Disarming Hearts

The world is faced with huge challenges—geopolitical tensions, wars breaking out, atomic threats, COVID-19 pandemic, different natural disasters that devastate all nations and make people cry in deep pain. For this reason, journalist Paiva Netto, President-Preacher of the Religion of God, of the Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, dedicates to all of you, dear readers, his words as a comprehensive analysis of the necessary construction of Peace on an indestructible foundation, not subject to bargains or human contingencies: the Ecumenical Jesus, the Lord of Peace. These are words from important articles Paiva Netto wrote along decades, which were widely spread by both Brazilian and world press and also published in LGW’s magazines addressed to the United Nations (UN), as well as in books that became best-sellers. They could not have come at a better moment to soothe and shelter afflicted Souls, dry our tears, and renew our strength so that, with Accomplishing Faith, we may keep up our fight for a more just, solidary, and peaceful future, trusting that even when faced with the worst torments, we have the strong support of our Heavenly Father.

Enjoy your reading!

The Editors

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“Turn away from evil and do Good. Search for Peace and pursue it.” (I Peter, the Apostle, 3:11)

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Unfortunately, our planet’s history has been one of constant bloodshed. We are always living on the brink of new bellicose conflicts in more and more threatening proportions. This is what we have seen all over the place, especially now, with the outbreaks in the Old Continent. Many have already said, “In war, there are no winners.” Therefore, it is crucial for us to talk about Peace. After all, the path of the LGW is that of Peace.

While re-reading my book Jesus, a Dor e a origem de Sua Autoridade — O Poder do Cristo em nós [Jesus, the Pain, and the Origin of His Authority — The Power of Christ Within Us] (2014), I came across some modest notes which I would like to share with you, who honor me with your reading:

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Unfortunately, people still have not adjusted their lenses to see that true harmony is born of the enlightened innermost part of each creature, through Spiritual Knowledge, Generosity, and Justice. As I often say, and I will comment on this at other times, these virtues produce abundance. The tranquility that the Heavenly Father-Mother has to offer—seen, from one side to the other, with balance and recognized as being the inspirer of Ecumenical Fraternity—has nothing to do with the frustrating, inefficient deals and agreements throughout our History. Brazilian engineer and abolitionist André Rebouças (1838-1898) translated the inertia of exclusively human perspectives into a metaphor: “Armed peace is to war as chronic disease is to acute disease; like a stubborn fever to typhus. All these diseases annihilate and kill nations; it’s just a matter of time.” [Emphasis added]

Now, experiencing disarmed Peace, also starting with the fraternal, moral, and spiritual reeducation of all nations, is a measure for the survival of people that cannot be postponed. But for this to happen hearts must first be disarmed, while preserving good sense, as I pointed out to the young people of all ages who heard me speak in the city of Jundiaí (Brazil), in September 1983, and that was later published in the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper on November 30, 1986. As I said at the time, the real danger lies not just in weapons, but also in the brains behind the production of those weapons; the brains that create the conditions, both locally and worldwide, for these weapons to be used; it lies in the fingers that push the buttons and pull the trigger.

Arms alone do nothing nor do they appear by “spontaneous creation.” But they are dangerous even if they are stored in magazines. They can explode or get rusty and pollute the environment. They are the effect of the cause called human beings when they are distant from God, the Causa causarum,*¹ who is Love (First Epistle of John 4:16). We become true atomic bombs, biological and chemical weapons, cannons, or rifles, when we distance ourselves from Goodness and do not live by the precepts of Fraternity, Solidarity, Generosity, and Justice of Christ, who is the Lord Almighty of this planet.

The deadly, mental, and physical weapons will lose all their terrible significance and bad reason for “existing” on the day wisely re-educated individuals no longer have sufficient hatred to fire them. And they will no longer be manufactured.

We need to deactivate the explosives, stop holding the grudges that insist on dwelling within human hearts.

Jesus — the Prince of Peace

This is the great message of the Religion of the Third Millennium, inspired by Christ, the Prince of Peace: to stop the anger with which armaments are fired, with a force mightier than hatred. This is a broad-spectrum work of education; more than that, of re-education. And this powerful energy is Fraternal Love. I am not referring to the still incipient love of human beings, but to the Love of God, on which all of us need to feed. We have in our hands the strongest tool in the world. This is what is going to avoid all the different types of war, which first emerge in the ill Souls of living beings.

People discuss the problem of violence on the radio, on television, in the press, or on the Internet and become even more perplexed because they are unable to find a solution for eradicating it, despite so many brilliant theories. They generally look for a solution far away and down twisting, convoluted paths. But it is not found far away; it is actually really close, inside us: God!

