|
that the watchcare of his earthly father's family must take precedence of all duties; that the support of his family must become his first obligation." (1389-1390)
He persisted, right up to his baptism, to contribute financially to the family and to take a deep personal interest in the spiritual welfare of every one of his siblings. (1419) And this demanding experience of supporting his family safeguarded against excess time for idle meditation or mystic indulgences. (1393)
Any commentary on spiritual family life should acknowledge the family's contribution to true brotherhood. "Marriage, with children and consequent family life, is stimulative of the highest potentials in human nature and simultaneously provides the ideal avenue for the expression of those quickened attributes of mortal personality. The family provides for the biologic perpetuation of the human species. The home is the natural arena wherein the ethics of blood brotherhood may be grasped by the growing children. The family is the fundamental unit of fraternity in which parents and children learn these lessons of patience, altruism, tolerance, and forbearance which are so essential to the realization of brotherhood among all men." (941) So, the family is the essential arena for practicing love with one's own siblings. These fraternal feelings and attitudes may eventually be generalized to include all humankind, even an entire universe of intelligent life.
"Family life is the progenitor of true morality, the ancestor of the consciousness of loyalty to duty. The enforced associations of family life stabilize personality and stimulate its growth through the compulsion of necessitous adjustment to other and diverse personalities. But even more, a true family-a good family-reveals to the parental procreators the attitude of the Creator to his children, while at the same time such true parents portray to their children the first of a long series of ascending disclosures of the love of the Paradise parent of all universe children." (942)
For ages, on our planet, children have been regarded as property. Enlightened parents must now learn to shift from the pride of ownership to the privilege of parenting, from thinking of one's offspring as possessions, my children, to contemplating the honor of temporary custody of God's children. The true goal of parenting is to gradually let go of our traditional parental role, with its often attendant selfishness, in favor of the brother-sisterly role, with its trend toward selflessness.
"Gradually" is the tricky word here. The wise parent strives to nourish the free-will dignity of each child at a developmentally appropriate rate, not so fast as to over burden the immature child with too much freedom, not so slow as to foster over dependency and stifle moral and creative growth. What a challenge!
It appears that all sentient beings in the master universe are bound to respect the free will of God's children, it's universe policy. This is instantiated clearly when we read of certain seraphim called Law Forcasters. "The intellectual foundation of justice is law, and in a local universe law originates in the legislative assemblies of the constellations. These deliberative bodies codify and formally promulgate the basic laws of Nebadon, laws designed to afford the greatest possible co-ordination of a whole constellation consistent with the fixed policy of non-infringement of the moral free will of personal creatures." (432) Indeed, even the perfectly divine Thought Adjusters, "are always subservient to your will." (1204 cf.,1183 1217)
What do these mandates imply for our human relations with each other, especially with our mates and children? If the absolute fragment of the Father refuses ever to encroach on the mortal free will of his host, even in the slightest way, what right do I have, in any degree, to violate the free will of one of my fellows? (1180) Yet, if one of my kind does not have a functional free will, I would think that this decree would not hold in exactly the same way. And just such a case is that of the young developing child whose free will is tenderly emerging. To me this is one of the powerful reasons why parenthood is such a monumental, even sacred, responsibility. How do we approach and accomplish this task of fully respecting the free will of our children while acting as responsible parents? Jesus shows us the way in his conduct toward his earthly siblings. It appears that his vital technique was the use of Family Meetings or Family-Council practices.
Why so vital? I am particularly impressed with Jesus' talk with John Mark that Wednesday the lad spent alone with God in the hills of Judea. Jesus made it perfectly clear that our early family life affects us greatly, not merely in this life and on the mansion worlds, but throughout all eternity. "A human being's entire after life is enormously influenced by what happens during the first few years of existence. (1922 ) The importance of family life to our world is emphasized in comments made by the midwayers: "It is our sincere belief that the gospel of Jesus' teaching, founded as it is on the father-child relationship, can hardly enjoy a world-wide acceptance until such a time as the home life of the modern civilized peoples embraces more of love and more of wisdom." (1922) I am convinced that Family Meetings provide a sure way to augment both love and wisdom in the home.
I was, at first, taken aback by the style of Family Meetings Jesus practiced with his brothers and sisters. What surprised me most was the total absence of arbitrary or authoritarian punishment for any wrongdoing or infractions of family rules, not even by their father (Jesus). In fact, an offending youngster had to voluntarily agree to the consequence or punishment before it was enforced. (1494) When I first read this story I thought this an
|
|
