Blessed Are the Pure in Heart

Let the children come to me — Purity of thoughts — What truly makes a person impure — Scandal and responsibility — Instructions from the Spirits about simplicity, love, suffering, and spiritual vision.

The chapter also explains why phrases such as “if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off” are metaphors and not commands to injure your own body.

Let the little children come to me

1. Jesus said: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:8)

2. Some people brought children to Jesus so that he might bless them. The disciples tried to send them away, but Jesus said: “Let the children come to me and do not stop them. The Kingdom of God belongs to those who become like them.” Then he embraced and blessed the children. (Mark 10:13-16)

3. Purity of heart is connected with simplicity and humility. Jesus uses the child as a symbol because, in the first years of life, pride, selfishness, and other tendencies do not yet appear with the same strength they may show later. In the Spiritist view, this does not mean that the child's Spirit is necessarily new or perfect.

The child represents, in the present life, an image of innocence, trust, and simplicity. For this reason, Jesus does not say that the Kingdom of God automatically belongs to children, but to those who develop similar qualities.

4. Kardec asks why, if the Spirit has lived before, it does not show from birth all of its character and knowledge. The Spiritist explanation is that childhood creates a phase of fragility and dependence that favors care, affection, and education.

If a child showed from the beginning all the behavior and memories of an adult, caregiving relationships would be very different. The work also considers that the development of intelligence needs to accompany the gradual development of the body.

In the Spiritist interpretation, as the Spirit approaches a new incarnation it goes through a period of reduced self-awareness and loses clear memory of previous experiences. This forgetting would allow a new stage to begin without consciously carrying all past conflicts.

Even without remembering earlier events, the Spirit would preserve tendencies, abilities, and learning that influence development in the new life.

As the body grows, ideas and personal characteristics begin to appear. Childhood would be a period especially favorable to education because many habits are still being formed. This increases the responsibility of parents and caregivers for the example and guidance they offer.

For this reason, despite the Spiritist idea that the soul existed before, the child remains an appropriate image of simplicity and purity for Jesus' teaching.

Sinning in thought. Adultery

5. Jesus taught that faithfulness and respect also begin in thought: someone who looks at another person only with the intention of possessing them and feeding betrayal has already begun to build that error inwardly. (Matthew 5:27-28)

6. Kardec understands that, in this context, “adultery” can represent more than the physical act of betrayal. The teaching calls attention to the inner origin of our choices.

True purity is not only in appearance or behavior seen by others. It also involves intentions. The idea is not to condemn involuntary thoughts, but to observe what we choose to feed and turn into a conscious desire to harm or use another person.

Jesus' teaching shifts attention from mere appearance to inner transformation: right actions become more genuine when we also work on the intentions behind them.

7. Having a bad thought is not the same as carrying out a bad action. Kardec distinguishes an impulse that arises spontaneously from the decision to accept it, feed it, and try to put it into practice. The appearance of a thought may reveal something that still needs inner work, but the response we give it also matters.

When a person notices a harmful desire and decides to reject it, that resistance already represents progress. Each conscious choice not to feed evil strengthens the ability to act better in the future.

The situation is different when someone sincerely wishes to do harm and simply cannot for lack of opportunity. Kardec summarizes three stages: someone who no longer desires evil has advanced further; someone who still feels the impulse but fights it is progressing; someone who feeds it and tries to carry it out still needs to work deeply on that tendency.

In the work's view, moral responsibility takes these differences in intention, effort, and choice into account, not only the external result of an action.

True purity and unwashed hands

8. Some religious people asked Jesus why his disciples did not follow a certain tradition of washing their hands before eating. Jesus answered by questioning human practices that, according to him, had become more important than moral duties such as respecting and caring for one's parents.

Jesus criticizes religion maintained only on the lips while the heart remains distant from what is taught. The message is that a tradition should not serve as an excuse to abandon responsibilities of love, respect, and care.

Jesus then explains to the people that true moral impurity does not come simply from what enters the mouth. The problem lies in what arises within a person and becomes harmful words and actions.

He gives as examples thoughts of violence, betrayal, theft, lying, slander, and other intentions that cause harm. The focus is the heart — that is, the set of feelings, choices, and intentions that guide a person.

Thus, the teaching is not against hygiene. It shows that external cleanliness does not replace honesty and moral transformation. (Matthew 15)

9. On another occasion, Jesus used the same comparison: there is no point in carefully cleaning the outside of a cup while the inside is full of injustice and wickedness. The image represents the difference between appearing correct and actually working on one's own character. (Luke 11:37-40)

Luke 11:37-40

10. Kardec understands that certain religious practices had become so complex that the simplest moral principles ended up in the background.

Following a ritual can be easier than changing pride, selfishness, or aggressiveness. The danger is imagining that external practices by themselves replace a real change in behavior.

Kardec applies the criticism to Christians as well: whenever religious form becomes more important than love of neighbor and moral transformation, the purpose of religion is lost.

For the work, true religion should help a person become better. Symbols, ceremonies, and customs have no moral value when they comfortably coexist with violence, betrayal, exploitation, lies, and injustice.

The conclusion is direct: it is not enough to appear pure. What matters most is developing purity of intention and heart.

Scandal and responsibility: the metaphor of cutting off the hand that leads to error

11. Jesus uses very strong images to speak about the responsibility not to lead vulnerable people into error. He says it would be better to lose something very important than to keep what continually leads us to do wrong.

