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Sharing the Bread (Final Part)

Source: A Reflection of Goodwill taken from the Good Will Portal, in December 2011. | Updated in November 2018.

We live in times of never-before-seen technological advances, but also of unbridled greed. However, people of Goodwill, as the Lord’s firstfruits, confidently wait for better days. This is why rekindling hope with every new year is a very healthy thing to do.

Before the immensity of God’s Universe, human vanity and domination have no future.

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When we cross the waters of the “river of death,” we see fading the chimera of a Science that is heartless, the terror of beliefs when they are full of prejudice and intolerance, as well as of every spirit of soulless competition and warlike concepts, which separate nations. This occurs until the Sun of Charity—Jesus—dispels the darkness of insolent ignorance, and, by opening the spiritual vision of the human beings, makes them conclude that only the fulfillment of the divine laws of Ecumenical Fraternity and of Social Solidarity will bring Peace to Earth. When that time comes, the sublime teachings of the Gospel-Apocalypse will have finally calmed the hearts of people, who will find rest for their unruly Spirits in God’s Bosom. At that time, which is long-awaited by so many missionaries of Goodness, humanity will have understood that it is no use enlightening the mind if the heart is forgotten, and that it is absolute madness to want progress for society if the principles of trust and respect are something rare in personal relations.

Thirst for simplicity

Reprodução BV

Ernest Renan

Divulgação

Humberto de Campos

Ernest Renan (1823-1892), French philosopher, historian, and free thinker—mentioned by Humberto de Campos (1886-1934) in a letter to Gastão Penalva (1887-1944), his colleague in the Brazilian Academy of Letters (ABL)—used to say that “the brain that is burned by rationality is thirsty for simplicity; like the desert, for fresh water.”

Arquivo BV

Alziro Zarur

Divulgação

Lucian of Samosata

The same applies to Divine Truth, which the human Spirit cannot relinquish. So much so that when the human Spirit is exhausted from vainly fighting against its own freedom, Divine Truth will come to delicately and serenely illuminate it with its light. Jesus lived among us for 33 years. However, according to rhetorician Lucian of Samosata (125-192), “human life is worth more because of the intensity of its learning than because of how long it lasts.” But it has to end only at the time set by God, for “suicide does not resolve anyone’s anguish,” as Alziro Zarur (1914-1979) taught us.

Heavenly Citizens

Now, my Sisters, Brothers, and Friends, let us then do Good Deeds, because time will continue passing us by.

Divulgação

Protagoras

We are now body, but we are originally Spirit. This leads us to conclude that Protagoras (480-410 B.C.), a Greek philosopher of the Sophistic school, did not capture the universal extent of human creatures when he said that “man is the measure of all things.”

With thoughts turned to our Divine Master, let us go further and say that it is the Eternal Spirit dwelling in the human body that is truly the measure of all things, inasmuch as it is a Heavenly Citizen.

Women, Men, Youth, Children, and Spirits, Blessed Souls, of Goodwill: we strive to bring people the divine formulas of Love, Truth, Humility, Hope, Justice, and Peace, which emanate from the teachings of the Sublime Educator, Jesus. This is the Spiritual Bread we make a point of sharing with everyone. When we have consciously accepted this, not superficially, but in the innermost depths of our Souls, we shall be ready to proclaim the Politics of God for the Immortal Spirit of human beings.

Tela: James Tissot (1836-1902)
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Goethe

Trusting in Jesus is the secret! He is the Great Friend who never abandons a friend along the way. This is the beginning of everything. As old Goethe (1749-1832) used to say, “in the beginning there was action.” Our worth is proved through work.

So Jeremiah’s lamentations over Jerusalem will find their end, and “there shall be one Flock and one Shepherd” (The Gospel according to John 10:16), who is Christ.

May God’s Peace and determination be, now and always, in all hearts, because great victories are coming if we do what we must to deserve them. Let us make the New Year a necessary Resurrection.

José de Paiva Netto is a writer, journalist, radio broadcaster, composer, and poet. He is the President of the Legion of Good Will (LGW), effective member of the Brazilian Press Association (ABI) and of the Brazilian International Press Association (ABI-Inter). Affiliated to the National Federation of Journalists (FENAJ), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the Union of Professional Journalists of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the Union of Writers of Rio de Janeiro, the Union of Radio Broadcasters of Rio de Janeiro, and the Brazilian Union of Composers (UBC). He is also a member of the Academy of Letters of Central Brazil. He is an author of international reference in the concept and defense of the cause of Ecumenical Citizenship and Spirituality which, according to him, constitute “the cradle of the most generous values that are born of the Soul, the dwelling of the emotions and of the reasoning enlightened by intuition, the atmosphere that embraces everything that transcends the ordinary field of matter and comes from the elevated human sensitivity, such as Truth, Justice, Mercy, Ethics, Honesty, Generosity, and Fraternal Love.”