Material charity and moral charity

“Let us love one another and do unto others what we would wish them to do unto us.” All religion, all morality is contained in these two precepts. If they were observed in this world you would all be happy: no more hatreds there, nor resentments. I will say further: no more poverty, since, from the surplus of the table of each rich man, many poor would be fed, and you would no longer see, in the somber quarters where I dwelt during my last incarnation, poor women dragging along with them wretched children who lacked everything. Rich ones! think on this a little. Help the unfortunate the best you can. Give, so that God may one day repay you the good you have done, so that you may have, upon leaving your earthly envelope, a procession of grateful Spirits to receive you on the threshold of a happier world.

If you could but know the joy I experienced upon finding in the Beyond those whom, in my last existence, it had been granted me to serve!… Give and love your neighbor; love him as yourself, because you know it, you too, now that God has permitted you to begin instructing yourselves in the spirit science, that, by repelling an unfortunate, you may perhaps be turning away from yourself a brother, a father, a friend of yours from former times. If it be so, with what despair will you be seized, upon recognizing him in the spirit world! I wish you to understand well what moral charity is, which everyone can practice, which costs nothing, materially speaking, but which is the most difficult to exercise.

Moral charity consists in creatures bearing with one another, and it is what you do least in this inferior world, where you find yourselves, for now, incarnate. Be, then, charitable, because you will advance further on the good path; be humane and bear with one another. There is great merit, believe me, in a man's knowing how to keep silent, letting another more foolish than himself speak. That is a kind of charity. To know how to be deaf when a mocking word escapes from a mouth accustomed to scoffing; not to see the smile of disdain with which you are received by persons who, often wrongly, suppose themselves above you, when in the spirit life, the only real one, they are, not infrequently, far beneath you, constitutes merit, not from the point of view of humility, but from that of charity, since to pay no attention to the bad conduct of another is moral charity. In passing by a poor invalid, to look upon him with compassion has always far more merit than to throw him a coin with contempt. Nevertheless, this figure must not be taken literally, because this charity must not prevent the other. Take care, however, above all, not to treat your fellow being with contempt. Remember all that I have already told you: Keep always present that, by repelling a poor man, you may perhaps repel a Spirit who was dear to you and who, at the moment, finds himself in a position inferior to your own. I found here one of the poor of the Earth, whom, fortunately, I had been able to help a few times, and whom, in my turn, I now have to implore for help. Be, then, charitable; be not disdainful; know how to let pass a word that wounds you, and do not judge that to be charitable is merely to lavish material help, but also to practice moral charity. I repeat it to you: practice both the one and the other.

Remember that Jesus said that we are all brothers, and think always of this, before repelling the leper or the beggar. I will come again to give you a longer communication, for now I am called. Farewell: think of those who suffer and pray.

Sister Rosalia. n [1] Translator's Note: Under the same title this message was inserted by Allan Kardec in The Gospel According to Spiritism, chapter XIII, item 10. (3rd definitive edition – 1866).

[2] [see: Sister Rosalia.]