Should We Put an End to Our Neighbor’s Trials?

Should we put an end to our neighbor’s trials if we can, or should we, out of respect for God’s designs, let them take their course?

We have stated and repeated many times that you are on this earth of expiation to conclude your trials, and that everything that happens to you is a consequence of your previous existences, an installment on the debt you owe. However, in some people this thought provokes notions that must be deterred because they may have disastrous consequences.

Some think that because one is put on the earth for expiation, all trials must take their course. There are even those who want to believe that not only must nothing be done to mitigate them, but that, on the contrary, it is necessary to contribute to them to make them more profitable, adding to their intensity. This is a great error. Yes, your trials must take the course marked out by God, but do you know what that course is? Do you know how far they must go, or if your merciful Father has not said to the suffering of this or that brother or sister, “You shall go no farther?” Do you know if God’s providence has chosen you not as an instrument of punishment to intensify the suffering of the guilty, but as the balm of consolation that must heal the wounds that God’s justice had opened up? Therefore, when you see one of your brothers or sisters being afflicted, do not say, “It is God’s justice and it must take its course.” Instead, say to yourselves, “Let’s see what means our merciful Father has put within my reach in order to ease the suffering of my brother or sister. Let’s see if my moral consolation, my material help or my counsels might not assist in overcoming this trial with greater strength, patience and resignation. Let’s even see if God has not placed in my hands the means of putting an end to this suffering; if it has not been given to me also as a trial, an expiation perhaps, in order to deter evil and replace it with peace.” Therefore, always mutually help  one  another  in  your respective trials and never regard yourselves as instruments of torment. Such a thought should be revolting to every man and woman of heart, especially to all Spiritists, because Spiritists, better than anyone else, should understand the infinite extent of God’s  goodness. Spiritists ought to believe that their entire life should be an act of love and devotion; that no matter what they may do to oppose the Lord’s  wishes, his justice will take its course. Therefore, they can fearlessly  make every effort to mitigate the bitterness of expiation, but only God can shorten or prolong it as he deems necessary.

Would there not be great pride on the part of humans in believing themselves to have the right, so to speak, to twist the knife in the wound? To increase the dose of poison in the heart of someone who is suffering, under the pretext that it is his or her expiation? Oh! Always regard yourselves as instruments chosen to make the suffering stop. To summarize: all of you are on the earth for expiation, but all of you, without exception, must employ all your efforts to mitigate your neighbor’s expiation according to the law of love and charity.

Bernardin, A Protector Spirit (Bordeaux, 1863)