Poor and rich are Spirits undergoing probation, considering indigence a hard test and wealth a dangerous and very risky test. It is more dangerous than misery, due to the drags it causes, the temptations it generates and the fascination it exerts.

The test of wealth is not easy to overcome, as it can encourage the exacerbation of bad tendencies and the predominance of inferior passions.

The fact that wealth makes the test difficult for those who receive it does not mean that it will be impossible to overcome it, since it can serve as a means of salvation for those who know how to give it an edifying use.

Due to the consequences it causes, the test of wealth is a means granted by God to assess the wisdom and goodness of human beings: a way of testing their moral capacity through the correct use of wealth in the practice of good and charity. In that sense, it serves as an instrument to boost Spiritual progress, as so many others made available by God.

In The Book of Spirits, by Allan Kardec, we have some clarifications regarding the proof of wealth in some questions:

“261. In the trials that he must go through to reach perfection, does the Spirit have to suffer temptations of all kinds? Does he have to find himself in all circumstances that might excite pride, envy, avarice, sensuality, etc.?

Certainly not, because you well know that there are Spirits who, from the beginning, take a path that exempts them from many trials. He, however, who allows himself to be drawn into the wrong path, runs all the dangers that urge him. A Spirit, for example, can ask for wealth and it will be granted. Then, depending on his character, he can become avaricious or prodigal, selfish or generous, or even throw himself into all the pleasures of sensuality. It does not follow, however, that one has to go through all these trends.

“264. What guides the Spirit in choosing the trials he wants to undergo?

‘He chooses, according to the nature of his faults, those which lead him to atone for them and to progress quicker. Therefore, some impose upon themselves a life of miseries and privations. They aim to bear them with courage; others prefer to experience the much more dangerous temptations of wealth and power, because of the abuses and misapplications to which they can give rise, due to the inferior passions that one and others develop. Many of them, finally, decide to try their strength in the struggles they will have to sustain in contact with addiction.”

“814. Why did God give riches and power to some and poverty to others?

‘To try them out in different ways. Furthermore, as you know, these trials were chosen by the Spirits themselves, who, however, often succumb to them’.”

“815. Which of the two tests is more terrible for man, that of misfortune or that of wealth?

‘They are both one and the other. Misery provokes complaints against Providence, wealth incites all excesses.”

In question 816, Kardec comments: “Wealth and power give birth to all the passions that bind us to matter and distance us from Spiritual perfection. That is why Jesus said, 'Truly I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

Attachment to material possessions

Many deposit everything in possession of material goods, seizing them as if they were perennial, letting themselves be carried away by ambition, by the insatiable desire to accumulate wealth, without building the future home for the true values of eternal life. When they least expect it, in the midst of ambitious plans, they will be raptured to account for the use of the goods granted by the Father.

The bond that binds human beings so strongly to earthly goods diverts their thoughts from heaven. The miser will be handcuffed to the riches he has accumulated.

As the depository of these goods, human beings do not have the right to squander or confiscate them for their own benefit.

“The love of earthly goods is one of the strongest obstacles to your moral and Spiritual advancement. By clinging to the possession of such goods, you destroy your faculties to love, applying them all to material things. (...)

Nothing belongs to you on Earth, not even your poor body: death strips you of it, as of all material goods. You are custodians and not owners, make, no mistake. God lent them to you, you must restore them; and He lends on condition that the superfluous, at least, falls to those who lack the necessities. (Spirit Lacordaire. Allan Kardec. The Gospel According to Spiritism. Chapter XVI. Detachment from earthly goods).

“Earth's goods belong to God, who distributes them as he pleases, man being only the usufructuary, the more or less upright and intelligent administrator of these goods.” (M., Protective Spirit. Allan Kardec. The Gospel According to Spiritism. Chapter XVI. The true property.)

“If God has given him power and wealth, he considers these things as A DEPOSIT, which he must use for good. He does not become proud of them, knowing that God, who gave them to them, can also take them away.” (Allan Kardec. The Book of Spirits. Comment on question 918.)

Detachment from earthly goods

“Detachment from earthly goods consists in appreciating them at their just value, in knowing how to use them for the benefit of others and not just for one's own benefit, in not sacrificing the interests of the future life for them, in losing them without murmuring, if it pleases God to remove them.” (Spirit Lacordaire. Allan Kardec. The Gospel According to Spiritism. Chapter XVI. One cannot serve God and Mammon: detachment from earthly goods.)

It should be considered that there are goods infinitely more precious than those on Earth are. Moreover, this idea will help to get rid of them.

