2.10 The Work and Purpose of Spirits
Occupations and Missions of Spirits
Spirits do not occupy themselves only with their own improvement.
They cooperate in the harmony of the universe and serve as ministers of the divine will. Spiritual life is therefore one of continuous activity. Yet this activity is not burdensome in the way earthly labor is burdensome, because it is free from bodily fatigue and from the anxieties created by material need.
Even the least advanced spirits have a useful role. All have duties to fulfill. In the universal order, the humblest worker contributes to the whole no less truly than the one who directs it.
No spirit is confined forever to one fixed function. All must, in succession, pass through different conditions, learn about different spheres of existence, and acquire knowledge of all things according to their degree. There is a time for every function. A spirit may now fulfill a task in one world, while in another period it may have fulfilled, or will fulfill, duties connected with other realms and other forms of life.
For this reason, the functions exercised by spirits are not permanently attached to any one of them as an exclusive privilege. Since all spirits must rise through the degrees of development, each must gain knowledge by effort. None are granted complete understanding without having earned it. As in human arts, no one reaches mastery without first practicing the simplest tasks.
Continuous Activity in Spiritual Life
Even the most advanced spirits are not in a state of absolute repose. Eternal idleness would be a kind of torment. Their occupations remain active and purposeful.
Their activity consists in receiving divine directives, transmitting them throughout the universe, and watching over their execution. Thought is always alive in them; in that sense, their occupations are unceasing. But this activity should not be imagined as material labor like that of embodied life. It is a delight, because they know they are useful.
The same principle applies at every level, though according to each spirit’s nature. Less advanced spirits also have occupations suited to their condition. Functions differ according to capacity. One would not entrust the work of the highly cultivated to those fit only for simpler tasks.
Some spirits do pass through periods of idleness, living only for themselves. But this condition is temporary and belongs especially to spirits whose intelligence and will are still developing. Such idleness eventually becomes burdensome. Sooner or later, the desire to advance awakens in them the need for useful activity. At the beginning of their existence, spirits are like newborn children, acting more by instinct than by deliberate choice. Self-conscious labor comes later.
Spirits and Human Works
Spirits take interest in whatever reveals elevation and progress.
They examine human works of art and thought to the degree that such works express the growth of intelligence and the advancement of the soul. A spirit who, while incarnate, had been devoted to painting, architecture, or another art does not necessarily remain attached to that specialty alone. As spirits advance, all particular pursuits are gathered into a broader understanding. What matters is the contribution such works make to the upward movement of souls.
A good spirit values artistic or intellectual productions in proportion to their usefulness for moral and spiritual progress. Moreover, what appears sublime in a less advanced world may seem childish beside what exists in more elevated worlds. Highly advanced spirits therefore do not admire human productions for their brilliance alone, but for the signs they contain of genuine progress.
More ordinary spirits view such things differently. Because they remain closer to earthly habits and memories, they may admire what human beings themselves admire.
Spirits and Human Activity
Common spirits often intervene in human occupations and pleasures. They remain continually around embodied beings and at times take a very active part in what people do, according to their own character.
This influence may serve to stimulate or restrain human passions, and through this action people are often impelled along the various paths of life. Higher spirits can consider earthly matters in the smallest detail, but they do so only when such attention is useful to progress. Less advanced spirits, by contrast, attach importance to worldly things in proportion to the material ideas and memories they still retain.
Missions of Spirits
Spirits may fulfill missions either while errant or while incarnate.
For errant spirits, missions are often a major occupation. These missions are extremely varied, so varied that they cannot be fully described in human terms. Many would remain beyond ordinary understanding, because spirits execute designs whose full scope belongs to divine wisdom.
All true missions have the good as their purpose. Whether in the spiritual state or in bodily life, spirits work for the progress of human beings, peoples, and nations. Sometimes their mission concerns broad movements of history; sometimes it is more limited and personal. Some prepare the way for events. Some oversee the accomplishment of particular things. Others assist the sick, the dying, and the afflicted. Others act as guides and protectors, watching over those entrusted to them and helping through counsel or through the suggestion of good thoughts.
There are as many kinds of missions as there are interests to be watched over in the moral and material order. A spirit advances according to how faithfully it fulfills its duty.
Not all spirits fully understand the designs they help to execute. Some serve as instruments without seeing far; others know very clearly the end they are helping to bring about.
The Importance of Missions
Only advanced spirits receive the most important missions, but missions are not limited to advanced spirits alone.
The importance of a mission is always proportioned to the spirit’s elevation and ability. The one who carries a message also fulfills a mission, though not the same mission as the one who commands an army.
A mission is not forced on a spirit in the sense of blind compulsion. A spirit asks for it and is happy to receive it. Many may desire the same task, but not all are accepted.
