© 2023 M. José Sánchez
© 2023 Urantia Association of Spain
And finally, the last month of 2023 arrived. A year in which, we are sure, there have been many moments of growth, joys, farewells, births, deaths, beginnings and disappointments. Each person will be able to reflect and assess how their life path has been this year that is now ending, but what we are sure of at the Urantia Association of Spain is that the work done during these 12 months has been worth it.
It has been worth resuming the Urantian talks in the Zoom room.
The new push to the Urantia Corner and its debates has been worth it.
It has been worth it to have the magnificent National Meeting of Readers of The Urantia Book in Ciudad Real (or so you have told us).
But above all, it has been worth it to be able to count on so many readers of The Urantia Book who continue reading and betting on a better, renewed and generous world, just as our beloved Master yearned for. Thanks to you, friends, because hope is with us one more year, one more Christmas.
“This current society in which we live has us lulled into a state of credulity about what the media tells the masses and the purpose of it all. Sometimes, one wonders why so much information returns me to a state of putrefaction in my life.”
These words from the businesswoman and graduate in Marketing Management and International Communication, Ingrid Vitart, in her book Life, Death and Resurrection, are striking, as a professional in advertising and communication invites us to jump over the avalanche of news, the maelstrom of “current events”, since this has no depth: current events are flat, short, full of data, of disconnected information that only manage to confuse our minds.
The problem is that many times what social networks and the media show us is NOT the TOTAL reality, there is always two sides to the coin, there is not just one side. The media repeatedly show us only one side of the coin: that of inequality, that of poverty of the heart, that of fear. However, duality exists, and it is important to expose it also in the media and to society. Human beings function a lot by avoidance and imitation. These two points are key, because if they show us a friendly environment, we tend to unite. On the other hand, if they show us a threatening environment, we tend to avoid situations, even with other human beings. Do you remember the social situation that arose with the restrictions due to COVID?
Well, readers of The Urantia Book bring that other side of the coin, that depth or three-dimensional perspective to the events of our reality. We do this when we manage to direct our gaze inward, which is where the abundance and plenitude of being resides in its maximum splendor. However, sometimes, due to the frenetic pace of our daily lives, we lose that very important connection with our interior and the real value of life and why we do what we do in our daily lives.
Do you know a secret? You are not alone. No matter where you are now, believe me, your Father is bigger than any circumstance. We confirm this in The Urantia Book, again and again.
When you are through down here, when your course has been run in temporary form on earth, when your trial trip in the flesh is finished, when the dust that composes the mortal tabernacle “returns to the earth whence it came”; then, it is revealed, the indwelling “Spirit shall return to God who gave it.” There sojourns within each moral being of this planet a fragment of God, a part and parcel of divinity. It is not yet yours by right of possession, but it is designedly intended to be one with you if you survive the mortal existence. (UB 1:4.3)
He is there, and He always waits for us to return from our distractions with the world, from our losses of connection and our ups and downs, just as He waited for the prodigal son.
Do you know the story of the rock and the mountain? It is a short story that appears in the wonderful book Being Like God, by Michael Berg. It tells this story:
A long time ago, a rock broke loose from the mountain to which it was attached. The rain and wind attacked it and it began to roll down the mountainside. It experienced its own individuality for the first time. It was a thing called a rock. It rolled and rolled, forgetting that it had ever been attached to a huge mountain. The rock now felt alone in the middle of the valley.
This is the most painful human experience: the illusion of individuality, loneliness or separation. We believe ourselves to be just a rock because we do not remember our origin, because we do not know why we are here, on this planet.
However, there is a mission or task greater than that feeling of poverty, scarcity or loneliness of the rock. Don’t you think? This bodily limitation of ours, this animal container of ours, limits us more than it expands us, because we conclude that what exists is only the reality that we see. For example, believing that I am far away, alone, removed from others.
How do we get out of the limitation of the rock? Many times there may come a time when suffering makes the rock crack. In these circumstances you ask yourself questions. Could it be that we are part of something bigger, a mountain? Is what’s around me all there is? Could it be that the mountain threw you down the slope to achieve a goal, perhaps so that you would give support to those you meet, instead of continuing to complain about your circumstances, for example?
