Blessed Are Those Who Suffer

Justice of suffering — Present causes and earlier causes in the Spiritist view — Forgetfulness of the past — Reasons for acceptance — Self-destruction and extreme suffering — Instructions from the Spirits: suffering well or badly, evil and its remedies, happiness and unhappiness, melancholy, voluntary trials, and end-of-life care.

Justice of suffering

1. Jesus said: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 5:4,6,10)

2. Jesus also warns against making present comfort the only measure of a good life: those who have abundance may still face emptiness, and those who receive only praise may be following a path that pleases people more than conscience. (Luke 6:24-25)

3. The promise of comfort after suffering seems difficult to understand if we look only at one earthly life. Why should someone who suffers be called blessed? For Kardec, the answer lies in the continuation of life and in the Spiritist view of existence.

The work teaches that difficulties have causes and that divine justice cannot be understood only from what is visible in the present moment. Some causes would be found in current choices; others, according to the Doctrine, would be related to previous existences.

Present causes of suffering

4. Many difficulties have causes that can be found in present life. When we examine our history honestly, we may recognize consequences of choices, negligence, unhealthy habits, impulsiveness, pride, lack of planning, or conflicts we helped create.

Kardec gives examples of people who suffer from having pursued only money, vanity, or immediate pleasures and later discover the consequences of those priorities.

He also mentions families harmed by lack of responsibility, relationships weakened by selfishness, and health problems aggravated by behavior. These examples show that some suffering can indeed be reduced through better choices.

However, not every suffering is self-created. Illness, violence, poverty, discrimination, accidents, disasters, and many other circumstances may occur without being the victim's fault. The principle of personal responsibility should never become a way of blaming those who suffer.

5. Human laws deal with many visible wrongs. Moral law, according to the work, reaches also the inward consequences of attitudes and choices.

Some faults do not lead to legal punishment but still produce consequences: broken trust, loneliness, remorse, damaged relationships, or habits that make life harder.

Thus, even when no court intervenes, our behavior can create its own effects. This is one way Kardec understands moral justice operating within present life.

Earlier causes of suffering

6. Other difficulties appear without an identifiable cause in the present life: illnesses from birth, serious limitations, early losses, or conditions the person did not choose.

Kardec asks how such differences could be reconciled with divine justice if the soul had begun only at birth. The Spiritist answer is the preexistence of the Spirit and reincarnation.

According to this Doctrine, some present experiences could be connected with choices or learning from previous existences. This is a religious explanation, not a medical or scientific diagnosis and should never be used to blame a person for illness, disability, poverty, or victimization.

7. In the Spiritist view, trials may also be chosen before incarnation as opportunities for growth, while other difficulties may be consequences of earlier choices. The purpose would be education and reparation, not eternal punishment.

Every new existence would offer the Spirit another opportunity to learn, change, and advance. For the work, justice is inseparable from the possibility of progress.

Kardec considers that this longer horizon helps explain why some people face very different starting conditions in life.

8. The Doctrine does not teach that every painful event corresponds to a specific past fault that we can identify. We normally do not know the supposed earlier cause, and inventing one can produce injustice and cruelty.

The useful moral response to another person's suffering is therefore compassion and help, not speculation about what they might have done in another life.

9. According to Kardec, some experiences may serve more for learning than for reparation. A Spirit could accept a difficult task to develop patience, courage, compassion, or another quality.

In this perspective, difficulty is not automatically proof of guilt. The same visible situation could have very different spiritual meanings for different people.

10. The work compares earthly life to a period of education. A difficult exercise does not necessarily mean condemnation; it can be part of learning.

However, this spiritual comparison should never be used to justify preventable suffering or social injustice. If a problem can be reduced through medicine, protection, public policy, education, or solidarity, acting to reduce it is also a moral duty.

11. Kardec also explains that the Spirit's choices before incarnation would not be made with the same limited perspective we have during bodily life. The Doctrine imagines a broader awareness in the spiritual state.

