© 2017 Cyril Causette
© 2017 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
| Personality Research | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 77 — March 2017 | From Primitive Prayer to Ethical Prayer: My Personal Experience |
We can compare the path of spiritual growth to these five sons who were old enough to leave the family home and wanted to build their own house.
The family occupied the very center of Jesus’ philosophy of life—here and hereafter. He based his teachings about God on the family, while he sought to correct the Jewish tendency to overhonor ancestors. He exalted family life as the highest human duty but made it plain that family relationships must not interfere with religious obligations. He called attention to the fact that the family is a temporal institution; that it does not survive death. Jesus did not hesitate to give up his family when the family ran counter to the Father’s will. He taught the new and larger brotherhood of man—the sons of God. In Jesus’ time divorce practices were lax in Palestine and throughout the Roman Empire. He repeatedly refused to lay down laws regarding marriage and divorce, but many of Jesus’ early followers had strong opinions on divorce and did not hesitate to attribute them to him. All of the New Testament writers held to these more stringent and advanced ideas about divorce except John Mark. (UB 140:8.14)
The first refused to build his house himself. He was first content to choose from among the existing houses the one he preferred. He then called upon the best architects and the best workers to build it. Wealthy, he did not neglect to bring the most beautiful elements to decorate it. Once finished, he entered his home but never felt at home there. The latter was neglected and abandoned and finally fell into ruin.
The second built it quickly. He did not take the time to check the ground on which the foundations would rest. He did not buy the right materials and did not listen to the advice of those who knew about it. When the work was finished, the building deteriorated very quickly, so much so that it was uninhabitable.
The third tried his hand at construction but gave up after a few months. He did not repeat the experience.
The fourth built a good quality but very small house. Afterwards, he did not want to add other rooms to his house. He ended his life alone, without ever leaving it. The fifth, ignorant of the work to be built, tried several times before being able to raise the walls because he wanted a solid, large and high house. After many attempts and with the help of companions, the plans and foundations were finished. The work was completed after several years. He continued throughout his life to maintain and embellish it.
Notwithstanding the favorable reception of Jesus and his teachings by the common people, the religious leaders at Jerusalem became increasingly alarmed and antagonistic. The Pharisees had formulated a systematic and dogmatic theology. Jesus was a teacher who taught as the occasion served; he was not a systematic teacher. Jesus taught not so much from the law as from life, by parables. (And when he employed a parable for illustrating his message, he designed to utilize just one feature of the story for that purpose. Many wrong ideas concerning the teachings of Jesus may be secured by attempting to make allegories out of his parables.) (UB 149:3.1)
Cyril Causette
| Personality Research | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 77 — March 2017 | From Primitive Prayer to Ethical Prayer: My Personal Experience |