An earthly expiation.

— Those who have read Heaven and Hell will doubtless remember the touching story of Marcel, the boy of no. 4, related in chapter VIII of the Earthly Expiations. The following fact presents a more or less analogous case, and one no less instructive, as an application of sovereign justice and as an explanation of what often seems inexplicable in certain situations of life.

Those who have read Heaven and Hell will doubtless remember the touching story of Marcel, the boy of no. 4, related in chapter VIII of the Earthly Expiations. The following fact presents a more or less analogous case, and one no less instructive, as an application of sovereign justice and as an explanation of what often seems inexplicable in certain situations of life.

In a good and honest family there died, in October 1866, a lad of twelve years, whose life, during nine years, had been a continual suffering, which neither the affectionate care with which he was surrounded, nor the resources of Science, had been able even to alleviate. He was stricken with paralysis and dropsy; his body was covered with sores, invaded by gangrene, and his flesh was falling away in pieces. Often, in the paroxysm of pain, he would exclaim: “What have I done, then, my God, to deserve to suffer so much? And yet, since I have been in the world I have done no wrong to anyone!” Instinctively this little lad understood that suffering must be an expiation, but, ignorant of the law of solidarity of successive existences, his thought not reaching back beyond the present life, he could not account for the cause within him that might justify so cruel a chastisement. A particularity worthy of note was the birth of a sister, when he was about three years old. It was at this time that the first symptoms declared themselves of the terrible infirmity to which he was to succumb. From that moment he felt for the newcomer a repulsion such that he could not bear her presence, it seeming that the sight of her redoubled his sufferings. Often he reproached himself for this sentiment, which nothing justified, for the little one did not share it; on the contrary, she was gentle and kind toward him. He would say to his mother: “Why, then, is the sight of my sister so painful to me? She is good to me and, in spite of myself, I cannot keep from detesting her.” Yet he could not bear that the least harm be done to her, nor that she be vexed; far from delighting in her troubles, he was distressed when he saw her weep. It was evident that within him two sentiments were at war; he understood the injustice of his antipathy, but his efforts to overcome it were powerless. That such infirmities should be, at a certain age, the consequence of bad conduct, would be a very natural thing. But of what faults so grave can a child of this age become guilty as to endure such a martyrdom? Moreover, from where could this repulsion for an inoffensive being have arisen? These are problems that present themselves at every instant, and that lead many people to doubt the justice of God, because they find no solution to them in any religion. On the contrary, these apparent anomalies find their complete justification in the solidarity of existences. A Spiritist observer could, then, say, with every appearance of reason, that these two beings were known to each other and had been placed beside one another in the present existence for some expiation, and for the reparation of some fault. From the brother’s state of suffering, one could conclude that he was the guilty one, and that the ties of close kinship that united him to the object of his antipathy were imposed upon him to prepare between them the ways of a reconciliation. Thus one already sees in the brother a tendency and efforts to overcome his aversion, which he recognizes as unjust. This antipathy did not have the characters of the jealousy that is sometimes noted in children of the same blood. It arose, then, in all probability, from painful memories, and, perhaps, from the remorse that the presence of the little girl awakened. Such are the deductions that, rationally and by analogy, may be drawn from the observation of the facts, and that were confirmed by the Spirit of the lad.

— Evoked almost immediately after death, by a friend of the family for whom he cherished great affection, at first he could not explain himself in a complete manner, promising, later on, to give more circumstantial details. Among the various communications he gave, here are the two that refer more particularly to the question:

“You await from me the account I promised, concerning what I was in a previous existence, and the explanation of the cause of my great sufferings; it will be a teaching for all. I well know that these teachings are everywhere and are found on all sides; but the account of facts whose consequences we ourselves have seen is always, for those who exist, a far more admirable proof.

“I sinned, yes I sinned! Do you know what it is to have been a murderer, to have attempted the life of one’s fellow being? I did not do it in the manner that murderers employ, killing immediately, whether with a cord, or with a knife, or any other instrument; no, it was not in that manner. I killed, but I killed slowly, making suffer a being whom I detested! Yes, I detested this child whom I judged not to belong to me! Poor innocent! Had she deserved this sad fate? No, my poor friends, she had not deserved it, or, at least, it was not for me to make her suffer those torments. And yet, I did it, which is why I was obliged to suffer as you saw.