“The Kingdom of God is within you.” (The Gospel of Jesus according to Luke 17:21)

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We must always repeat that “God is Love!” (First Epistle of John 4:8) This is not trivial love, but the Force that moves the Universe. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of the so-called powerful people on Earth still do not firmly believe this fact and try in vain to disqualify it. They are the so-called “owners of the truth.” But “the next and final Armageddon will change the mentality of nations and of their rulers,” stated the Proclaimer of the Divine Religion, Alziro Zarur (1914-1979). And I ask his permission to add: the surviving rulers.

As announced in the austere chapter 16, verse 16, in the Book of Revelation, the Apocalypse, “Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.”

(Armageddon, the place where kings, princes, and governing authorities are gathered for the decisive battle.)

In praise of Peace

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In such dismal times humanity has been faced with—as I said in my article “In Praise of Peace”—if we are not capable of avoiding World War III, the result of the sowing of human madness along the millennia, we do not wish to regret not having done whatever is possible and impossible to remind everyone in the world about the Peace of God. For a long time, by all ways and means, we have opposed the Latin saying “If you want Peace, prepare for war” (“Si vis pacem, para bellum”), by proclaiming the spirit that inspired Rui Barbosa (1849-1923), the brave Eagle of The Hague, when he said, “If you want Peace, prepare yourself for Peace.”

While writing about Peace—whose conquest deeply afflicts a humanity that has lived with the “sword of Damocles” over its head—in my book Reflexões e Pensamentos – Dialética da Boa Vontade [Reflections and Thoughts – Dialectics of Good Will] (1987), I considered that in a future which we, civilians, religious, and military men and women of good sense, hope to be near, Peace will no longer be established under the threat of nuclear bombs, the caterpillar treads of tanks or to the boom of cannons, over piles of corpses or crowds of widows and orphans, nor even over magnificent accomplishments of material progress without God—that is, without a corresponding ethical, moral, and spiritual advance. Human beings, through Love or, if they prefer, through Pain, will discover that they are not only intellect, stomach, and sex, subjugated by what they consider to be the only reality in the world. Within themselves, dwells the Eternal Spirit that speaks to them of other lives and other worlds, which they seek either through Intuition or Reason. Even today, the peace of human beings is still the peace of wolves and of some crazy short-sighted individuals that rule peoples on Earth.

Peace, true Peace, arises first from the pure hearts of human beings. And only the Ecumenical Jesus can remove all hatred from the hearts of humanity, because Jesus is the Lord of Peace. And He Himself, as Brother Zarur reminded us so many times, says: “I am the Vine; you are the branches. Apart from me you can do nothing. I will not leave you as orphans. A New Commandment I give you: Love one another, as I have loved you. Only by this shall all of you be recognized as my disciples, if you have the same Love for one another. There is no greater Love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (The Gospel according to John 15:5, 14:18, 13:34 and 35, and 15:13)

Another paradigm

There should be a paradigm for Peace. Who? The rulers of the world?! Yet, in the contemporary era, while they debate about it, their countries progressively arm themselves! The history of “civilization” has been like this. “Quousque tandem, Catilina, abutere patientia nostra?” (“How long, Catilina, will you abuse our patience?”)

How about trying this newest paradigm?

Peace: the personal work of Jesus

Zarur wrote in the 20^th Biblical Key of the Triumphal Return of the planet’s Supreme Leader: “No individual, no strong group, no people, no superpower, whether communist or capitalist, will ever be able to establish Peace on Earth. This is the personal and non-transferable work of Jesus. Only Christ has the power—in Heaven and on Earth—to achieve this wonder.”

Tela: Heinrich Tischbein (1722-1789)

For this reason, the Religion of the Third Millennium humbly makes a suggestion: Does humanity want to live in harmony? So live and be inspired by the teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of Peace, to the point of saying: “My Peace I leave with you; my Peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. I give you God’s Peace, which the world cannot give. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid! And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the world.” (The Gospel according to John 14:27 and 1 and Matthew 28:20)

This means that such Peace exists, it is not a Utopia. To deny it is to deny Jesus Himself, to despise civilization. It is up to human beings to find it, while there is still time.

The Peace of God may seem something very distant to defeatists, considering how beautiful it is . . . However, eliminating this gulf depends solely on us. Just because it seems so far away does not mean that we should give up looking for it. On the contrary, let us work for it now! The greatest challenges are our greatest friends, since they prevent us from giving up on Life. Let us move forward, because God Is Present!

Everybody is deeply concerned with the savagery that is spreading over the Earth, looking for a solution that at least reduces violence, which has come out of hidden places, from the shadowy dawn, and taken over streets and homes, for it has invaded minds. However, today, one is becoming more aware that if there is violence, it is not just the problem of governments, of police forces, but a challenge for all of us, for society. If violence came out of the dark night and came to show itself in the light of day, it is because it lives in our innermost selves. By existing in our Souls and hearts, it will manifest itself wherever human beings may be. I emphasize that we must deactivate the explosives remaining in our hearts.

