The candle and the bushel

It's well-known the remark of Jesus that we should not put a candle under a bushel, phrase mentioned by Nivea Guimarães de Freitas Nasser, the founder and current president of SODEC (Christian Spiritism Disclosing Society), in interview given and that is one of the highlights of this edition.

Once, before a lecture on this topic, there were many people with moderate education, the speaker held a slight poll and found that most people who were there did not know the meaning of the word "candle" and even less of the word "bushel". Ignorance is, in this case, perfectly justifiable, because they are words that people rarely use and few speakers are careful to explain them. ⁽¹⁾

The phrase spoken by Jesus is found in the following passage from the Gospel according to Matthew, which is part of the known Sermon on the Mount: 

"You are the light of the world; it cannot hide a city set on a hill; neither does light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light unto all that are in the house. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 5: 14-16.) 

Commenting on the subject, Allan Kardec inserted in his work two pieces of information that it is worth highlighting, given its importance: 

The power of God is manifested in the smallest things, as in the larger. He does not put the light under a bushel, so that’s why he pours in waves everywhere, in such a way that only the blind do not see it. (The Gospel According to Spiritism, chap. VII, item 9.) 

It occurs with men in general, which occurs in particular with individuals. Generations have his childhood, his youth and maturity. Everything has to come in its time; the seed thrown to the ground, out of season, does not germinate. But what prudence sends silent momentarily sooner or later will be discovered because, it comes to a certain stage of development, men seek for themselves the living light; darkness weights over them. Having God given them intelligence to understand and be guided through the things of Earth and sky, they try to reason about their faith. It is then that you should not put a candle under a bushel, as without the light of reason, faith faints. (Ibid, Ch. XXIV, item 4) (In both the bold quotes was put by us.) 

The issue concerns, as it is easy to understand, the need for disclosure of the truths taught by Jesus or by Spiritism, that can contribute to the moral improvement of people and therefore the world we live in.

In a text entitled "Timely Help", psychographic by Francisco Cândido Xavier and a constant in the book Study and Viva, Emmanuel referred explicitly to the subject. 

"Sensitizes thyself in front of the brother positively obsessed and strives you to offer him the savior clarification with which the Doctrine favors you.

Blessed be the impulse that drives you to help similar patient's soul; however, reflected in the other, those who are in the last trenches of resistance of spiritual imbalance.

For an alienated who applies for asylum therapies, hundreds of border obsession abides you in everyday experience. They are not settled in a world that does not have the resources yet to alleviate the tormented inside them, they wait for something to peace their energies in the manner of stragglers wayfarers in darkness, longing for a ray of light ... They marched guarded on honesty and found themselves hurt by cruelty scams masquerading intelligence; They embraced uplifting tasks and were beaten by injury, accused of faults that would never be able to commit; gave up, quiet, to obligations they assumed been undefiled and ended trampled in the purest dreams; built home, as a lifting path, and recognized themselves within it the feature of prisoners without hope; raised children, investing at home all its richness of ideal and tenderness, hoping to find blessed companions to old age, and found themselves relegated to extreme abandonment; They left the youth, full of renovating aspirations and stumbled diseases that weaken their lives ... and, with them, those who accuse misfits, we still have those who came from the cradle in distress and hardship, those who entangled in boredom mazes because of too much comfort, those who languish in liabilities that they embraced and those who carry in the body painful inhibitions ...

Remember them, the almost mad with grief, and work for the Doctrine extends them timely help. For this, let us study Allan Kardec, by the light of the message of Jesus Christ, and be in the example or in attitude, in action or in the word, let’s remember that Spiritism requests us a permanent kind of charity – the charity of their own disclosure" (Study and Live, chapter 40, work published by FEB in 1965.) (Bold added.)

In the face of all stated and what wrote Emmanuel, we believe it is not necessary to add anything about the importance of propagating the Gospel and the spirit teachings, but to this little proposition: - If these lessons do so good to us, why not to share with others?

⁽¹⁾ Candle (candela of Latin, 'tallow candle or wax') refers to the wax candle or a small lighting fixture, which is suspended by a nail, with leaf-de-tin container, clay or other material, stocked with oil, which soaks a wick. It is same as candela, oil lamp or lamp.

Bushel (from Arabic al-kayl, 'as grain') designates the container of cereal grains, with capacity of 36.27 liters. The word is also used as measure of land surface equivalent to 4.84 hectares in Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and Goiás and 2.42 hectares in São Paulo.