The Mission of Incarnate Spirits
When spirits incarnate, they continue to serve useful purposes.
Their mission may be to instruct human beings, help them advance, and improve institutions through direct and material means. These missions differ greatly in extent and visibility. The ruler, the teacher, and the cultivator of the soil each fulfill a mission. Everything in nature is interconnected. While a spirit purifies itself through bodily life, it also helps fulfill the designs of Providence. Every person has a mission in the world because every person can be useful in some way.
There are, however, individuals who seem deliberately useless, living only for themselves and seeking no benefit for anyone else. Such souls deserve compassion. Their uselessness brings consequences, often beginning even during earthly life through weariness, emptiness, and dissatisfaction.
Some spirits, before incarnating, recoil from lives of labor and choose easier paths. They are allowed to do so, but later learn at their own expense the poverty of such a choice and desire to recover the lost time. Others may originally have chosen a useful life but then, once embodied, abandon it and surrender themselves to suggestions of idleness.
Recognizing a Mission on Earth
Ordinary occupations are often duties rather than what people usually call a mission. Yet genuine missions may still be discerned.
They are recognized by the great things individuals accomplish and by the progress they enable others to make. Some persons are marked out before birth for important roles. Sometimes they know this; more often they do not. On arriving on earth, they have only a vague sense of their purpose. Their path unfolds after birth, according to circumstances and under divine guidance.
Not everything useful that someone does comes from a mission fixed in advance. A person may also become the instrument of a spirit who wishes to accomplish something beneficial. A writer, for example, may receive an idea from a spirit who, if incarnate, would have written the work itself. The spirit seeks the individual best able to understand and express the thought, inspires the project, and directs its execution. In such a case, the embodied person did not necessarily come to earth with that specific task already assigned.
The same may occur in works of art and in discoveries. During bodily sleep, the incarnate spirit may communicate directly with discarnate spirits to confer about the execution of such undertakings.
Failure in a Mission
A spirit can fail in its mission through its own fault, unless it belongs to a very high order.
When this happens, it must begin again. That necessity is itself part of its punishment. It also suffers the consequences of the disorders and delays caused by its failure.
Yet important divine designs do not depend ultimately on instruments who might abandon their task. Providence does not expose the success of great purposes to uncertainty. What appears doubtful to human beings is not doubtful to the divine foresight that sees the end from the beginning.
A spirit incarnating for a mission does not experience the same kind of apprehension as one incarnating mainly for expiation or trial. It brings with it experience.
Great Figures, Error, and Historical Limitation
Those who illuminate humanity through genius often do have real missions. But some spread serious error along with the truths they teach.
In such cases, their mission has been distorted by them. They prove themselves unequal to the task they undertook. Even so, judgment must take circumstances into account. Great minds must speak in language suited to their time. A teaching that later generations regard as incomplete or mistaken may nevertheless have been sufficient for the age in which it appeared.
Parenthood as a Mission
Parenthood is unquestionably a mission and a very great duty.
Parents bear a responsibility far greater than they usually imagine for the future of their children. Children are entrusted to them so they may guide them along the path of the good. Their very fragility and impressionability make this task possible, because they are open to deep influence.
Many people take more care in cultivating the trees in their orchard than in forming the character of their children. If children go astray through parental neglect, the parents bear responsibility. The sufferings resulting from that neglect will return to them later, because they failed to do what was required for their children’s moral advancement.
If, however, a child goes wrong despite sincere care and effort, the parents are not accountable for that outcome. Indeed, the more difficult the child’s tendencies, the greater the merit of those who succeed in turning the child away from evil.
If a child becomes good despite parental negligence or bad example, no injustice remains. Divine justice gives to each according to what is truly deserved.
Conquerors and Instruments of Providence
There are historical figures whose ambition causes calamities and devastation. In many cases they are no more than instruments employed in the unfolding of larger purposes.
Such disasters may become the means by which a people advances more rapidly. Yet those who inflict them for selfish ends do not gain merit from the good that eventually emerges. Each is rewarded according to deeds, intentions, and the good one truly meant to do.
The Range of Spiritual Occupations
Incarnate spirits have the occupations proper to bodily life. In the errant state, their occupations vary according to their advancement.
Some travel from world to world, learning and preparing for a future incarnation. More advanced spirits work for progress by guiding events and suggesting fruitful ideas. They assist the men and women of genius who contribute to the advancement of humanity. Others reincarnate with missions of progress. Others watch over individuals, families, communities, cities, and peoples, becoming guardian angels, protecting spirits, or familiar spirits. Others preside over the phenomena of nature and serve as their direct agents.
Common spirits mingle with human occupations and amusements. Impure or imperfect spirits remain in suffering and distress, waiting for the moment when they will be granted the means to advance. If they do evil, it is often from resentment at not yet being able to enjoy the good.