Establishing concord in the world

In the magazine Globalization of Fraternal Love (available in Portuguese, English, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish, and Italian)—delivered by the Legion of Good Will (LGW) to Heads of State and delegations attending the High-Level Segment 2007, at the UN Headquarters in Geneva (Switzerland)—I present, from my book Reflexões da Alma [Reflections of the Soul] (2003), a remarkable excerpt extracted from the Preamble to the Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which was approved on November 16, 1945, as I consider that another path for humanity will be that of destruction: “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of Peace must be constructed.”

It is essential to highlight proposals and actions of real understanding. A different route for people will be bitter medicine. Therefore, we should not lose Hope. Let us persevere working “for a better world and a happier humanity.” And this is not a silly argument, but the effective direction of victory.

Ecumenism — a powerful tool for the pacification of peoples

Peace among nations is still a synonym for astuteness and suspicion, as I wrote in Jesus e a Cidadania do Espírito [Jesus and the Citizenship of the Spirit] (2001). There will only be the pacification of human beings when Solidarity and Fraternity—the last, forgotten pillar^*2 of the French Revolution—inhabit the hearts.

It is urgent that, even for survival purposes, they not only preach Peace, but are transmuted by it. While experiencing the natural state of Citizens of the Spirit, we can say with Jesus: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have Peace. In this world you shall have tribulation. But be courageous! I have overcome the world.” (The Gospel according to John 16:33)

That explains why Ecumenism is a truly powerful tool for establishing Peace in a planet where any dilettante starts a war.

Jesus has taught us: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (The Gospel according to Matthew 5:9)

I open a parenthesis here to transcribe a clarifying observation included in my article “The Dynamism of Peace,” which I dedicated to the participants of the Millennium World Peace Summit at the United Nations Headquarters in New York (USA), in August 2000:

Whenever you come across the word “Ecumenism” in my writings or in my impromptu speeches, please take it in its original meaning. According to its etymology, “ecumenical”—from the Greek oikoumenikós—means: “of all the inhabited Earth; of worldwide scope or applicability; universal.” We use this term abundantly because there will never be true Peace among nations if it is not extended to each and every inhabitant of the Earth, irrespective of religion, individual ideological opinions, science, politics, philosophy, arts, sports, and so forth. Now, more than ever, at these global times, restricted peace is the permanent summoning for more conflicts.

Overcoming obstacles

Alziro Zarur used to say that, “In fact, whoever loves God loves their fellow beings, whatever their religion or irreligion.” And with his permission, I would add: race, color, nationality, culture, etc.

A good dialogue is basic to the exercise of Democracy, which is the regime of responsibility.

Responsible construction of Peace

To conclude, I turn to an argument I presented during my talks on the Apocalypse of Jesus for the Simple-Hearted radio series, which is also appropriate for those who may think that the responsible construction of Peace is an impossibility: Is this Utopia? Why?! Everything that is seen today as progress was considered madness in the not-so-remote past.

If much more were invested in education, teaching, culture, and food, all enlightened by a Superior Spirituality, people would be healthier. They would be spiritually, morally, mentally, and physically better qualified for life and work, and would spend less on security. “Oh, but this kind of work takes years!” So, let us not waste any time! Otherwise, the civilizing achievements in the world that threaten to collapse may give way to the contagion of disillusion, which will affect the whole Earth. We cannot allow such a situation to happen.

Above all, there has to be Real Fraternity, of which Zarur, the late founder of the Legion of Good Will, spoke in his poem with the same title about the Organization. This Fraternity is capable of bringing together opponents and finding solutions, out of their paradoxes, for the problems that are suffocating humanity, because as I say again and again, there is really a lot to learn from each other.

The blue heart that pulses the reconciliation among peoples

It is timely to highlight words that make up the LGW’s blue heart, with its 34 links of Universal Solidarity representing the number of the biblical verse where the Supreme Order of Christ is included (The Gospel according to John 13:34)—“Love one another, as I have loved you.” This is the blessed song of a multitude of Angels in Heaven, in unison to announce the First Visible Visit of the Supreme Governor on Planet Earth: “Glory to God in the Highest, and Peace on Earth to people [men, women, youth, children, and Spirits, Blessed Souls] of God’s Goodwill.” (The Gospel according to Luke 2:14)

May the Peace of God be now and always in everyone’s hearts!

Whoever trusts in Jesus does not waste time, because He is the Great Friend who never abandons a friend along the way!

The closer we are to Jesus, the farther we are from problems!

Jesus Lives in our Hearts Forever!

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*¹ Causa Causarum — Latin expression meaning Cause of causes — in this case, God.
*² The three  pillars of the French Revolution (1789) — Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.