© 2004 Michel Bezier
© 2004 Association Francophone des Lecteurs du Livre d'Urantia
“The eleven had scarcely ceased their discussions of the discourse on the vine and the branches when the Master, indicating that he was desirous of speaking to them further and knowing that his time was short, said: “When I have left you, be not discouraged by the enmity of the world. Be not downcast even when fainthearted believers turn against you and join hands with the enemies of the kingdom. If the world shall hate you, you should recall that it hated me even before it hated you. If you were of this world, then would the world love its own, but because you are not, the world refuses to love you. You are in this world, but your lives are not to be worldlike. I have chosen you out of the world to represent the spirit of another world even to this world from which you have been chosen. But always remember the words I have spoken to you: The servant is not greater than his master. If they dare to persecute me, they will also persecute you. If my words offend the unbelievers, so also will your words offend the ungodly. And all of this will they do to you because they believe not in me nor in Him who sent me; so will you suffer many things for the sake of my gospel. But when you endure these tribulations, you should recall that I also suffered before you for the sake of this gospel of the heavenly kingdom.” (UB 180:3.1)
I wait for night. I walk in a city that is strangling itself a little more each day. I walk in the streets, the boulevards. You walk in the streets, the boulevards. You will not recognize me. Like you, I walk quickly. I know where to go. We all know where to go. No questions. Mired in the mirror of our vain contemplation, we pile up, ever more greedy, our desires for possession in a bottomless pit. Behind our facades of prestige, a meaningless nothingness devours us. We are terribly weakened and we know it deep inside ourselves. The fluidity of life has left us.
I wait for the night. The sun is irremediably swallowed by the horizon line. The firewater of twilight sets alight one last time the perspective of the nameless avenues. I wait for the dark night. Its silent cry calls me. I wait for the beginning of an endless night. You too are there waiting in the discreet shadow of this day that is fleeing. We wait without any visible baggage. We wait for the revealing night. The frontier of another world approaches.
Programmed to the exact second, the electrical impulse made the pale street lights of the city jump. The night side of the city was going to display its debauchery of raw neon lights. The signal was given. Fascinated by its own gushing light, this drifting city forgot us for a short moment.
Into this blind spot of vision we rush. Quickly, quickly, let’s go! Quickly, quickly, go! The narrow passage between dog and wolf has swallowed us up. End of a world.
We walked through the blind darkness on autopilot, without any real landmarks. From time to time we looked back on our past. Seeing the old carcass of flashing illusions that we had just left recede, we were informed of our progress.
Sometimes without any sign to announce it, the wild breath of a violent wind rose, seemed to take a malicious pleasure in pushing us forward on indefinable and swirling tracks. The progression in the darkness of the night stripped us of our old clothes. As we walked, the dull rhythm of our muffled steps resonated within us.
We were naked facing an immensity that could not be measured.
In this no man’s land, the silence of the darkness was impressive.
Suddenly the reality of our situation made us shudder. We were off the beaten track, in the middle of an unfathomable desert, in the heart of nowhere. Our ties still holding us to the past were definitively severed. Our looping thoughts stopped suddenly.
No more anchor point.
Tired, we sat down. We sat down on this earth that we had been treading since the beginning of this adventure. We sat down as in the early days of the world, huddled together, trying to form a derisory rampart against this limitlessness that we could not experience.
After a time of annihilation that was difficult to measure, the heavens parted their troops of heavy clouds and revealed their dizzying depths. Clouds of sentinel stars, almost within reach of our outstretched hands, came to populate the sooty canvas of darkness with their scintillation. Like children long lost in the territories of the dark, we absolutely wanted to seize our chance. Mad with hope we called, we called:
“The house is large, brightly lit. Is there anyone living inside?”
No answer. Not a sign, not a glimmer of acquiescence. The cold light of the dead stars, the cold light of the dead stars does not answer, no longer answers. We go round in circles in our closed field, in our closed field of despair. A deep sleep has offered us to plunge into the abyss of oblivion. Just before disappearing a distant voice whispered to us:
“Remember, remember, when it is night here, there is day on the other side of the world.”
A great white silence spreads its vast cloak of indifference.
End of another world.
Much later, in an unseen time, one of us woke up. He immediately spoke:
“Can we know where the other part of ourselves takes us, when we are dissolved?
We are so small, so small he is so great. The scaffolding of past images is now useless. Let us wake up in our new state. We are so small he is so great.
In the black abandonment where our quest left us, our vulgar mortal pretensions were swallowed up forever, our foolish pride was devoured.
In the dark abandonment into which we have projected ourselves, we have definitively lost our blind sufficiency.
We are so small. He is so great. We have covered our earth with humility, a seed has germinated.
We are so small, he is so great. He offers each of us his divine presence.
We are creatures, he is creator. We are so small. Everything depends on him and yet he never fails to associate us with his greatness.
We are so small, he is so great. He is so great that he is capable of becoming dust to slip through the low door of our consciences.
We are so small, he is so great. We want to let ourselves be guided towards him constantly. We want so much to be like him.
We are so small.”
At that moment, another who was listening attentively exclaimed:
“We are his children, we are loved, we are his beloved children. He has given us a piece of his infinite wisdom. We are truly the children of a caring parent.”
Another voice, a beautiful, lively voice, spoke:
“His love is a powerful magnet that leads us down the most inconceivable paths. He awaits us at all the important crossroads of our lives. He waits for us to recognize him.”
Suddenly a song in several voices began to vibrate in the air:
“Your name is the nameless magnetization, under your joyful gaze we return home.
You are called the nameless magnetization, at the edge of day and night you spread your embers to infinity.
You are called the nameless magnetization, we call you the nameless magnetization and we greet you through all our companions.
Tomorrow we will hit the road, the long road back.
Tomorrow we hit the road, the long road of love.
You are called the nameless magnetization and we call you.
You are called the nameless magnetization and we call you, the nameless magnetization.”
After a long, resonant silence, a mature man concluded softly:
"Our human eyes are forever associated with the gaze of our creator. We were born in him, we were born in the one who shines in our nights.
It is in the visible of our mortal lives that the power of the spirit can be expressed here below. Everything can begin."
They then turned their human faces towards the earth and all the loving presence of the heavens above them came to receive their fervent prayers.
Today I wait for the night. I walk in a city that is choking a little more each day. I walk in the streets, the boulevards. You walk in the streets, the boulevards. Like you I walk quickly. I know where to go. We all know where to go. We will recognize each other.
Michel Bezier