Wondering, questioning ourselves, causes cracks to appear in our small rock, and through them the light will enter, we will grow. Let us remember these statements regarding the morontial mote:
Difficulties may challenge the mediocre and defeat the fearful, but for the true children of the Most High they only serve as a stimulus. UB 48:7.7
The greatest affliction in the cosmos is never to have been afflicted. Mortals only learn wisdom through tribulations. UB 48:7.14
This process of the rock being alone, detached, without connection, but managing to feel united to the mountain again, is actually the path that all human beings will travel. Life eats away at us sometimes, we get used to letting ourselves be dragged along. The body and habits pull us down. This is something that will happen to us many times in our life on Earth, until we truly feel our “mountain” or connection within us. Thank goodness our patient Father always waits for us and celebrates our return to Him, like the prodigal son that we are:
And then the happy father, after leading the exhausted and foot-sore lad home, said to his servants: “Bring forth the fatted calf, kill it, and let us eat and be merry, for this son of mine was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” They all gathered around the father to rejoice with him that his son had been recovered. 169:1.10 (1852.3)
In the Bible it is narrated how Abraham hears a voice that tells him to leave his father’s house and go where he is told, and he obeys this time and leaves, he moves. This patriarch from so many centuries ago shows us the importance of following the call to change, to go beyond his house, his small rock, his comfort zone. Specifically, The Urantia Book speaks of this call being made by a messenger of Melchizedek to a pair of brothers from Ur:
Within weeks of the death of Abraham’s father Terah, Melchizedek sent one of his students, Haran the Hittite, with this invitation to both Abraham and Nahor: “Come to Salem where you will hear our teachings about the truth of the eternal Creator, and the whole world will be blessed in the enlightened progeny of the two brothers.” UB 93:5.5
“Go where I direct you,” says the Bible. “Come to Salem,” The Urantia Book tells us. That is really the voice of the mountain, which does not want us to remain stuck in our individuality, complaining about the mud around us or that other annoying stone. It is really a call back to Him.
The clearest example we have of someone who leaves his comfort zone, exposes himself, experiences problems and finally joins the “mountain”, our eternal Father, is our beloved Michael of Nebadon. It is a surprising teaching of The Urantia Book that of the successive forms of “materializing” used by our Creator in the “body” of different creatures of his universe. A wise superior mandate, from the Ancients of Days, that he had to fulfill. Let’s look at this enlightening quote:
When the Michael Sons begin their work of universe organization, they feel a righteous and profound sympathy for the various orders of beings they have created. They possess abundant reserves of mercy toward all these diverse creatures, even pity for those who err and struggle to stay afloat in the selfish mire of their own making. But such endowments of justice and righteousness are not sufficient for the Ancients of Days. The triune rulers of the superuniverses will never certify a Creator Son as Sovereign of a universe until he has actually acquired the viewpoint of his creatures through his own experience of their living environment and in the form of those creatures themselves. Only thus do these Sons become intelligent and understanding rulers. They become acquainted with the various collectives over whom they rule and exercise universe authority. 119:0.6 (1308.6)
A true Creator, a God, who descends into the mud, into matter, into his creatures, to know them from within. There can be no greater way out of the comfort zone and assumption of risks and dangers.
And when Michael was born in Bethlehem, something happened that we cannot conceive:
Up to this time he had always appeared as a fully developed individual of the collective chosen for the bestowal, and we were all thrilled when the news spread from Salvington that the babe of Bethlehem had been born on Urantia. It then dawned on us that our Creator and friend was taking the most precarious step of his entire career and apparently jeopardizing his position and authority in this bestowal as a helpless child. UB 119:7.3-4
With this perspective that The Urantia Book offers us of the events that occurred in Bethlehem, we can greatly appreciate what our beloved Master did out of love for us:
Joshua ben Joseph, the Jewish baby, was conceived and brought into the world exactly like all other babies before and after him, save for one thing: this particular baby was the incarnation of Michael of Nebadon, a divine Son of Paradise and the creator of this entire local universe of things and beings. UB 119:7.5
A child, a Jewish baby named Joshua ben Joseph, is born in stables next to the mangers of the beasts. God does not avoid the small and simple, blood and straw are not foreign to this wonderful being, creator of our universe.
This is the manifestation of the spirit in our lives. This can be the expression of the birth of God in our lives this Christmas. Leaving the comfort zone, taking risks, learning by coming down to earth alone, as the Master did, to then return to our Father.
A salt doll traveled thousands of kilometers of dry land until, finally, it reached the sea. She was fascinated by that strange, moving mass, totally different from anything she had seen until then.
“Who are you?” the sea asked the salt doll.
With a smile, the sea responded:
—Come in and see for yourself.
And the doll went into the sea, but as it went deeper it dissolved until hardly anything of it remained.
Before the last piece dissolved, the doll exclaimed in amazement:
—Now I know who I am!
Worlds, planets, journeys, and learning await us in a great carousel of experiences. And as happened to the Master, the time will come to finally see Him, to finally access the “mountain”, our origin, our beloved Father, and to receive His embrace.
Happy and profitable reading of our newsletter. We hope that the new year brings us closer to the “light of life”, to discovering incalculable treasures in our daily lives, in our weaknesses. At least we are going for it.
Merry christmas
Happy New Year 2024
¶ References
- Index of the magazine “Luz y Vida” of the Association of Spain
- This article from the magazine “Luz y Vida Online”