Do not go to the Gentiles

8. Jesus sent out his twelve (the disciples) after having given them the following instructions:  “Do not go to the Gentiles, and do not enter the cities of the Samaritans.  Instead, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and wherever you go, preach, saying that the kingdom  of heaven is near.” (Mt. 10:5-7)

9. In many circumstances, Jesus shows that his sights are not limited to the Jewish people, but that they encompass all humankind. Therefore, if he told his disciples not to go to the pagans, it was not that he disdained converting them – which would have been uncharitable – but because the Jews, who believed in the oneness of God and awaited the Messiah, had been prepared by the Law of Moses and the Prophets to receive his word. Among the pagans, where even the base was lacking, everything needed to be done, and the disciples were not yet sufficiently enlightened for such a weighty task. That is why he told them: Go to the lost sheep of Israel; that is, go and sow on ground that has already been prepared, knowing that the conversion of the Gentiles will come in its own time. Later, in fact, the apostles would plant the cross right in the midst of paganism.

10.  These words may be applied to  the followers and propagators  of  Spiritism.  Systematic disbelievers, obstinate scoffers and self-centered adversaries are to them what the Gentiles were to the disciples. Thus, in following their example, they first seek to make converts among persons of goodwill, those who desire the light, in whom a fertile seed may be found and whose numbers are great, without wasting their time on those who refuse to see or hear, and who, the more importance is attached to their conversion, are all the more obstinate out of pride. It is worth more to open the eyes of a hundred blind persons who desire to see clearly than one person who takes pleasure in darkness, because doing so increases to a greater proportion the number of those who will support the cause. Leaving the others alone is not indifference but good policy. Their time will come when they are persuaded by general opinion and when they hear the same thing constantly repeated around them. Then they will believe they have accepted the idea voluntarily and by themselves and not due to the pressure of someone else. Furthermore, the same thing applies to ideas as applies to seeds: they cannot germinate before the right season and only in prepared soil. That is why it is better to wait for the propitious time and to first cultivate those that germinate, thus avoiding aborting the others by pushing them too hard.

In the time of Jesus, and as a consequence of the narrow- minded and  materialistic ideas of those days, everything was circumscribed and localized. The house of Israel was a small nation; the Gentiles were small nations surrounding it. Today, ideas are universalized and spiritualized. The new light is not a privilege of any one nation. There are no barriers to it; it shines everywhere and all humans are brothers and sisters. Moreover, the Gentiles are no longer a people, but an opinion that is found everywhere and over which the truth triumphs little by little, just as Christianity triumphed over paganism. They are no longer combated with weapons of war, but with the power of an idea.