This is part of the Spiritist belief about reincarnation and should be understood as such.

Forgetfulness of the past

12. If previous lives influence the present, why do we not remember them? Kardec says that clear memory could create serious difficulties in current relationships and interfere with a new opportunity to begin again.

Knowing exactly who had harmed us or whom we had harmed could reactivate hatred, guilt, pride, or fear. Forgetfulness would therefore protect freedom and allow relationships to be rebuilt under new conditions.

13. The work argues that we do not need detailed memories to improve. Our present tendencies, difficulties, abilities, and relationships would already provide enough material for moral work.

Conscience can show what needs correction now without requiring access to a supposed previous biography.

14. Sometimes people believe they have impressions or memories of other lives. The Doctrine treats such experiences with caution because imagination, suggestion, and error are possible. No personal impression should be turned into certainty without careful examination.

15. Forgetfulness also prevents the use of supposed past identities as a reason for pride. What matters would be what we do in the present life, not the title or position we imagine we once had.

Reasons for acceptance

16. When suffering cannot be avoided, faith can help a person endure it without losing hope. Kardec calls this acceptance, but it should not be confused with passivity in the face of injustice or refusal of treatment.

Acceptance means recognizing what cannot currently be changed while continuing to act on what can be improved.

17. Someone who understands life only as the present moment may experience irreversible loss as absolute destruction. The Spiritist view offers hope that existence and bonds of affection continue beyond death.

This religious hope can comfort grief, but it does not eliminate the need to live the mourning process, seek support, or take care of mental health when suffering becomes overwhelming.

18. Kardec states that faith in the future reduces despair because present difficulties are seen as temporary within a much longer spiritual journey.

Good decisions and conscience would help distinguish what builds from what harms. For Kardec, complete memory would return in the spiritual world, so forgetfulness during bodily life would be only temporary.

The work also states that, in moments of greater freedom of the Spirit during sleep, there would be partial access to this memory. This is a Spiritist doctrinal explanation, not a scientific claim.

Even without detailed memories, Kardec considers that these spiritual experiences could strengthen a person to face the choices of present life more effectively.

This does not make pain pleasant or desirable. The proposal is only that, when a difficulty truly cannot be removed, a broader meaning can reduce the feeling that everything is lost.

19. The work criticizes envy of other people's lives because we see only part of their reality. People who appear happy may carry suffering that is not visible.

Social comparison can make our own situation seem worse. Kardec invites us to value what we actually have and work responsibly to improve what is within our reach.

20. The Doctrine also teaches that present advantages are temporary. Wealth, health, beauty, influence, and social position can change.

For this reason, someone who possesses them should use them without pride and, when possible, make them instruments of good.

21. The work warns against deliberately creating difficulties for ourselves and then calling them spiritual trials. Prudence and self-preservation are also part of moral responsibility.

22. Acceptance does not mean refusing to prevent a problem when prevention is possible. We should use intelligence, medicine, law, work, and solidarity to reduce avoidable suffering.

23. Kardec distinguishes natural acceptance from the passive attitude of someone who simply abandons every effort. Faith should give strength to act, not become an excuse for inaction.

Self-destruction and extreme suffering

24. The old text discusses suicide as a response to despair. In current language, suicidal suffering should never be treated as weakness, cowardice, or a simple moral failure. It is a serious health and safety issue that deserves immediate support, compassion, and professional care.

Within the religious view of the work, life is considered a valuable opportunity and intentionally ending it would not solve the Spirit's underlying difficulties. The central message we preserve is to protect life and seek help when pain becomes unbearable.

Anyone thinking about suicide or unable to stay safe should seek emergency support, trusted people, and professional care. Prayer and spiritual support may accompany this help, but they should not replace it.

25. Kardec asks whether severe suffering could ever make suicide understandable. His doctrinal answer remains that ending bodily life does not end spiritual responsibility or guarantee relief.

