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How are we to influence others, or purify Christendom?
We are left in no doubt that we are intended not to follow the pathway that brought disaster to the Quaker movement. Shouting our message from the roof tops is not our intended role. The contrary: Jesus said when we give alms, when we are bearing fruit in service to our brothers and sisters, we are not to do as other men do--try to draw attention to their philanthropy. We are to do our good deeds, to bear fruit, in secret. We are not to let our left hand know what our right hand does.
But our first duty lies within ourselves. First we must "be:"
"That evening while teaching in the house, for it had begun to rain, Jesus talked at great length, trying to show the twelve what they must be, not what they must do. They knew only a religion that imposed the doing of certain things as the means of attaining righteousness--salvation. But Jesus would reiterate, 'In the kingdom you must be righteous in order to do the work.' Many times did he repeat, 'Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.' All the while was the Master explaining to his bewildered apostles that the salvation which he had come to bring to the world was to be had only by believing, by simple and sincere faith." (1584)
How do we set ourselves right so that we can live as Jesus lived? The Papers state:
"To 'follow Jesus' means to personally share his religious faith and to enter into the spirit of the Master's life of unselfish service for man. One of the most important things in human living is to find out what Jesus believed, to discover his ideals, and to strive for the achievement of his exalted life purpose. Of all human knowledge, that which is of greatest value is to know the religious life of Jesus and how he lived it." (2090)
For those blessed with a photographic memory, a mere 700 or so pages of Jesus life might not present a major challenge. To most of us, it is not even a possibility.
Perhaps the best place to discover the religious life of Jesus and how he lived it is in Paper 140, "The Ordination Sermon." In about twenty pages we receive a condensed version of Jesus' thought and teaching that is described as "a master philosophy of life" (1572) that would help create "a high spiritual and inspirational ideal for all mortal beings on all worlds." (1585)
Our personal spiritualization and "living as Jesus lived."
"The goal for human self-realization should be spiritual not material. The only realities worth striving for are divine, spiritual, and eternal."
"Spirituality is the indicator of one's nearness to God…it enhances the ability to discover beauty in things, recognize truth in meanings, discover goodness in values."
"Spiritual development is determined by the capacity therefor and is directly proportional to the elimination of the selfish qualities in love." (1096)
Being an abstract quality, a precise definition of spirituality is not really a possibility. Any definition will tend to be in terms of other abstract concepts, themselves indefinable. An example: What is spirtuality? Spirituality is all that is encompassed in divine love. But what is divine love? God is love and divine love is what God is.
The nearest thing we have to a definition of spirituality in the Papers is:
"Actual spiritual status is the measure of Deity attainment, Adjuster attunement. The achievement of finality of spirituality is equivalent to the attainment of the maximum of reality, the maximum of Godlikeness." (1096)
Jesus' life was a revelation, one that is comprehensible by mortals such as ourselves, as being the "maximum of God-likeness." Hence the Paper's statement that the most important thing in our lives is to know the life of Jesus and how he lived it.
Perhaps the best approach may be to view spirituality as being something that is generated more or less unconsciously by experiences that are given meaning and value by the "touch" of divinity--concepts such as truth, beauty, goodness, tolerance, patience, forbearance, fairness, trust, peace, selflessness, etc. All these are "God-likeness" properties that, when grasped and incorporated into our selfhood have the potential to spiritualize our experiences--and thereby become the spiritual reality that, through our indwelling God-Spirit, can generate our eternal soul.
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