2.10 The Work and Purpose of Spirits
Occupations and Missions of Spirits
Spirits concur in the harmony of the universe and act as ministers in fulfilling God’s will. Spirit life is one of continuous occupation, but it is not arduous like life on earth, because it is not subject to bodily fatigue or the anguish of need.
Less evolved spirits also perform a useful role in the universe. All have duties to fulfill. The humblest mason contributes to the construction of a building no less than the architect.
In this sense, each spirit has its own aptitudes: all must inhabit every place and acquire knowledge of all things, successively carrying out functions on all the planes of the universe. As Ecclesiastes says, there is a time for everything. Thus, one spirit is now fulfilling its destiny in this world, while another will fulfill, or has already fulfilled, its destiny at another time—on earth, in the water, in the air, and so forth.
The functions spirits perform in the order of things are not permanent for any one spirit, nor do they belong exclusively to the attributes of certain orders. All spirits must ascend the various degrees of the scale in order to perfect themselves. Since God is just, God could not have given knowledge without effort to some while others acquired it only through painful labor.
Likewise, among human beings, no one reaches the highest degree of skill in any art without first acquiring the necessary knowledge through practice in its most elementary functions.
Spirits of the highest order, although they have nothing more to acquire, are not in a state of absolute repose. Eternal idleness would be eternal torture. Their occupations consist in receiving orders directly from God, transmitting them throughout the universe, and supervising their execution.
The occupations of spirits are unceasing, if it is understood that their thought is always active, for they live by thought. Yet these occupations must not be compared to the material occupations of human beings. Their activity is itself a delight, because they know they are being useful.
The same is true of less evolved spirits, though only in occupations suited to their nature. The work of cultivated minds is not entrusted to manual laborers.
Among spirits there are some who are idle, or who do not occupy themselves with anything useful, but this is temporary and depends on the development of their intelligence. As among human beings, there are those who live only for themselves. Such idleness nonetheless weighs on them, and sooner or later the desire to progress awakens the need for activity, and they are glad to make themselves useful again. This applies to spirits who have reached the necessary point of self-consciousness and free will, for at their origin they are like newborn children, acting more from instinct than from determined will.
A spirit who had a particular specialty on earth, such as painting or architecture, takes an interest in the works that were the object of its preference during earthly life only insofar as those works help the evolution of souls toward God, if the spirit is good. Everything blends into an overall objective. Spirits who practiced one art in the lifetime by which they are known may have practiced another in a previous lifetime, because they must know everything in order to perfect themselves. Thus, according to their degree of advancement, nothing may remain a specialty for them. This is what is meant by saying that everything blends into an overall objective. What is sublime in a backward world is no more than child’s play compared with what exists in more advanced worlds. The spirits who inhabit those worlds, where there are arts unknown on earth, would not admire what would appear to them as the work of a schoolchild. They examine whatever may indicate elevation and progress.
For more ordinary spirits who have not yet risen above earthly ideas, the case is different. Their point of view is more limited, and they may admire what human beings themselves admire.
Spirits sometimes interfere in our occupations and pleasures. Ordinary spirits are unceasingly around human beings and at times take a very active part in all they do, according to their nature. It is well that they do so, in order to urge men and women forward in their different walks of life, either stimulating or moderating their passions.
Spirits concern themselves with the things of this world according to whether they are more or less evolved. High-order spirits undoubtedly have the ability to consider such things in the smallest detail, but they do so only insofar as it is useful to progress. Low-order spirits attach importance to such things only in proportion to the memories still present within them and to material ideas not yet extinguished.
Spirits who have missions to fulfill may do so while either errant or incarnate. For certain errant spirits, this is a great occupation.
The missions entrusted to errant spirits are so varied that it would be impossible to describe them. Besides, some could not be comprehended by human beings. Spirits fulfill the will of God, and human beings cannot grasp all the divine designs.
Spirits’ missions always have the good as their purpose. Whether as spirits or as human beings, they are charged with helping the progress of humankind, nations, or individuals, within a range of ideas that may be broader or more specialized, in order to prepare the way for certain events and oversee the accomplishment of certain things. Some have more restricted missions of a personal or wholly local character, such as helping the sick, the dying, and the afflicted, and, as guides, watching over those under their protection and directing them through counsel or the good thoughts they suggest. There are as many kinds of missions as there are kinds of interests to watch over, whether in the material realm or the moral realm. A spirit advances according to how well it has performed its duty.
Spirits do not always understand the designs they are charged with carrying out. Some are merely blind instruments, while others fully understand the purpose for which they act.
Advanced spirits are not the only ones who have missions to fulfill. A mission’s importance is in proportion to the spirit’s ability and elevation. The courier who carries a dispatch also fulfills a mission, though not that of a general.
A spirit’s mission is not imposed upon it; it asks for it and is happy to receive it. The same mission may be requested by several spirits. There are always several candidates, but not all are accepted.
The mission of incarnate spirits includes instructing human beings, helping them advance, and improving their institutions by direct and material means. Missions vary in scope and importance. The one who cultivates the soil fulfills a mission no less surely than the one who rules or teaches. Everything in nature is linked together. At the same time that a spirit is purifying itself through incarnation, it is also working to fulfill the designs of Providence. Each person has a mission in this world because each can be useful for something.