The Heavenly goods

Possessing earthly riches are not essential conditions for the pursuit of happiness.

We must accumulate heavenly treasures and take advantage of the opportunities that God offers us to make good use of material goods temporarily granted as a means of boosting our intellectual, moral and Spiritual evolution.

Jesus warns us that the true purpose of earthly life is to obtain Spiritual wealth. As soon as we come to understand that real happiness does not consist in the transitory possession of the things of the world, we will gladly go to work actively to enter into the possession of Spiritual goods.

Allan Kardec clarifies: “If wealth is the cause of many evils, if it exacerbates bad passions so much, if it even causes so many crimes, it is not wealth that we should blame, but man, who abuses it, like all the gifts of God.  By abuse, he makes pernicious what could be most useful to him. It is the consequence of the state of inferiority of the terrestrial world. If wealth could only produce evils, God would not have put it on Earth. It is up to man to make it produce good. If it is not a direct element of moral progress, it is, without question, a powerful element of intellectual progress.” (The Gospel According to Spiritism. Chapter XVI. Providential Usefulness of Wealth: Evidence of Wealth and Misery.)

Employment of wealth

“Since man is the depositary, the administrator of the goods that God has placed in his hands, severe accounts will be asked of him for the employment that He has given them, by virtue of his free will. Misuse consists in applying them exclusively to his personal satisfaction; good is the use, on the contrary, every time they result in some good for others. The merit of each one is in proportion to the sacrifice he imposes on himself. Beneficence is only one way of using wealth; it gives relief from present misery; it appeases hunger, preserves from the cold, and provides shelter for the homeless. An equally imperative and meritorious duty, however, is to prevent misery.” (Fenelon. Allan Kardec. The Gospel According to Spiritism. Chapter XVI. One cannot serve God and Mammon: use of wealth.)

Consequences of the misuse of wealth

“Suffering due to causes prior to present existence, such as those arising from actual faults, are often the consequence of a fault committed, that is, man, by the action of a rigorous distributive justice, suffers what he caused others to suffer. . If he has been harsh and inhuman, he may in turn be treated harshly and inhumanly. If he was proud, he may be born in a humiliating condition; if he has been stingy, selfish, or if he has misused his riches, he may be deprived of necessities; if he was a bad son, he may suffer for the conduct of his sons, etc.” (Allan Kardec. The Gospel According to Spiritism. Chapter V. Blessed are the afflicted: previous causes of afflictions.)

The proof of Antonio Luiz Sayao's wealth, by disciple Max

“Antonio Luiz Sayao asked our Creator for the greatest and most dangerous test that a Spirit can ask for: material wealth, committing himself, however, to acquire it at the cost of hard work and to become a Spiritist, to preach the Doctrine of Jesus, through examples of all kinds. Mainly for the detachment of earthly goods, which were provided by the acquired wealth. And, in fact, wealth is the most dangerous test and the most serious commitment that a Spirit can take, due to the cruel embarrassments that the two great enemies of the soul oppose to it: pride and vanity, in addition to the demands that we are constantly confronted with obliges a society, like ours, without belief and without morals!” (Antonio Luiz Sayao. Evangelical explanations. The author of the work. Disciple of Max.)

Final message

The Spirit Joanna de Angelis, in Vida Feliz, a psychographics by Divaldo Pereira Franco, in chapter LXI, teaches:

“Your possession of earthly goods is relative.

In a transitory world, in which everything passes, what belongs to you now will have changed hands tomorrow.

Use, but do not abuse, the resources you have.

Do not enslave yourself to what you hold for a moment, avoiding suffering when transferred to someone else.

The only goods of permanent duration are the treasures of feelings, culture and virtues.

Stores up treasures in Heaven, teaches the Gospel.”

Bibliography:

ANGELIS, Joanna de (Spirit) in the psychographics of Divaldo Pereira Franco. Happy life. 18t^h Edition. Salvador/BA: LEAL, 2020.

KARDEC, Allan; translation by Guillon Ribeiro. The gospel According to Spiritism. 1^st edition. Brasilia/DF: Brazilian Spiritist Federation, 2019.

KARDEC, Allan; translation by Guillon Ribeiro. The Book of Spirits. 1^st edition. Brasilia/DF: Brazilian Spiritist Federation, 2019.

SAYÃO, Antonio Luiz. Evangelical elucidations in the light of the Spiritist Doctrine. 16^th Edition. Brasilia/DF: Brazilian Spiritist Federation, 2019.