“The kingdom of God does not come visibly, nor will people say, ‘Here is it,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20)
Finding that kingdom is the whole purpose and meaning of life. Nothing else matters, yet so many unfortunate humans live and die not only never discovering that hidden realm, but not even knowing that it exists. Nathaniel may have been thinking about it when Jesus told him that He knew what was in the mind of Philip’s friend. (John 1:45-49)
“How do you know me?” Nathaniel asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you” (John 1:48). Not only did Jesus see the future apostle, He perceived what was going on in his soul. That’s why Nathaniel, like other disciples, dropped everything they lived for in order to follow the Lord Jesus. What brought Zacchaeus down from the sycamore tree? Why did Matthew abandon his tax collection responsibilities to give his life to Christ?
For the same reason that women and men flee from society and spend all their lives in monasteries: It’s understood by those who accept the Lord’s invitation, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). All who enter seminaries have invited Jesus Christ to gain admission into their hearts. How liberating it is to be guided by the Holy Spirit into an ever new increasing awareness of the life of service to the Holy Trinity.
The poet Rainer Marie Rilke realized it:
“And then the knowledge comes to me that I have space within me
For a second, timeless larger life.”
What a precious insight. But it’s not space within. Space suggests a vacuum or emptiness. Jesus tells us that it’s where we may discover His Father’s kingdom. Such a realm bursts with energy and an abundance of life like nothing comparable in this lifetime. Recall the pride that the apostles had upon looking across from the Mount of Olives at the glistening stones of the temple in Jerusalem (Luke 21:5), and Jesus in effect telling them that the temple could and would disappear in a generation from that time; but the kingdom of God was elsewhere. One must cultivate the precious soul within each of us. It’s done by prayer, meditation and worship.
The spiritual adventure requires an ongoing surrender to the will of God and the constant conflict between the old Adam rebelling, criticizing and refuting that blessed endeavor, and the breath of the Spirit encouraging the newborn child of the heavenly Father to keep on affirming the decision to abandon self-will and confirm the commitment to Christ. His yoke is easy, but it is a harness. It never imprisons. Always one has the opportunity to abandon the narrow path to salvation and choose the allure of a society screaming for attention and promoting sinfulness, self-indulgence and instantaneous gratification of the senses.
The rewards for staying in touch with the inner person serving Christ’s purpose are beyond all comprehension. We were created with the potential for discovering God through self-discovery, and to realize self-discovery can only come about through self-mastery and then self-abandonment for the purpose of giving ourselves to Jesus. Read the Sermon on the Mount with that program in mind, and you will understand why the Beatitudes, seeming so contradictory, make sound spiritual sense. Why are the poor, the peacemakers, the humble [meek], even the mourners blessed? It’s because they have no more props to support the fallacy that salvation and God’s kingdom can be found in the mundane world and discovered on one’s own. Only after abandoning all such illusions will we surrender unconditionally to Christ, and only then is true bliss possible.