Observe the birds in the sky

6. Do not accumulate  treasures on the earth, where rust and worms corrupt them and where  thieves unbury  and steal  them; but create  treasures  in heaven, where neither rust nor worms corrupt, for wherever your treasure is, there is your heart also.

Thus, I say to you: Do not be anxious about where you will find something to eat for the sustenance of your life, or where you will get clothes to cover your body. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Observe the birds in the sky: they neither  sow nor reap, nor do they store anything in barns, but your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who among you, with all his effort, can increase his stature by one cubit?

Moreover, why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the fields grow: they neither  work nor spin; nevertheless, I declare to you that Solomon himself in all his glory was ever dressed like one of them. Thus, if God has taken care to clothe in such manner an herb in the field, which exists today and tomorrow will be cast into the fire, how much more care will he take in clothing you, O men of little faith!

Therefore, do not be anxious,  saying: What will we eat, or what will we drink, or what will we wear, as do the pagans who seek after all these thing, because your Father knows what you need.

Therefore, seek first the kingdom  of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you in abundance. So do not be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough evil of its own. (Mt. 6:19-21, 25-34)

7. Taken literally, these words would be the negation of all foresight and labor, and consequently, of all progress. With such a principle, humans would reduce themselves  to an expectant passiveness.  Their  physical and  mental powers would remain inactive. If such had been their normal condition on the earth, they would have never left the primitive state, and if it were to become the law today, they would have nothing more to do than to live in idleness. This could not have been Jesus’ thought, because it would be in contradiction with what he said elsewhere and with the laws of nature themselves. God created humans with neither clothing nor shelter but gave them the intelligence to make them.

Therefore, one should see in these words only a poetic allegory of Providence, which never abandons those who put their trust in it, but which wills that they work alongside it. If Providence does not always come to them with material help, it inspires them with ideas with which they may find the means of freeing themselves from their difficulty.

God knows our needs and provides for them according to what is necessary. However, humans, insatiable in their desires, never know how to be content with what they have: the necessities are not enough for them; they need the superfluous. It is then that Providence leaves them to themselves. They are often unhappy due to their own fault and for having disregarded the voice that warned them in their conscience; and God allows them to suffer the consequences so that they may serve as a lesson for the future. (Chap. V, no. 4)

8. The earth will produce enough to feed all its inhabitants when, according to the laws of justice, charity and love for one’s neighbor, people know how to manage the provisions it gives to them. When fraternity reigns among all peoples as it does among the provinces of the same country, the temporary surplus of one will make up for the temporary insufficiency of another, and each will have what it needs. The rich will then regard themselves as those who possess a large amount of seed; if they scatter it, it will produce a hundredfold for themselves and for others, but if they consume the seed by themselves, if they waste it and allow the surplus of what they have consumed to be lost, the seed will produce nothing and there will not be enough for everybody. If they hoard it in their barns, the worms will devour it. That is why Jesus said: Do not accumulate treasures on the earth, which are perishable, but create treasures in heaven, because they are eternal. In other words, do not attach more importance to material possessions than spiritual ones, and know how to sacrifice the former on behalf of the latter.

Charity and fraternity are not decreed by law. If they are not in the heart, selfishness will always stifle them; it is the labor of Spiritism to enable them to enter the heart.