© 2011 Marc Benoit
© 2011 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
I saw a wonderful assembly resplendent with beauty and purity.
In the first rows were all the sluts in the world and then the drug addicts,
Alcoholics, divorcees, aborted women, prostitutes, and also, mixed in with them,
The lonely, the excluded, the rejected, the prisoners,
The condemned, the disreputable, the unloved,
And again, the poorly dressed, the unclean, the sick,
The handicapped, the incurable, and, among them,
The children, with their mothers and fathers;
And the old men with their wise and smiling eyes;
And then all the fishermen were there, very close,
The bad lovers, the bad speakers, the evil doers, the badly screwed up.
In short: the poor of all kinds had the best places.
And standing, completely back, a little embarrassed,
There were the rich, the well-dressed, the well-off, the beloved, the virtuous.
In short, those who needed nothing and no one, since they had everything:
Health, wealth, money, property, reputation,
Consideration, honors, good jobs, freedom, virtue, etc., … everything!
Then the shepherd passed among them.
The people standing there barely noticed him, so busy were they with their own business: But the poor people only had eyes for him; they knew
That he loved them,
That he would listen to them, that he would welcome them,
That he would sympathize with their misery,
That he would neither judge them nor condemn them,
That he would understand them,
That he would give them hope again,
That he would bring them peace and joy,
That he would give them his forgiveness.
He stopped along the way to take a small child in his arms to bless a mother.
He met the gaze of a desperate man.
He shook the hand of a prostitute who wept with joy.
He kissed a young drug addict who felt his heart beat faster.
He took in his hands the hands of a prisoner who felt free.
He hugged an old woman who suddenly became younger.
Then, he placed himself in front, very close to the sluts.
There was kindness in his face.
And, in his eyes, there was all the sweetness, all the tenderness in the world.
And his smile had the shape of a welcome.
He said to them: “Peace to you all!
I came to bring you Good News :
Your chains will fall,
Your misery will disappear,
Your sorrow will fly away,
You will be satisfied,
You will be comforted,
We will do you justice,
We will have mercy on you!
Yes, blessed are you,
You, the poor!
For the kingdom of Heaven,
My Kingdom is yours. »
Then a clamor rose from this assembly:
“You looked at us and loved us,
You listened to us and understood us,
You have touched and fulfilled us,
You sympathized with our sufferings,
You have forgiven our sins.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
We praise you, we thank you,
And we will shout to everyone that you saved us. »
And suddenly something never seen before happened: the clamor disturbed the rich.
Who, for the first time, noticed that there were poor people in the assembly,
She jostled them and disturbed them to the point that they were about to withdraw.
But the poor people, all joyful, ran towards them and mingled with them:
The beautiful clothes became crumpled,
The subtle perfumes vanished,
The gloved hands got dirty.
The poor, and, at their head, the Shepherd,
Led them into an extraordinary, magnificent, marvelous farandole.
So, we experience a completely new spectacle:
The rich laid at the Shepherd’s feet,
Their rings, their diamonds, their wallets,
The great ladies were seated with the girls of easy virtue,
The patronesses no longer chose their poor,
The children amused the old people,
The drug addicts danced with the girls from good families,
And the prisoners could go wherever they wanted.
In this assembly of sharing, of light, of welcome, of forgiveness, There were no longer rich or poor, Neither righteous, nor sinners, neither white, nor black,
But only men, women, children
Who loved each other, loved each other, loved each other…
Marc Benoit