

September 6, 1980
September 6, 1980
Excerpt from the speech made by Dr. Celso Charuri at the Donation Ceremony of the General Center for the Tithe to Serviço Social Batuíra, São Paulo, Brazil
Walking and thinking, you know, annoyed, asking for strength for feeling too small, and for trying to take away the dirt from people’s heads and put those Principles that one day appeared on Earth, I began to search for friends. And began to base myself on Friendship as Alliance, as Unity, someone who has the same ideal, and not friendship understood as everybody, or most people, normally understand. And, in search of an ideal, I began to find: I found this one, found that one, found that other… A day came when I saw myself surrounded by friends. Only one test was missing. The test of Fidelity to the Principle of Friendship. On that day, we began thinking about how and what to do to take the world from this dirt, from this poverty, from this hypocrisy, because we don’t intend to fix the world, but just to be able to give our part. And we verified that it was very difficult to be able to help.
On that day, summoning the guys, our friends, we made the proposition; a proposition written thousands of years ago. To be way more precise, 2,000 years ago. And this proposition was based, actually, on our situation. We had to give thanks for the good fortune of being and having. Being somebody and having matter.
How to proceed? How to proceed? It was so difficult! After all, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
And on that day we began to ask: Who is rich? Who is rich? And if wealth is matter. And we finally found that wealth only is matter when this matter is given, when the Principle of Goodness is present. And then we comprehended true wealth, the wealth of Being, in the hands of those who give.