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Who is not against us...
Those who know the Scriptures certainly remember a significant teaching that Jesus spoke and recorded by Luke and Mark evangelists.
Here it is:
And John answered said: Master, we saw one in thy name cast out demons, and we forbade him, because he does not follow us. And Jesus said to him: Do not forbid him, for whoever is not against us is for us. (Luke 9: 49,50.)
And John answered him, saying: Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name who does not follow us; and we forbade him, because he does not follow us. But Jesus said: Do not forbid him; for no one who shall do a miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil of me. For whoever is not against us is for us. (Mark 9: 38-40.)
The chapter XIII of the book Uma estrela em forma de flor (A star flower-shaped), Arthur Bernardes de Oliveira, referring to the persecution suffered by the spirits of the Port of San Antonio (today Astolfo Dutra), a town in the Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais, said the following:
"So because of it I do not say the countless times in which untold procession stopped in front of our house, to sing hymns and issue provocations, the most infamous of all humiliations. I was little, but I have not forgotten one in which, taken by my mother, we went to the balcony in order to get in the face nicknames and lowness.
My mother quiet as the sky, serene as a lake, pure as a lily, looking that mob, and eyes to the High asking God forgiveness for those unhappy.
I do not say that because of clerical campaign spirits were without bosses who to work for, and who to buy food or to sell to.
It closed the economic blockade cycle. The misery worsened, but faith was strengthened. And how 'nothing is impossible to who believes', we won that stop. God and former residents of Astolfo Dutra know with what tears and caused pain.
Once, an Italian from there, Mr. Próspero, announced that he would invade with his truck our center at meetings’ time. The city was alarmed. Everyone would go to see the 'divine massacre'. Mr. Próspero would conquer the sky with the beauty of vandalism gesture. The date was set. And to those who counseled not to go to the center because of his paralysis, the old Abel Gomes gave this admirable lesson of faith and courage:
- Today nobody holds me. I could miss all meetings. But to this day, I never allow myself that. I have to go and want to be at the door. The truck wheels are to catch me first. Then you will die. But first it will be me.
From this attitude, no one could dissuade him. And at seven o'clock, with the truck going up and down the city streets, to further increase the interest in the show, there was in the middle of the door that extraordinary figure with whiten hair, ready to die for the cause.
We owe this decision of the old Abel Gomes all victories that followed it. If he did not have behaved that way, it might be dead forever, in Astolfo Dutra, the splendid seed of Spiritism." (Uma estrela em forma de flor - A star-shaped flower, Chapter XIII, work published on July 28, 2014 by EVOC - Virtual Publisher The Comforter.)
Many years have passed and we got to the 21st century, but persecution, violence, hatred continues. On 28 July this year, as widely reported by the local and national press, the headquarters of the Spirit Association The Path of Light (Associação Espírita A Caminho da Luz), based in Garden Villa Rica in Rondonópolis (MT), 218 km from the capital Cuiabá, was broken into and set on fire. (1)
According to the president of the institution, Elcha Brito, criminals destroyed everything: walls, electrical wiring, chairs, furniture, black board and educational material that was used in evangelization activities for children and young people from surrounding neighborhoods. The Spirit Association also held spiritual treatments and did the distribution of soup. Before the act of vandalism, the institution had been "visited" on three other occasions, but the Mato Grosso police could not locate those responsible for.
"It is not possible to know if it was some kind of retaliation or religious hate crime", said the president of the institution. But religious intolerance in this country has grown so much that only the gullible are to rule out the possibility that behind the act of vandalism are people who tell to be adherents of Christianity, solemnly ignoring what Jesus said that "whoever is not against us is for us."
(1)http://g1.globo.com/mato-grosso
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