The Justice of Afflictions

3. The compensations that Jesus promises to the afflicted of the earth cannot occur except in the future life. Without certainty about the future, these maxims would be nonsense; even more, they would be a falsehood. But even with this certainty, it is difficult to understand the usefulness of suffering in order to be happy. It is said that it is in order to have greater merit. But then one must ask: Why do some suffer more than others? Why are some born into poverty and others into opulence, without having done anything to justify such a position? Why does nothing ever work out for some, while everything seems to smile on others? But what is even harder to grasp is seeing benefits and misfortunes so unequally divided between vice and virtue; seeing virtuous people suffer alongside the wicked ones who prosper. Faith in the future might offer consolation and lead to patience, but it does not explain these anomalies, which appear to belie God’s justice.

However, if one believes in God, one cannot conceive of God apart from infinite perfection. God must be all powerful, wholly just and wholly good; otherwise, God would not be God. If God is supremely good and just, then God can neither act capriciously nor with partiality. Therefore, the vicissitudes of life have a cause, and since God is just, that cause must also be just. This is what everyone must understand very well. By means of Jesus’ teachings, God has placed humans on the path toward that cause,

Blessed are the afflicted and today, having deemed them sufficiently mature to understand it, God has revealed it entirely through Spiritism, i.e., through the voice of the Spirits.