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Spirituality

The Sun Shines Equally on Everyone

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Martin Luther

The Heavenly Father is always willing to offer us repeated opportunities, showing us an infinity of unequalled beauties. All one has to realize is that He has sent Jesus to bring us His formula of spiritual elevation (the Gospel according to John 3:16 and 17), portrayed in the opinion of Martin Luther (1483-1546) as the most moving passage from the Gospel:

16 For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.

Tela: James Tissot (1836-1902)

Jesus

Well, from this Celestial Measure of moral and spiritual ascension of the creatures will result the final social ascension of the masses if with conviction and perseverance they comply with this teaching of Christ (the Gospel according to Matthew 6:33):

“Seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and all the material things will be added to you.”

Given this magnificent itinerary for divine liberation, how many times do we forget, because of some trifling matter, the generous gifts the Father prepared for us so that we do not fall behind, imprisoned in the claws of ignorance.

Everything has ended; no way!

You may be often desperate and exclaim: “Everything has ended! Nothing else exists!” However, the Sun is still shining outside; the air is circulating around you; life is still continuing . . . Humanity persists, full of hope. There are people loving each other, existing, achieving their objectives . . . But you see and feel everything with a degree of bitterness, because you yourself have become particularly bitter.

Two thousand years ago, however, Jesus warned:

“If your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full fo darkness! (Gospel according to Matthew 6:23).” [In other words, how dark your fate will be!]

However, thousands of years of human Christianity have passed. And when the Master draws close to illuminate the planet with His total Christianity, truly making our earthly journey sublime, despite all appearances to the contrary, by means that only He knows, will you think of giving up?! . . . Having crossed an ocean of hardships and difficulties that seemed to want to drown you in despair, do you want now to fall at the last hurdle?!

Divulgação

Pope John XXIII

In moment of despair remember these words of the late Pope John XXIII (1881-1963), who with his well-known enthusiasm and high spirits used to say:

“I’m always optimistic, even when people tell me personally that they are deeply concerned with the destiny of Humanity.”

The sun shines equally on everyone. You cannot blame it for the fact that selfishness still reigns on Earth. Quousque tandem, Catilina?

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Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) was an example of pertinacity. In the dramatic moment when, with a powerful hand, he led his “small island” to resist Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), he raised his voice against fear. And the people strengthened themselves in a ferrous determination to not give in to the Nazis. This is already part of History.

With these words, which illustrate well his strong determination, even today he invites us never to get downhearted:

Never give in,
Never, never, never!
In nothing great or small,
large or petty . . . 
Never give in!

The right decision, therefore, is never to capitulate when faced with the challenges of physical and spiritual life. But understand, above all, the lesson of the Heavenly Educator, as His Apostles understood it: always insist a little more and you will feel that your redemption is near at hand.

The Christ said:

“By your endurance you will gain your lives (the Gospel according to Luke 21:19).”

Therefore, it is advantageous for us to heed this divine warning in our hearts and minds at every moment of our lives. In this way we shall walk more and more in the direction of eternal happiness and the glory of God.

Jesus is a strong message of hope at a time of such disillusion for so many people.

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.”