Which pain is deeper?

Pain, difficulty, vicissitudes of life are common events in people's lives, a fact that everyone knows, though few people find in belief a proper, rational, logical, satisfying explanation which satisfies the most demanding person.

Once, a journalist asked to the known fellow Guiomar de Oliveura Albanesi, founder of Perseverance Spirit Center, São Paulo (SP), which would be, in her opinion, the greatest pain, the deepest pain, the pain felt by most human beings. The journalist was justified in making her that question, noting that D. Guiomar was known for her long dedication to the spiritist cause and to aid the many different people who knocked at the doors of the spiritual house that she founded.

The answer given by our sister was surprising because, as she explained, there is no greater pain, a deeper pain, a pain more felt. For those who are suffering, all pain is relevant and is deep. What bothers the human creature then would not be the pain itself, but its causes. Why do we suffer? Why vicissitudes befell our home? Why do we face so many difficulties? - This is what is important to know and what people go through when seeking to understand situations like that.

The spiritual doctrine is very clear when it comes to the topic.

"Of two species are the vicissitudes of life," explains Allan Kardec. "Some have their cause in the present life; others, out of this life."

In the unfolding of the matter - that the reader can read in full in Chapter V of The Gospel According to Spiritism - Kardec lists several situations where it is not difficult to anyone realize that our life is governed by laws that we cannot escape from and whose characteristic is to be absolutely fair and wise.

A friend of ours smoked too much, to the point of little use match or lighter; the red-hot tip of a cigarette already lit the next cigarette.

Who knew him warned him: "Friend, smoking like this you are gradually reducing the days of your existence. Smoke less, or drop the cigarette once, if you want your existence does not stop sooner."

It is clear that the warning had no meaning for him. It was as single words in the wind...

The years passed and at one point the friend dropped to a hospital. The diagnosis: pulmonary emphysema, a chronic disease in which the tissues of the lungs are gradually destroyed, becoming hyperinflation, i.e., very distended. As a result, people start to feel short of breath to perform simple tasks or work out.

The lack of air at the beginning is only noted for large and medium effort. Keeping up the habit of smoking, a more advanced stage of the disease, in which breathlessness occurs with unpretentious tasks, e.g., bathing, dressing or tying hair. By this time, many people become unable to work and spend most of their time in bed or sitting to not feel short of breath.

Who should be responsible for the illness of our friend?

This is an example of vicissitude that the cause is all in the present existence, as well as its consequences, for the exclusive fault of the person who suffers. And, likewise, there are numerous situations where a simple reflection can indicate why this or that difficulty arose in our life.