© 2001 Sylvette Perrier
© 2001 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
| Living Our Father's Will: A Daily Experience | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 17 — Spring 2001 | Relaxation Corner: The Mason and the Great Architect |
He who believes in the 5th Revelation, who has finally had the grace to know The Urantia Book, to read it regularly, to do his best to ensure his survival, to go in the direction of the Divine Plan, Who wants in all things of his life to do the Will of the Father, prays and entrusts himself to the guidance of his Adjuster. But if, apparently and often, in the situations of everyday life, he does not always see the line to follow (despite his prayers and his good will) he must have in mind “to go in the direction of Truth, Beauty and Goodness”. It is easy to say, but not always to do!
Here are five imaginary examples (absolutely imaginary, I should point out) that can illustrate similar situations on the Fundamentals, where two of these criteria out of the three are present. So where is the Best Good in this case?
1st example: “The Pious Lie” (So named by evolutionary Christian religions). A person is going to die in atrocious suffering, following an illness of which they are unaware of the seriousness. This person, psychologically fragile, would bear the Truth extremely badly if they knew it. They question someone about their condition, who answers them with a reassuring lie: “You will recover. It’s not serious, etc…”, in order to comfort them. This response goes in the direction of the Good, even the Beautiful, but not the True.
2nd example: “The beautiful War Painting” A Master painting, exhibited in the museum, represents an immense historical battle scene, under a very dark sky, with many corpses on the ground. The painter worked in the sense of the True (it is history) and the Beautiful, but certainly not the Good!
3rd example: “ Carnal hygiene” A man (let’s call him “Pierre”) is unhappily married (or “cohabiting”) with a woman with serious problems (ex-insane or other…) who imposes forced chastity on him with her. He cannot divorce, it would be contrary to all morality, (perhaps even to the law: his wife, not very young, depends entirely on him financially. There is also family at stake…) Pierre meets one, and even several times, a woman with whom he spends from time to time a moment of shared carnal pleasure (he chose this because an “isolated pleasure borders on potential harm” (L.U.). But, to remain prudent, to protect his home from any scandal, Pierre lies about his identity to his clandestine partners. He tells them his name is “Jules”, and gives a false address if they absolutely ask him for it.
He acts in the direction of Good (he protects his home, while doing Good to himself - shared pleasure), of Beauty (he tries to “aestheticize” the relationship as much as possible), but not of Truth!!!
4th example. A very common little white lie. A very banal and extremely frequent scene: an old lady, all wrinkled, flabby, with only three teeth, asks me, anxiously, if she looks her age and “looks old”. I automatically answer her: “Oh! No! You look ten years younger! And you are charming! ” I would not want to tell the truth to this old lady for anything in the world, because I hate to hurt, while I bring a little joy, with this little lie. This time the action is in the sense of the Good only, but neither of the True nor of the Beautiful.
I have my opinion on all these archetypal examples, but I think it is of course relative. Exchanging the human mind for that of Jesus? In these cases, which are, as I said, sorts of archetypes of common situations in life, it seems very abstract, because Jesus being Perfect, could not be found in these cases.
Sylvette Perrier
| Living Our Father's Will: A Daily Experience | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 17 — Spring 2001 | Relaxation Corner: The Mason and the Great Architect |