The Divine Liberator *¹

THE EXTRAORDINARY LUMINOUS PRESENCE THAT RESISTS THE PASSAGE OF TIME

There is a Liberator whose influence transcends limits or human dates. May or November*²? His influence is constant. While there is hunger, unemployment, the homeless, the underage without schools and loving care, the elderly without aid and affection, and people without someone to comfort them, there shall be an unpostponable emancipation of all ethnic groups yet to be achieved.

History has given us notable characters who dignified existence on Earth (...). However, with the relentless passing of time, the memory of people tends to fade the fame of the accomplishments of many such notables where only their names and a pale reminiscence of their accomplishments still lingers.

One of those figures of all times and all nations in History gloriously resists. The luminous presence shines more and more. His indelible mark is engraved in the memory of all men:

Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away (Luke 21:33).

His life—childhood, youth, preaching of the Good Tidings, sufferings, death, the resurrection—has no parallel on Earth:

You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world (John 8:23).

After Him, the life of Human Beings was never the same:

I am the resurrection and the Life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live; and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die (John 11:25 and 26).

He shook the souls and summoned the diligence of those in power to Bethlehem. About Him once prophesized Simeon:

This Child is destined for the fall and rising of many, and for a sign that will be spoken against (Luke 2:34).

From His childhood, He manifested His lofty wisdom: at twelve, He already preached to teachers of the law, revealing His Divine knowledge. He spoke to them with advanced wisdom. He left them astonished and in deep introspection due to great sublimity of the lessons encased in His replies:

I tell you the Truth, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has crossed over from death to Eternal Life (John 5:24).

This extraordinary Being born under the expectation of the millennia, for which the Angels of the Heavenly Army sang the

Glory to God in the highest, and Peace on Earth to People of Good Will of God *³ (Luke 2:14);

He who shook the foundations of society:

Not one stone here will be left on another (Matthew 24:2);

He who admonished the heedless:

For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of God (Matthew 24:27);

He who warned the idle:

For the Christ is going to come in His Father's glory with His angels, and then He will reward each person according to what he has done. (Matthew 16: 27);

He who made the arrogant and the imprudent shudder:

Woe to you who laugh now, for tomorrow you will mourn and weep (Luke 6:25);

He who faced the pretentious and arrogant of the world:

I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you (Matthew 21:31);

but He summoned to responsibility the unbridled pleasure seekers:

As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of God. (...) For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of God. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come (Matthew 24:37 to 44, and Mark 13:32 and 33);

He who instructed the wise and the learned of the world:

My teaching is not my own. It comes from Him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether My teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him (John 7:16 to 18);

And He who taught the apostles and disciples that which constitutes the great quest of philosophers, but which He could not reveal to Pilate, for he would not understand:

Father, sanctify them by the Truth; Your Word is the Truth (John 17:17);

He who comforted the desperate:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28);

He who showed the path to true freedom:

Then you will know the Truth (of God), and the Truth (of God) will set you free (John 8:32);

He who became eternal in History, because He carved His home in the hearts of the oppressed by the threatening peace of men who for this reason are thirsty for the peace that comes from God; therefore, the peace that the world has not to offer (John 14:27);

He who also said, in memory of Prophet Hoshea (6:6):

I desire mercy, not sacrifice (Matthew 9:13);

for without mercy there is no Peace;

and He who gave His life for us, without distinction, because He Himself counseled:

If you do good only unto those who benefit you, then what divine rewards would you deserve?

Do you wish to know His name? Jesus!, the Ecumenical Christ, ipso facto, with no trace of intolerance, since He, for our redemption, is Love raised to the nth degree!

The true Light that gives light to every man coming into the world (John 1:9).

TO BE FREE, ABOVE ALL, REQUIRES SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT

(...) The true liberation of the Human Being and of his immortal Spirit shall be that which is strengthened by the culture of mutual respect whose richness consists in the multiplicity of ideas in favor of Peace among all people. It will also come from Schooling and Education enlightened by Spirituality that is Love and Justice, Science and Love, for all ethnic groups. To be free, above all, requires spiritual discernment, preferably in consonance with this instigating suggestion by the Sublime Reformer:

Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you (Matthew 6:33).

