Story of a little donkey
In a recent sermon given against Spiritism, with a command to have it attacked from all flanks and throw mortal blow, the speaker told the following anecdote:
“A lady lost her husband three weeks ago. A medium showed up to propose a conversation with her dead partner through which she could perhaps see him. The vision did not happen but the dead person explained to the wife, by the hand of the medium, that he was not considered worthy of entering the resting place of the blessed ones and that he was forced to reincarnate immediately in order to atone his serious sins. Guess where? At a place about one kilometer from here in the house of a mill worker, as a little donkey that was beaten with a whip. Imagine the pain of the poor lady that rushes to the mill worker, embraces the poor donkey and tries to buy him immediately. The mill worker was a tough negotiator but finally yielded before a bag of coins. For the last fifteen days, the little donkey occupies a special room in her house surrounded by a care that has never before seen since the time that God decided to create this loving species..”
We doubt that the audience was convinced about the story but as far as we know from eye witnesses the majority thought that it would be better suited to a mocking paper than to the pulpit both for its content and expressions. The speaker undoubtedly ignored the fact that Spiritism unequivocally teaches that the soul or Spirit cannot animate the body of an animal (The Spirits’ Book, #118, 612 and 613).
What is even more astonishing is the ridicule cast upon the pain in general with the support of a funny story and with terms that do not shine for their nobility. Besides, watching a priest treating the works of God with such an insolence by these not much reverent words: “since the time that God decided to create this loving species.”
The matter is as much improper to make fun of as one could object that everything that is the work of God is respectable and that Jesus was not dishonored for having entered Jerusalem riding an individual of that species. If you establish a parallel between the burlesque picture of the lady’s sorrow and that of the true widow whose report we gave above identify which one is more edifying, more in accordance with the true religious feeling and respect for the Divinity; finally, which one would be better placed on the pulpit of truth. Let us admit the story that you told, Mr. Speaker, not the reincarnation in a donkey but the belief of the widow in such a reincarnation.
What have you given her for punishment in substitution? The eternal flames of hell, an even less reassuring perspective because that lady would have said: “I would rather know that my husband is in the skin of a donkey than burning forever in hell.” Suppose she had to choose between your image of unstoppable torture and that given to us by the Spirit of Mr. Viennois above. Do you believe that she would have hesitated? Conscientiously you do not think so because you yourself would not have hesitated.