Today we add an essential care: a person in suicidal crisis is not in a condition to be morally lectured or threatened. What helps is safety, listening without judgment, treatment, and removal of immediate means of self-harm when possible.

26. The work also discusses people who expose themselves to death indirectly through reckless behavior. The moral principle is the value of preserving life and avoiding unnecessary risk.

Choosing a dangerous act while fully understanding the risk differs from facing danger to protect someone or fulfill a necessary responsibility. Context and intention matter.

27. Kardec criticizes the idea of wishing for death simply to escape ordinary responsibilities. At the same time, profound depression or other mental illness can alter motivation and judgment; these situations require care, not condemnation.

28. Faith in a future life can be a protective source of meaning for some people. For others, support may come from family, friendships, therapy, medicine, community, or other sources. These resources can work together.

Instructions from the Spirits

Suffering well or suffering badly

Lacordaire - Le Havre, 1863

29. Lacordaire distinguishes the unavoidable pain of life from the additional suffering created by revolt, resentment, and hopelessness. The message encourages courage and trust when a difficulty cannot be removed.

To “suffer well” does not mean remaining silent before abuse or refusing treatment. It means facing what is unavoidable without allowing pain to destroy every possibility of love, learning, and responsible action.

The message warns that displaying one's suffering in order to gain admiration can become another form of pride. At the same time, asking for help is not exhibition; people do not need to hide real pain to prove spiritual strength.

The idea is to seek support honestly while avoiding turning suffering into a tool for controlling or humiliating others.

30. The message states that life contains moments of difficulty and that each person reacts according to their inner resources. Faith can help some people maintain hope.

However, people differ in psychological, social, and biological conditions. Comparing how “well” two people endure pain can be unfair. Compassion should come before judgment.

Evil and its remedy

Saint Augustine - Paris, 1863

31. Saint Augustine asks why humanity still experiences so much suffering despite material progress. The message answers mainly through the moral problem of selfishness and harmful use of freedom.

Many forms of suffering can indeed be reduced by more just choices, better institutions, solidarity, science, education, and care. Moral progress and material progress do not need to be enemies; they can support one another.

The text uses broad statements about human suffering typical of its era. Today we recognize multiple causes: biology, environment, social structures, violence, accidents, and personal choices among others.

The proposed moral remedy is love expressed through justice and charity. This means not merely comforting victims but also working to prevent avoidable harm.

Happiness is not of this world

François-Nicolas-Madeleine - Paris, 1863

32. The message states that complete and permanent happiness does not exist in earthly life. Even good periods are marked by uncertainty, change, and the possibility of loss.

This does not mean that joy, relationships, health, art, work, or ordinary pleasures have no value. The point is that no earthly condition can guarantee uninterrupted happiness.

The message invites us to enjoy legitimate good moments without demanding that life remain unchanged forever.

In the Spiritist view, full happiness would belong to a more advanced spiritual condition, while Earth remains a place of learning and incomplete development.

Losses and disappointments can remind us that we cannot control everything. Faith may help some people place these events within a larger horizon.

At the same time, seeking better living conditions is legitimate. The message is not an argument for accepting injustice or giving up efforts to improve individual and collective life.

Melancholy

François de Genève - Bordeaux, 1860

33. The message speaks of a vague sadness that can arise even when a person cannot clearly identify the reason. In Spiritist language, it is related to the soul's longing for a spiritual homeland.

Today we know that persistent sadness, loss of interest, fatigue, hopelessness, and other symptoms may also be signs of depression or other health conditions. Spiritual interpretation should not replace professional evaluation when suffering is intense or prolonged.

The message recommends prayer, healthy relationships, useful work, and trust as resources for crossing these periods. In modern care, these can coexist with therapy, medical assessment, and other forms of support.

Do not judge someone experiencing profound sadness as lacking faith. Mental suffering can affect anyone and deserves compassion.

Voluntary trials. True self-sacrifice

34. Should we deliberately seek suffering in order to grow spiritually? Kardec answers that we should not look for pain merely for pain's sake.

