criticism, let us observe the ease with which we surrender to thoughtless judgments and let us consider that we would be equally compelled to the brazier of cruelty were it not for some slight limit of prudence that we managed to mentalize.

It is important to put ourselves in the place of those who make mistakes so that our reasoning rests in the shelter of understanding. If we do so, we will be classified, in truth, among the peacemakers blessed by the divine Master, understanding, after all, that the human creature, alone, cannot guarantee the peace of the world, however, each one of us can and must keep peace inside ourselves.

The evangelist Luke explains, in chapter 15, verse 7: "I tell you that this way there will be joy in Heaven for a sinner who repents, more than ninety-nine righteous people who do not need repentance." Every wrongdoing, every evil we do is a debt incurred and that needs to be repaired. As there is no injustice, the awakening of a correct conscience and high morals will make it possible to resolve evil, dissolving it into good and in the practice of charity.

The most effective way to control aggression is through our inner education: the search for knowledge for a better understanding of one's own personality, as well as the cultivation of religiosity and spirituality that aim to better direct impetus and impulses and increase awareness of our responsibilities towards our earthly journey.

With the Spiritist postulates, spiritual moral education stands out, as its main objective is the improvement of the Spirit through the conquest of higher levels of consciousness. In Allan Kardec's comment, in The Book of Spirits on question 964, we understand that: (...) “all our actions are subject to the Laws of God, there is none of them, however insignificant it may seem to us, that may be a violation of these laws. If we suffer the consequences of this violation, we must blame but ourselves, that we thus become the artisans of our happiness or our future unhappiness”.

In this way, we are obliged to recognize that we, incarnated and disincarnated Spirits - who today devote ourselves to the Gospel explained by the Codification - keep elucidations around the essential realities of life and the Universe. Elucidations and conviction that most of those, who profess in many religious schools on Earth, are still far from reaching.

Is it reasonable to conclude that if we, who know so much of the “truth”, still offend others without realizing it, how can we exercise too much severity before those brothers who receive nothing from the much we know and receive? Let us reflect on this and open our hearts to understanding and mercy, because only then will we find in ourselves the strength of love capable of guaranteeing us the building of the Kingdom of God.

Let us accept ourselves as we are: weak, imperfect, rebellious or recurrent in evil, looking at ourselves in the mirror of pure reason, reasoning, observing the vulnerable points around which our faults reappear. So, if we get it right, we will get it back; making mistakes, we will embrace the correction and we will thus be convinced before the mercy of God that every day is time to progress, learn, improve and renew.

Bibliography:

1. KARDEC, Allan - O Ceu e O Inferno - 38^th edition – Publisher: FEESP - Sao Paulo / SP - 1^st part - chapter 7- paragraph 27 - 1992.

2. XAVIER, Francisco Candido - Divine Justice - dictated by the Spirit Emmanuel - 14^th edition – Publisher: FEB - Brasilia / DF - lesson 6 - 2018.

3. XAVIER, Francisco Candido – The Spirits’ religion - dictated by the Spirit Emmanuel - 22^nd edition – Publisher: FEB - Brasilia / DF - lessons 20 and 69 - 2013.

4. XAVIER, Francisco Candido - Scheduled Meeting - dictated by the Spirit Emmanuel - 14^th edition – Publisher: FEB - Brasilia / DF - lessons 4, 13, 14 and 15 - 2013.