© 2002 Larry Mullins
© 2002 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
Unless you are a science buff, the name Richard Feynman (1918 — 1988 ) may not ring a bell. He was one of the great physicists of all time. Feynman’s passion for physics was legendary; his taped lectures are sold today in popular bookstore chains. Feynman was one of the key scientists involved with the Manhattan Atomic Project, and his theory of quantum electrodynamics (QED) is generally considered the most successful and accurate scientific theory ever developed.
Feynman wrote several books that remain in print. His best for the lay person is usually regarded as: Six Easy Pieces, a primer on quantum physics. Yet, his greatest written pronouncement, in my judgment, has rarely been noted. Passionate Urantians should pay it heed.
John Gribbon tells the story in his brilliant book, Schrödinger’s Kittens and the Search for Reality. (See “Books of Significance” in this issue). A colleague of Gribbon, Marcus Chown, was a student of Feynman at CalTech. He asked Feynman to explain to his (Chown’s) mother why physics is important. Feynman wrote her a letter to put things into perspective. Feynman told Chown’s mother not to worry about the significance of her son’s work. “Physics is not important,” Feynman wrote, “love is.”
In our own passion for advocating the Urantia Papers, this statement should be our guiding principle. When we can say: “the Urantia Papers are not important-love is,” we will have reached the operative level of understanding the gospel of Jesus. Obviously the issues surrounding the Urantia Papers are not important (in relative terms) either, love is. For love is the greatest thing in the universe.
“To finite man truth, beauty, and goodness embrace the full revelation of divinity reality. As this love-comprehension of Deity finds spiritual expression in the lives of God-knowing mortals, there are yielded the fruits of divinity: intellectual peace, social progress, moral satisfaction, spiritual joy, and cosmic wisdom. The advanced mortals on a world in the seventh stage of light and life have learned that love is the greatest thing in the universe-and they know that God is love.” [UB 56:10.20]
I find this idea a reminding factor to help me keep things in proportion. Of all the spiritual values, Goodness is the only one that cannot be practiced in a vacuum. One can live integrity and Truth apart from the world. One can practice excellence or beauty in isolation … but not Goodness or Love. While it would be an oxymoron to say: "Jane (or Bill, or whomever) is not important-love is, it is completely correct to weigh any material object, or concept, or concern against Love and find it to be relatively unimportant.
Paul referred to this same principle in his eloquent comments in I Corinthians:
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not Love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could move mountains, and have not Love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not Love, it profitieth me nothing.”
Did someone say, “Ah, but my life is so mundane, my opportunities to bestow my love are so limited. If only I could go where great things are being done?”
I saw a movie several years ago which featured a great woman. She is gone now. She was an old lady even then. In one scene she stood among the elite of the planet to receive the Nobel Prize. Stooped and clothed in a faded blue sari and worn sandals, she looked fragile among the grandiose surroundings. What did this servant-leader say to us? Mother Teresa said on that day:
“We cannot do great things. We can only do ordinary things with great love.”
Peace will surely come to the world when a critical mass of people strive to honor those words.