Since, one way or another, all people acknowledge in Him a unique personality. His passing through this planet has freed countless multitudes from the feeling of arrogance:

Whoever desires to become great among all others shall be their servant, and whoever desires to be first shall be slave of all *4 (Mark 10:43 and 44).

He who is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone (John 8:7).

But who does not err in this world?!...

Jesus launched Himself into History to teach us with His own example, an ideal path to Peace:

Love one another as I have loved you. Only by this shall all of you be recognized as my disciples (John 13:34 and 35).

A MESSAGE TO BELIEVERS AND ATHEISTS

The message of this Sublime Benefactor hovers beyond religions, ideologies and ethnic groups. It speaks to the souls of believers and atheists alike, and has nothing to do with the excesses of different generations that were afflicted for centuries.

Human Beings should study it in an ecumenical fashion, thoroughly studying His ethical, social, economic, philosophical, political and religious thoughts, singularized in the gesture of aiding the widows and orphans, the thirsty and the famished, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned of body and Soul who are afflicted and desperate (Matthew 25:34 to 40).

Our homage, then, to this Divine Liberator, who first frees us from ourselves, pointing the path to the Heavenly Light. The essence of His Gospel, that is Solidarity, emancipates creatures of all backgrounds, as it transforms everyone from within:

No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing. Instead, I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from my Father I have made known to you (John 15:15).

THE ESSENCE OF FRATERNITY

May the notion of His sublime wisdom guide us to better understand Him, to better feel Him in His prodigious effort to bring people together so that it can actually become, in the essence of Fraternity,

One Flock and one Shepherd (John 10:16),

who is God, or, for those who do not believe in Him, the highest aspiration of which we are in such dire need, so that life can continue on this planet that offers us home. It is the harmony of a mature people, composed of black, white, yellow, mestizo people, in short, Human and Spiritual Beings, as there is only one race, the Universal Race of the Children of God. After all, from the times of Monera to present day, who is not the result of miscegenation in this world?

Here’s the most urgent charity He has offered us in these times of utter selfishness: in order to free ourselves, we need to free others; in order to save ourselves, we need to save. This is the Law of Reciprocity [of which Confucius (551-479 b.C.) also spoke]:

Therefore, whatever you want others to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 7:12).

YOU ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH

And Christ also added that:

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:13 to 16).

While the trend among some is to widen the gap between creatures, the act to promote the qualities of the Spirit, not allowing the salt of the earth—which is the word of Peace from Our Lord Jesus Christ—to become insipid, is also a measure of general salvation. Because, if there are no more frontiers for the “sovereign capital”, likewise, the barriers that block the advance of the consequences of misery in which uncountable populations live, within territories of plenty, shall fall. Therefore, to highlight the appreciable side of each one of us, and make it a powerful tool of transformation, including an economic one, became a strategy that requires not only talent, but also skill, energy and determination to employ it. This is why Christ equally counseled:

Be harmless as doves and wise as serpents. (...) But he who endures to the end will be saved (Matthew 10:16 and 22).

However, it is necessary to conclude that to follow the path to spiritualization does not mean for one to be a fool or a coward, as many hard workers from several segments of society were and still are courageous. To all of these, our salute.

By your endurance you shall save your Souls (Luke 21:19).

And, as it is said in the Apocalypse, 21:5 to 7, 22:21:

Then He who sat on the throne said: Behold, I make all things new. Then he added: Write this down, for these words are faithful and true.

He also said to me: It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of Eternal Life freely to him who is thirsty.

He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be my son. (...)

The grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all forever. Amen.
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*1 Text taken from an article published by the author in the press, in the decade of 1980.

*2 Paiva Netto refers to the celebration of Brazilian History: May, 13th of May 1888, when Princess Isabel signed the Golden Law; November, in reference to Zumbi (the nephew of King Ganga Zumba), the hero of Quilombo dos Palmares, in the 17th century. After withstanding several invasions, he was betrayed, being surrounded by the invading troops of mercenary Domingos Jorge Velho—whom he had vanquished previously—and was killed.

*3 Translation by Father Matos Soares, 1954 edition — Tip. Sociedade de Papelaria — Porto

*4 Certainly inspired on the words by Jesus, found in the Gospel according to Mark 10:43 and 44, the Italian Philosopher and Sociologist Pietro Ubaldi (1886-1972), in The Great Synthesis, wrote: “The supreme command is simply supreme obedience”.