The reign of God I will show you clearly that you must receive the whole Kingdom of Heaven here below if you also want to enter into it after your death. Listen to God speaking to you in parables: “To what shall I compare the reign of God? Listen well. It is like mustard seed which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and in truth, it became a large tree.” That seed is the Kingdom of Heaven, it is the grace of the divine Spirit, and the garden is the heart of each human being, where the one who has received the seed conceals the Spirit in the depths of his being, in his most inward parts, so that no one might see it. And he watches over it with all his care so that it might grow, so that it might become a tree that rises up towards heaven. So if you say, “It is not here below that all who have fervently desired the Kingdom will receive it, but after death,” you are overthrowing the words of our Savior God. And if you don’t take the seed, that mustard seed, as he said, if you don’t sow it in your garden, you will remain completely sterile. At what other moment will you receive the seed if not now? The Master says: “Here below, receive the deposit; here below, receive the seal. Light your lamp already here below. If you are sensible, I will become the pearl for you here below (Mt 13:45); here below, I am your wheat and like a mustard seed. Here below, I become leaven for you and I make your dough rise. Here below, I am for you like water and I become a soothing fire. Here below, I become your garment and your food and all your drink, if you desire this.” That is what the Master says. “Thus, if already here below, you acknowledge me as such, you will possess me there as well in an ineffable way, and I will become everything for you.”
-- Symeon the New Theologian (c.949-1022), Greek monk, saint of the Orthodox churches
From DailyGospel.Org for today's gospel commentary
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