The same language appears when he speaks of the eye that leads to error. These phrases are not instructions to mutilate the body; they are radical metaphors showing the importance of removing habits and choices that cause harm. (Matthew 18:6-11; 5:29-30)

Additional reference: Matthew 5:29-30.

Explanation of the note from the previous edition.

12. Today we use “scandal” to describe something that causes great public reaction or outrage. In the Gospel, the meaning can be broader: it includes actions that become an occasion of falling, harm, or bad example even when they never become publicly known.

A person does not become morally right simply because they managed to hide a bad action. Jesus criticizes precisely the difference between outward appearance and inner reality. In Kardec's reading, the “scandal” lies in the harm produced, not only in the public shame caused by it.

Thus, scandal in this context is the concrete effect of a harmful moral choice.

13. When Jesus says that scandals will happen, this does not mean that evil is necessary or obligatory. It means that while human imperfections exist, harmful decisions will continue to produce consequences.

14. The work understands that the consequences of selfishness and other faults can themselves teach through experience. When people and societies become tired of the painful results of certain attitudes, the chances of seeking better paths increase. In this way, something good can emerge from learning caused by error without making the error cease to be wrong.

15. This does not mean that evil needs to exist forever. If people stopped acting harmfully, there would be no need to learn through painful consequences. A society formed by honest and supportive people would produce far less avoidable suffering.

The Spiritist Doctrine imagines worlds at different stages of evolution. More developed worlds would have overcome much of moral evil; others would still serve as learning environments for less mature Spirits.

16. The phrase “woe to the one who causes scandal” reinforces individual responsibility. Even when a bad action ends up serving as learning for another person, the one who chose to do wrong remains responsible for their own decision. A useful consequence does not turn a harmful action into a right action.

17. “If your hand makes you sin, cut it off” is a metaphor. Jesus does not command anyone to injure the body. The idea is to remove from life what continually feeds bad choices: habits, situations, desires, or behaviors that we know are causing harm. It is better to give up something important than keep it as an instrument of suffering for ourselves or others.

Instructions from the Spirits

Let the little children come to me

John the Evangelist - Paris, 1863

18. The message attributed to John the Evangelist broadens the phrase “let the children come to me.” It understands that Jesus also calls fragile, disoriented people and those who are still at the beginning of their spiritual education.

The child appears as a symbol of trust. The message presents Jesus as a light that brought direction and states that Spiritism should also call people of good will to conscious learning.

The goal would not be to believe without thinking, but to understand. The message proposes a faith accompanied by reflection and states that Spiritism seeks to explain the meaning of parables and relate ancient teachings to new knowledge.

The image of the sun rising on the horizon represents, in the message, a new stage of spiritual clarification that would be beginning.

A Protective Spirit - Bordeaux, 1863

19. The message calls the fragile, those who need support, those who do not yet understand, and everyone who suffers. The goal is to offer knowledge, comfort, and a path for dealing better with life's difficulties.

The main “remedy” presented is love joined with charity. The message teaches that trusting God does not mean wishing for suffering, but maintaining faith even when we face what we cannot avoid.

If God allows moments of joy, give thanks for them. Do not, however, let love for God diminish when life becomes more comfortable. Continue giving thanks and speaking to Him in your prayers. When true love exists, we have a treasure that difficulties and even other people's wrongdoing cannot take away.

When love guides life, what stains the conscience loses strength. The comparison with a bird rising represents the Spirit gradually becoming less bound to selfishness and closer to the values of love and charity attributed to God.

People who cannot see and spiritual vision

Vianney, Curé of Ars - Paris, 1863

20. The message was given in the presence of a blind person and begins by reminding readers that no cure should be attributed to the medium or the Spirit, but to God. It also recognizes that not every desired cure happens.

The spiritual guidance is to ask for health, but also for strength, inner growth, and the ability to face the situation. In current language, this prayer can accompany — not replace — medical care, accessibility resources, and the support the person needs.

This communication was recorded at a meeting where the manifestation of J. B. Vianney, the Curé of Ars, was requested concerning a blind person.

Note by Allan Kardec.

The continuation of the message interprets blindness as a possible spiritual trial. This is a nineteenth-century religious view. Today, visual disability should not be treated as a sign of guilt, inferiority, or punishment, and blind people have the same dignity and potential as anyone else.

The spiritual point that can be preserved is that a physical limitation does not prevent inner development, love, intelligence, or spiritual life. A person can build a full life even when a particular sense is unavailable.

Ancient language compares physical sight and spiritual vision. In current words: being able to see does not guarantee moral clarity, just as not being able to see does not prevent someone from developing great sensitivity, knowledge, and inner depth.

The message asks for hope and trust in God in the face of a condition that may not be changed. This does not mean giving up treatment, assistive technology, autonomy, or all available resources to improve quality of life.

The communication ends by offering a blessing and encouraging prayer, reflection, and courage.

21. Kardec's note interprets suffering without an apparent cause in the present life through reincarnation and previous experiences. This is a Spiritist doctrinal explanation, not a medical or scientific conclusion about the origin of disabilities.

The old text directly connects loss of sight with errors committed in another existence. In Edition 3.0, this statement should be understood as Kardec's historical religious hypothesis, without assigning blame to a person with a disability or allowing judgments about their life.

The image of “tearing out the eye” is again used symbolically: the moral proposal is to remove from ourselves what feeds error, never to cause physical harm to our own body.