|
<<previous |
next>> |
|
|
Citadel of Faith
|
Pages 56-58
|
|
Scale Nobler Heights of Heroism
| |
1 |
The deepening crisis ominously threatening further to derange the
equilibrium of a politically convulsed, economically disrupted, socially
subverted, morally decadent and spiritually moribund society is testing
the tenacity, taxing the resources and challenging the spirit throughout
three continents of the chosen trustees and valiant executors of `Abdu'l-Bahá's
Divine Plan. This present hour, however critical, fraught with
uncertainty, cannot and must not retard the unfoldment of the manifold
tasks so brilliantly inaugurated, so diligently prosecuted, so
dazzling in their prospects.
| |
2 |
The record of the Bahá'í community since inception of the Formative
Age conclusively demonstrates that accomplishment of signal acts
accompanied, or followed upon, periods of acute distress in European
and American contemporary history. The machinery of the Administrative
Order was established, and preliminary stage of construction of
the House of Worship was undertaken, by a grief-stricken community
in the anxious years following the sudden removal of its loving,
watchful Founder. The superstructure of the Temple was erected amid
the strain and stress of an economic depression of an unprecedented
severity gripping the North American continent. The first Seven Year
Plan, opening stage in the execution of the historic mission entrusted to
the American Bahá'í Community, was launched in the face of a
gathering storm culminating in the direst conflict yet experienced by
mankind. The Tablets of the Divine Plan were revealed amidst the
turmoil of the first World War involving great danger to the life of
their Author. The remains of `Abdu'l-Bahá's mother and brother were
transferred to site of monuments constituting focus of institutions of
future World Administrative Center and erected on the morrow of the
outbreak of hostilities while the Holy Land was increasingly exposed to
the perils precipitated by the second conflict. The daughter communities
of Latin America were called into being and exterior ornamentation
of the Temple was consummated while the American mother community
was in the throes of the last, most harassing stage of the devastating
struggle. The world-wide Centenary celebrations crowning these enterprises
were undertaken in such perilous circumstances and carried out
despite the formidable obstacles engendered through prolongation of
hostilities. National administrative headquarters were established in
Tihrán, Cairo, Baghdád, Delhi and Sydney, national and international
endowments were enriched and assemblies incorporated in countries
confronted by growing threat of invasion and encirclement.
| |
3 |
The Second Seven Year Plan inaugurating the transatlantic mission
embracing Scandinavia, the Low Countries, Switzerland, the
Iberian and Italian Peninsulas, was launched on the morrow of the
catastrophic upheaval despite the exhaustion, confusion, distress and
restrictions afflicting a war-shattered continent. The first fruits of this
newly launched Plan were garnered through convocation of first
European Teaching Conference and erection of the ninth pillar of the
Universal House of Justice in the Dominion of Canada despite
premonitory rumblings of a third ordeal threatening to engulf the
Eastern and Western Hemispheres. The central structure of the Báb's
Sepulcher was built while the precious life of its builder was hanging
perilously in the balance. Plans were drawn, contracts placed and
foundations laid for its arcade while the holy places were ravaged by
flames of the civil strife burning fiercely in the Holy Land.
| |
4 |
Precious years are inexorably slipping by. The world outlook is
steadily darkening. The American Community's most arduous feats
still lie ahead. Disasters overtaking Europe and America, more afflictive
than any tribulations yet suffered in either continent, may yet attend
still more majestic revelations in the unfoldment of concluding stage of
the Second Seven Year Plan destined to witness successively the raising
of the tenth and eleventh pillars of the Universal House of Justice, and
the celebration of the Golden Jubilee of the Mother Temple of the
West.
| |
5 |
The champion builders of Bahá'u'lláh's rising World Order must
scale nobler heights of heroism as humanity plunges into greater depths
of despair, degradation, dissension and distress. Let them forge ahead
into the future serenely confident that the hour of their mightiest
exertions and the supreme opportunity for their greatest exploits must
coincide with the apocalyptic upheaval marking the lowest ebb in
mankind's fast-declining fortunes.
[November 3, 1948]
| |
|
|
|