There are people who live only for themselves and do not know how to make themselves useful in any way. They are unhappy beings who should be pitied, because they will painfully expiate their deliberate uselessness, and their chastisement often begins even in this world through weariness and dissatisfaction with life.
Since they had the right to choose, they may have preferred a life that could be of no use to them, because among spirits there are lazy ones who shrink from a life of work. God allows them to do so. Later, and at their own expense, they will understand the impropriety of their uselessness, and they will be the first to ask to make up for lost time. They may also perhaps have chosen a more useful life to begin with, but once engaged in it they drew back, allowing themselves to be misled by the suggestions of spirits who incited them to idleness.
Common occupations would seem to be duties rather than missions properly so called. According to the ordinary idea associated with the word, a mission carries a sense of importance that is less exclusive and especially less personal. From that point of view, those who truly have an important mission on earth are recognized by the great things they accomplish and by the progress they enable their fellow beings to make.
Those who have an important mission are predestined for it before birth, and sometimes they have knowledge of it, though more often they do not. They may have only a vague intuition of it when they come to earth. Their mission is traced out after birth and according to circumstances, as God leads them along the path by which they must fulfill the divine designs.
When individuals do something useful, it is not always by virtue of a previous and predestined mission. They are often the instrument a spirit uses in order to accomplish something it considers useful. For example, a certain spirit may think it would be good to write a book, which it would itself write if incarnate; it then seeks the writer most capable of understanding its thought and carrying it out. It suggests the idea and directs the execution. Thus, the individual did not originally come to earth with the mission of doing that particular work. The same applies to certain works of art and certain discoveries. During the body’s sleep, the incarnate spirit communicates directly with the discarnate spirit in order to discuss how the task is to be carried out.
A spirit can fail in its mission through its own fault, if it is not a high-order spirit. It must then begin the work again, and that is its punishment. It will also suffer the consequences of the evils it has caused.
When a spirit receives its mission from God, an important mission of general interest does not depend on one who might abandon the work midway. God knows whether the general will be victorious or defeated. The divine plans, when they are important, do not rest on those who might leave the work unfinished. For human beings, the whole difficulty lies in their lack of knowledge of the future, which God possesses but does not grant to them.
A spirit who incarnates to fulfill a mission does not have the same apprehensions as one who incarnates to undergo a trial, because it has experience.
Those who are the lights of humankind, who enlighten human beings by their genius, obviously have a mission. But among them are some who are mistaken and who, instead of spreading great truths, spread great errors. Their mission has been distorted by themselves. They have fallen below the task they undertook. Yet circumstances must be taken into account. Men and women of genius must speak according to the time in which they live. Thus, a teaching that appears erroneous or childish in a later age may have been sufficient in its own time.
Parenthood may be considered a mission. It is, without doubt, a mission, and at the same time a very great duty—one that involves parents far more than they may think in regard to their responsibility for the future. God has placed children in the care of their parents so that they may guide them on the path of goodness, and has made the task easier by giving children a frail and delicate organization that renders them accessible to all kinds of impressions. Yet there are those who are more concerned with tending the trees in their orchards and making them bear fine fruit than with forming the character of their children. If their children go astray because of such neglect, the parents will bear the penalty, and the sufferings of their children will return to them in a future life because they did not do what was incumbent upon them for their children’s advancement on the path of good.
If a child goes astray despite the care of the parents, the parents are not responsible. But the more a child is inclined toward evil, the heavier the task and the greater the merit if the parents succeed in turning that child away from the path of evil.
If a child becomes a good adult despite the negligence or bad example of the parents, the parents derive no benefit from it. God is just.
The missions of conquerors whose only aim is to satisfy their ambition, and who, to reach that goal, do not shrink from any calamity they may cause, are most often nothing more than those of instruments used by God in the fulfillment of the divine designs. Such calamities are often the means of enabling a people to advance more rapidly.
If those who serve as the instruments of such temporary calamities are unaware of the good that may result from them, because they inflicted them from a personal motive, they nevertheless do not profit from the good that results. All are rewarded according to their deeds, the good they intended to do, and the honesty of their intentions.
Incarnate spirits have occupations inherent to corporeal existence. In the errant state, or dematerialized condition, their occupations are in proportion to their degree of advancement. Some journey from world to world, learning and preparing for a new incarnation. Others, more advanced, devote themselves to progress by directing events and suggesting favorable thoughts; they assist the spirits of genius who contribute to the advancement of humankind. Others still reincarnate on missions of progress. Others take under their care individuals, families, communities, cities, and peoples, becoming guardian angels, protector spirits, and familiar spirits. Finally, others preside over the phenomena of nature, of which they are the direct agents. Ordinary spirits meddle in our occupations and amusements. Impure or imperfect spirits remain in suffering and anguish while awaiting the moment when it pleases God to grant them the means of advancing. If they practice evil, it is out of spite at not yet being able to enjoy the good.