Life already presents enough opportunities to practice patience, responsibility, courage, and charity. Creating unnecessary suffering for ourselves may be imprudent rather than virtuous.

35. It can be morally valuable, however, to voluntarily give up comfort in order to help another person. The difference is that the goal is not suffering itself but the good produced by the sacrifice.

For example, sharing resources with someone in need may require giving up a personal pleasure. The value lies in solidarity, not in deprivation as an end in itself.

36. The old religious tradition sometimes praised bodily mortification. Kardec criticizes practices that deliberately damage health without benefiting anyone.

Caring for the body is compatible with spiritual development. A person does not become morally better simply because they are hungry, cold, injured, or sick by choice.

37. If a sacrifice does not help anyone and only causes useless suffering, the work does not consider it a higher form of charity.

Useful renunciation is measured by the benefit it produces and by the intention behind it.

38. Kardec gives the example of someone who could live in greater comfort but chooses a simpler life in order to devote more resources to good works. This may be meaningful when done freely and responsibly.

The same act would lose value if it became an exhibition designed to gain admiration or a way of neglecting legitimate responsibilities toward oneself or one's dependents.

39. The work also asks whether it is right to expose oneself to danger in order to save another person. Courage can be morally admirable, but it should not become recklessness.

Helping in an emergency means acting within one's ability, calling trained help, and avoiding creating more victims whenever possible.

40. Spiritual development does not require choosing every difficult path when a safer and equally ethical path exists. The purpose is moral growth, not the multiplication of pain.

41. The message rejects the idea that someone should voluntarily remain poor when they can work honestly and improve their living conditions. Poverty by itself is not a virtue.

Resources gained honestly can be used responsibly for oneself, one's family, and other people.

Should we shorten the suffering of a person approaching death?

42. The chapter discusses a difficult nineteenth-century question: when a person is near death and suffering, should we try to shorten their life?

Today this subject belongs to medicine, bioethics, law, palliative care, and the patient's rights and values. Decisions about end-of-life care should be made with qualified health professionals and according to applicable law, not from a spiritual text alone.

43. The Spiritist response recorded in the work says that intentionally causing death is not the task of another person. At the same time, it strongly recommends relieving suffering through every legitimate means available.

Modern palliative care follows an important distinction: relieving pain and other symptoms is essential even when illness cannot be cured. Appropriate symptom control is not the same thing as intentionally causing death.

44. Prayer and spiritual support may be meaningful to the patient and family if they wish, but they should accompany — not replace — medical care, pain relief, psychological support, and respectful communication.

45. The message states that no one can know exactly what inner or spiritual meaning a final period of life may have for another person. This is a religious belief, not a medical criterion.

In practical terms, respect for the patient's dignity, wishes, comfort, and informed decisions should guide care.

Is it right to shorten the life of someone suffering without hope of cure?

Saint Louis - Paris, 1860

46. Saint Louis answers negatively to intentionally ending another person's life and recommends assisting, comforting, and waiting for the natural course of death.

Current societies have different legal and ethical approaches to euthanasia and assisted dying. This edition preserves the Spiritist position of the original work without turning it into individualized medical or legal advice.

Anyone facing an end-of-life decision should discuss the situation with the medical team, trusted family or representatives, and, if desired, spiritual counselors, taking into account the patient's expressed preferences and local law.

Sacrifice of one's own life

47. The work asks whether it is right to risk one's own life to save another person. It values altruism but recognizes that reason should guide the act.

An emergency rescue should not ignore safety. Entering a dangerous situation without preparation may create additional victims and make rescue harder.

A responsible act of courage weighs urgency, available resources, skill, and the real chance of helping.

Would sacrifice be useful when the result is uncertain?

48. Moral value does not depend only on success. Someone may act with sincere courage and still fail to achieve the desired result.

At the same time, good intention does not make every reckless act advisable. Charity also needs prudence.

Self-imposed suffering for another person's benefit

49. A person may voluntarily accept difficulty in order to care for a sick relative, support children, protect someone vulnerable, or perform another duty of love.

