© 2022 María José Sánchez Santamaría
© 2022 Urantia Association of Spain
| Luz y Vida — February 2022 — Newsletter | Luz y Vida — February 2022 — Index | Urantia Reflections: Universal Truth, No Dogma |
¶ Follow Jesus
Stop for a moment, please.
Slow down your fast pace.
Stops the continuous sliding by the slippery daily reality.
Uwais, the Sufi, was once asked: “What has Grace given you?” And he answered them:
“When I wake up in the morning, I feel like a man who is not sure if he will live until night.”
They asked him again:
“But don’t all men know this?” And Uwais replied: “Yes, they know, but not everyone feels it.”
No one has ever gotten drunk on the basis of “intellectually” understanding the word WINE.
Let’s look at our sick society, a society where chronic stress, anxiety, depression grow every year; a sign that we find it difficult to deal with the forces of our own psyche and that we feel exhausted with the demands of life.
It is not surprising, therefore, the tension, rivalry or the lack of depth that we observe in the dialogue between people, when what is really loving, elevated, Christian, would be to maintain a respectful and listening attitude, without seeking to impose one’s own attitude at all costs. opinion.
On the contrary, from the stillness of silence, from prayer without words, we approach harmony and peace with oneself and with God, extending that harmony to relationships and dealings with others.
The readers of The Urantia Book do we work from urgency, haste, not listening to others? How are we going to spread the book and its incomparable teachings with this widespread stress mood? Do we have more power of attraction and convening from the rapid and superficial discourse?
Stop for a moment, please.
Silence again.
Let’s turn towards our center.
Let’s balance our psycho-organism with the deep emotion that comes from contact with the infinite love of our Creator, in the face of the unbalancing fear.
Jesus already told us, “Do not be afraid.”
And the ancient psalmist also asks us to move away from fear in order to be well centered:
«He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High,
He will dwell under the shadow of the Almighty.
My God, in whom I will trust.
He will free you from the hunter’s bond,
From the destructive plague.
With its feathers it will cover you,
And under his wings you will be safe;
Shield and buckler is his truth.
You will not fear the night terror,
Nor arrow that flies by day,
Nor pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor mortality that at noonday destroys.»
Free from fear, open, united… that’s how our heavenly Father wants us.
“The religion of Jesus is the most powerful unifying influence the world has ever known.” (UB 194:3.17)
But our Father asks us for more…
In a beautiful little book, Listen to be, the priest Franz Jalics tells us his great discovery regarding how to communicate Jesus and his teachings to others, in these times.
One day, when he was going to start teaching at the seminary, a lady came with great urgency and exalted spirit to claim that she wanted to speak with him. Although it did not suit him to do so, he agreed, thinking of dispatching the matter quickly. She began to vent in a hasty way, hardly allowing the priest to intervene, and so she continued talking and talking, for 40 minutes, while the priest listened to her, not without a certain impatience.
“Father,” she told me when she finished, getting up, “I am immensely grateful to you because you have solved my problem.”
I was stumped. But if I… I had hardly said anything!
What had happened? I recapped. (1) The lady had arrived in a state of agitated confusion. She did not understand herself or know how to resolve her conflict. The more he thought about that subject, the more his mind became entangled. (2) When he was able to vent in my presence, however, his ideas began to come together. (3) And when she finished speaking, she saw so clearly that she no longer needed advice of any kind: she herself had found the solution.»
Jalics discovered that it is not just a question of understanding the other and advising him, but simply of being by his side so that he himself can become aware of himself, and in this way he can solve his problem.
“From that episode I began to shift the center of gravity towards the other person, towards their ability to clarify and solve their problems by themselves. This was my conversion to my neighbor. An attitude that, moreover, is infinitely more Christian!”
A healing attitude that our Creator, Michael of Nebadon, used precisely with his contemporaries, while he physically lived with us on this planet:
«As a general rule, he taught more to those who said less. Those who benefited most from his personal ministry were overwhelmed, worried, and despondent people who found much relief in the opportunity to vent to a kind and understanding listener. He was all of that and much more." (UB 132:4.2)
«People liked to listen to him because he was one of them, an unassuming layman. The greatest religious teacher in the world was a layman." (UB 196:1.4)
If we really seek to spread the book, expand the Urantia movement, expand minds with the gospel, it would be a matter of truly following the Master and his way of BEING: listening to people in a different, deeper, deeper way, to the style of Jesus of Nazareth, who trusted human beings and devoted time to them.
“Jesus led men to feel at home in the world; he delivered them from the slavery of taboo and taught them that the world was not fundamentally evil. He did not long to escape from his earthly life; he mastered a technique of acceptably doing the Father’s will while in the flesh.” (UB 196:2.9)
Now we can better grasp this powerful phrase from The Urantia Book, which we have surely read more than once, when it encourages us to “follow Jesus”:
“To “follow Jesus” means to personally share his religious faith and to enter into the spirit of the Master’s life of unselfish service for man. One of the most important things in human living is to find out what Jesus believed, to discover his ideals, and to strive for the achievement of his exalted life purpose. Of all human knowledge, that which is of greatest value is to know the religious life of Jesus and how he lived it.” (UB 196:1.3)
“Follow Jesus” in his listening.
“Follow Jesus” in his silence.
“Follow Jesus” in his service.
“Follow Jesus”… in our flesh.
¶ References
- Article of the Magazine Light and Life Online: https://aue.urantia-association.org/2022/01/31/editorial-febrero-2022/
| Luz y Vida — February 2022 — Newsletter | Luz y Vida — February 2022 — Index | Urantia Reflections: Universal Truth, No Dogma |