“I suffered, my God! Will it have been enough? You are so good, Lord! Yes, in the presence of my crime and of the expiation, I find that you were very merciful.

“Pray for me, dear parents, dear friends. Now my sufferings are past. Poor Mme. D…, I make you suffer! it is that it was very painful for me to come to make the confession of this immense crime!

“Hope, my good friends, God has pardoned my fault; now I am in joy and, nonetheless, also in pain. See! However much one may be in a better state, however much one may have expiated, the thought, the memory of the crimes leaves such an impression that it is impossible not to feel still, for a long time, all the horror, because it was not only on Earth that I suffered, but rather, in this spiritual life! And how much I suffered to resolve to come to suffer this terrible expiation! I cannot narrate all of this to you, because it would be too horrible! The constant vision of my victim, and the other, the poor mother! In short, my friends: prayers for me and thanks to the Lord! I had promised you this account. It was necessary that I pay my debt to the end, cost what it might. (Up to this point the medium had written under the dominion of vivid emotion. He continued with more calm.)

And now, my good parents, a word of consolation. Thank you, oh! thank you! to you who helped me in this expiation and who bore a part of it; you softened, as much as depended on you, what was bitter in my state. Do not grieve, it is a thing past; I am happy, I have told you so, above all comparing the past state with the present one. I love you all; I thank you; I embrace you; love me always. We shall meet again and, all together, we shall continue this eternal life, striving so that the future life may entirely redeem the past life.

Your son, François E.

In another communication, the Spirit of young François completed the information above:

Q. – Dear boy, you did not say from where your antipathy for your little sister came.

Answer. – Do you not guess it? This poor and innocent creature was my victim, whom God had bound to my last existence as a living remorse. This is why the sight of her made me suffer so much.

Q. – Yet you did not know who she was.

Answer. – I did not know it while awake, without which my torments would have been a hundred times more horrible; as horrible as they had been in the spiritual life, in which I saw her incessantly. But do you believe that my Spirit, in the moments when it was released, did not know it? It was the cause of my repulsion, and if I strove to combat it, it is that I instinctively felt that it was unjust. I was not yet strong enough to do good to her whom I could not keep from detesting, but I did not want harm done to her: it was a beginning of reparation. God took this sentiment into account, permitting that I be soon freed from my life of suffering, without which I might have lived still long years in the horrible situation in which you saw me. Bless, then, my death, which put a term to the expiation, for it was the guarantee of my rehabilitation.

— Q. (To the medium’s guide.) Why do expiation and repentance in the spiritual life not suffice for rehabilitation, without it being necessary to join bodily sufferings thereto?

Answer. – To suffer in one world or in the other is always to suffer, and one suffers for as long until the rehabilitation is complete. This boy suffered much on Earth. Well then! this is nothing in comparison with what he endured in the world of the Spirits. Here he had, in compensation, the care and the affection with which he was surrounded. There is also this difference between bodily suffering and spiritual suffering: the first is almost always accepted voluntarily, as a complement of expiation, or as a trial in order to advance more rapidly, whereas the other is imposed.

But there are other motives for bodily suffering: first, so that the reparation may be made in the same conditions in which the wrong was done; then, to serve as an example to the incarnate. Seeing their fellow men suffer and knowing the reason for it, they are far more impressed than to know that they are unhappy as Spirits; they can better explain to themselves the cause of their own sufferings; in a certain manner divine justice shows itself palpable to their eyes. Finally, bodily suffering is an occasion for the incarnate to exercise charity, a trial for their sentiments of commiseration and, often, a means of repairing earlier wrongs; for, believe it well, when an unfortunate finds himself in your path, it is not by effect of chance. For the parents of young Francisco, it was a great trial to have a son in that sad situation. Well then! they fulfilled their mission worthily, and they will be all the more rewarded inasmuch as they acted spontaneously, by the very impulse of the heart. If Spirits did not suffer in incarnation, it would be because on Earth there would be only perfect Spirits.