This kind of sacrifice has meaning because it directly serves another person's well-being. It is different from causing oneself pain with no useful purpose.

50. The work values sacrifices made quietly, without using them later to demand gratitude or control from the person helped.

François de Genève - Bordeaux

25. The message describes deep sadness as longing for greater spiritual freedom and happiness. This is a nineteenth-century religious interpretation. In current language, persistent sadness, apathy, or significant emotional suffering also deserve support and appropriate health evaluation.

On the spiritual level, the guidance is not to lose hope and to remember that present life would not be the only stage of existence. This hope can go together with seeking help when suffering becomes difficult to bear.

True self-sacrifice does not create a moral debt. The person who helps acts from love, not to secure obedience or admiration in return.

Should we help those who do not ask for help?

51. Charity can perceive needs that people are too ashamed, afraid, or exhausted to express. Offering help discreetly may therefore be important.

But help also needs to respect autonomy. Unless there is immediate risk, we should not force on adults a form of assistance they clearly reject.

52. The ideal is to approach with respect, listen, understand what the person actually needs, and offer options instead of deciding everything for them.

Can we pray for someone who does not believe?

53. Prayer can be made for anyone as an expression of goodwill. It should not be used as a way to disrespect, pressure, or secretly control another person's conscience.

Someone who does not share our belief remains free not to interpret the prayer in the same way. Respect for freedom of conscience is part of charity.

Should we pray to have our trials removed?

54. The work recommends asking first for strength, clarity, and help to face difficulties. It does not prohibit asking for relief.

There is no virtue in wishing for pain. If a problem can be solved legitimately, seeking a solution is compatible with prayer and faith.

Would it be wrong to seek better conditions in life?

55. No. Improving health, education, work, safety, housing, and relationships is part of responsible living.

The warning is only not to make material success the sole purpose of life or to achieve it through injustice.

Should someone accept an injustice as a trial?

56. No spiritual interpretation removes the right to seek protection, justice, and repair. Patience does not mean permitting abuse.

A person may work inwardly on hatred and revenge while at the same time reporting violence, setting boundaries, and using legal or social protections.

Can suffering be a punishment from God?

57. The Spiritist Doctrine prefers the language of consequence, learning, and reparation rather than arbitrary divine punishment.

Even within that belief, no one has the right to look at another person's suffering and declare what fault supposedly caused it.

The practical response to suffering should be care.

Does a person who suffers more have greater merit?

58. Not automatically. Suffering by itself does not make someone morally superior.

What matters in the work's view is how the person responds, what they learn, and the good they are able to build — while always considering their real psychological, social, and physical limits.

Can material well-being be a trial too?

59. Yes. Comfort and resources can test how a person uses power, time, money, and opportunities.

Someone who has much can become more selfish or can transform abundance into support, employment, education, and care for others.

Can we be happy on Earth?

60. The work does not deny earthly happiness. It only states that it is incomplete and changeable.

Affection, friendship, family, meaningful work, health, art, learning, service, and simple pleasures can bring real joy. Spiritual hope does not require devaluing the good that exists now.

Final synthesis

61. “Blessed are those who suffer” should not be read as praise of pain or an order to remain in suffering.

The chapter's central Spiritist interpretation is that life continues, present difficulties do not define the whole destiny of the Spirit, and every person remains capable of progress.

When suffering is avoidable, charity asks us to prevent or reduce it. When it cannot be removed, hope, support, and meaning can help us cross it.

The most important response to another person's pain is not to search for a supposed spiritual cause but to offer respect, practical help, listening, protection, and compassion.

In this way, the promise of consolation becomes not only a hope for the future but also a responsibility for the present: we can become part of one another's comfort.

31. A difficulty can benefit other people when it leads to concrete acts of care or when the way it is faced offers an example of courage, solidarity, and hope. For the message, faith becomes useful when it helps a person act better and also support those who are going through suffering.