We continue today the methodical study of “Heaven and Hell, or Divine Justice According to Spiritism” by Allan Kardec. The first edition was published in August 1, 1865. This work is part of the Kardecian Pentateuch. The answers to the questions suggested for discussion are at the end of the text below.
Questions for discussion
A. Why do we fear death?
B. Why is man so attached to earthly things?
C. What is man's future, according to Spiritism?
D. What does the word Heaven mean, and how does the Catholic theology explain it?
Reading text
15. When man begins to understand his future life better, his fear of death diminishes. When he becomes aware of the purpose of his earthly mission, he calmly, patiently, and with resignation awaits the end of his mission. The certainty of afterlife gives him another direction to his thoughts, another purpose to his activities. (Part I, Chapter II, section 3).
16. For the embodied Spirit to be able of freeing itself from the fear of death, it needs to face death openly, and, by means of his thoughts, enter the spiritual world, visualizing it as clearly as possible. Thus, the Spirit already shows a capacity to detach itself from the matter and, therefore, a certain spiritual development. (Part I, Chapter II, section 4).
17. Human beings tend to attach themselves strongly to earthly pleasures, because they consider that their progress, for which they work so hard to accomplish in this earthly life, has nothing to do with their future happiness. They also believe that they can secure happiness by means of outward observances, and that they can even purchase their happiness with money, without any thorough transformation of their characters or habits. Many a man says to himself in his secret heart, that his future welfare can be secured with certain forms that entail no privation during his life. Therefore, it would be unnecessary to impose upon himself any sacrifices for the sake of others. (First Part, Chapter II, section 7.)
18. The Spiritist doctrine changes entirely our view of the future. The life to come is not only a hypothesis. It is a fact. The state of the soul after death is no longer a matter of theory but a result of observation. This is the reason why Spiritists see death with calmness and serenity on their last moments on this earth. (Part I, Chapter II, Section 10.)
19. For the Spiritists, the soul is not an abstraction. It has an ethereal body that defines the thought. This knowledge is enough to correct our ideas about its individuality, aptitudes, and perceptions. The memory of those who are dear to us rests on something real. Instead of lost in the depths of space, they are all around us, and the Spiritists know that the corporeal and the spiritual world are in close and perpetual connection. The Spiritist has no doubt in relation to the future life and he has no longer reasons to fear death, and faces its approach calmly for he knows it will be like the opening of a door through which he will pass, not to annihilation but to a happy state of existence. (Part I, Chapter II, Section 10.)
20. Science, with its unavoidable logic, observation, and facts, took its torch into the depths of space and showed that the Earth is not the center of the universe, but one of the smaller worlds that roll into immensity, and so are the stars, as well as the countless suns, around which move other untold worlds. (Part I, Chapter III, section 3).
21. Man is formed by body and spirit. This is the principal being, rational, and intelligent. The body is the material enclosure that enables him to fill his mission on earth and accomplish the necessary work for his improvement. Once used, the body is destroyed and the Spirit survives its destruction. There are therefore two worlds: the physical one, formed by embodied Spirits, and the spiritual world by the disembodied spirits. (Part I, Chapter III, section 5).
Answers to the proposed questions
A. Why do we fear death?
The fear of death is a consequence of the Divine wisdom and of self-preservation common to all living beings. It is necessary while one is not sufficiently informed about the conditions of afterlife. This fear restrains man's tendency to leave this life prematurely and neglect his earthly work, the purpose of which is his own development. As man begins to understand future life better, the fear of death diminishes. When his earthly mission is clarified, he awaits its end calmly, with serenity, and resignation. The certainty of future life gives another course to his ideas, another work purpose. Before it, nothing exists that is not attached to the present. After it, everything is for the future with no disregard for the present, because he knows that the future depends of the good or bad course given to his present. The certainty of finding again his friends after death, of reestablishing earthly relationships, of not missing a single fruit of his work, improving himself incessantly regarding his intelligence, perfection, gives man the patience to wait and courage to endure the hardships of life on this Earth, where fraternity and charity have since then a purpose and a reason, both in the present and in the future. (Heaven and Hell, Part I, Chapter II, sections 1 to 4; 8 and 9.)
B. Why is man so attached to earthly things?
In a backward Spirit, the material life prevails over the spiritual life. Clinging to appearances, man does not distinguish life beyond the body, although the real life is in the soul. When the body is destroyed, everything seems to be lost and hopeless. Life after death seems to be a vague idea, a probability, rather than certainty. He believes, he wishes it would be like that, but he says, "If, however, this is not so! The present is factual, thus let us occupy ourselves with the present, and the future will arrive in its turn". It is considerable the number of those who are dominated by this thought. The way we are taught in our childhood is another cause for the attachment to earthly things, even on the part of those who firmly believe in afterlife. We have to admit that the picture drawn by the matter is not at all enticing and even less consoling. (Ibid, First Part, Chapter II, sections 4, 5 and 6.)
C. What is man's future, according to Spiritism?
Spiritism completely transforms the outlook of the future. The future life is no longer a hypothesis but a fact. The state of souls after death is no longer a system, but the result of observation. The veil was lifted. The spiritual world appears to us in the fullness of its practical reality. It was not men, who discovered the spiritual world through the effort of an ingenious design. The inhabitants of the spiritual world, themselves, come to us to describe this situation. We see them in all levels of the spiritual scale, in all phases of happiness and misery, watching, finally, all the vicissitudes of life beyond the grave. According to Spiritism, the future life is the continuation of life on earth in better conditions and, therefore, the Spiritists await it with the same confidence they would await the uprising of the sun after a stormy night. The reasons of this faith are based on the facts witnessed and the agreement of those facts with logic, justice, and the goodness of God. (Ibid, Part I, Chapter II, Section 10.)
D. What does the word Heaven mean, and how does the Catholic theology explain it?
The word Heaven means the undefined space that surrounds the Earth, and more particularly the part that is above our horizon. The word originates from the Latin word, coelum, concave, because the sky looks like a huge concavity. Christian theology recognizes three heavens: the first is the region of air and clouds. The second is the space in which revolve the stars; and the third, in addition to this, is the dwelling place of God, the house of those who contemplate Him face to face. It is according to this belief that it is said that St. Paul was raised to the third heaven. (Ibid, Part I, Chapter III, sections 1 and 2.)
