July 30, 2017

 

To the American Bahá’í community for the Feast of Kamál

 

Beloved Friends,

 

Just a dozen weeks now separate us from the 200^th anniversary of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh, the “most precious Being ever to have drawn breath on this planet,” Whose appearance in this world marked the dawning of the long-awaited Day of God, Whose Manifestation represented the coming of the “Everlasting Father” spoken of in past scriptures―yet Whose life and teachings are to date still unknown to and unappreciated by the vast majority of His children.

 

Across the globe, in every community in which they reside, His ardent lovers are making preparations to befittingly commemorate this sacred occasion in the company of friends and contacts. Tributes to the Blessed Beauty will soon resound in settings of every conceivable variety: in private homes, in neighborhood gathering places, in Bahá’í Houses of Worship, in Bahá’í Centers, and in many other venues. The cumulative result will be a worldwide celebration which for the diversity and unified spirit of its participants, its surpassing joy, and its ultimate beneficent effects may well mark one of the pivotal moments of our generation. For who knows what energies our combined efforts will generate, what interest they will spark and what new capacities for teaching they will create, what confirmations they may attract from the Divine Kingdom, and what their consequences may be for a humanity in such desperate need of the Blessed Beauty’s redemptive message? Who can say how many will be enough inspired by them to join us in walking the path of service for the betterment of the world?

 

Of the profound importance of these efforts we should entertain no doubt whatsoever. We have only to refer to the following statements of our beloved Master, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, about the greatness of Bahá’u’lláh and the privilege of serving Him that is ours:

 

"Centuries, nay ages, must pass away . . . ere the Day-Star of Truth shineth again in its mid-summer splendor, or appeareth once more in the radiance of its vernal glory. . . . How thankful must we be for having been made in this Day the recipients of so overwhelming a favor! Would that we had ten thousand lives that we might lay them down in thanksgiving for so rare a privilege, so high an attainment, so priceless a bounty!" "The mere contemplation . . . of the Dispensation inaugurated by the Blessed Beauty would have sufficed to overwhelm the saints of bygone ages―saints who longed to partake for one moment of its great glory." "The holy ones of past ages and centuries have, each and all, yearned with tearful eyes to live, though for one moment, in the Day of God. Their longings unsatisfied, they repaired to the Great Beyond. How great, therefore, is the bounty of the Abhá Beauty Who, notwithstanding our utter unworthiness, hath through His grace and mercy breathed into us . . . the spirit of life, hath gathered us beneath the standard of the Beloved of the world, and chosen to confer upon us a bounty for which the mighty ones of bygone ages had craved in vain."

 

Dearest friends, may our deeds in the days ahead prove us worthy of such a priceless gift!

 

                                               With loving Bahá’í greetings,

                                               NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF

                                               THE BAHÁ’ÍS OF THE UNITED STATES

                                               Kenneth E. Bowers

                                               Secretary