WRITTEN BY: Catechist Branislav Ilić, editor of the portal „Kinonia“
The Lord spoke much about the Kingdom of Heaven. His first sermon was about the approach of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Lord left us parables in which He used earthly analogies to convey the understanding of the Kingdom of Heaven and who can and cannot enter it. In His words about the Kingdom of Heaven, He both comforted and warned. “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God coming with power” (Mark 9:1).
The Lord says: “The kingdom of heaven suffers violence” (Matthew 11:12). A person must force himself to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, that is, he must renounce all evil habits.
The Venerable Paisios of Mount Athos spoke of a monk who had reposed: “You saw him as an unrepentant sinner, a rebel and a drunkard, but the Lord saw him as a fighter against his passions.” These wonderful words of the newly revealed Mount Athos saint teach us that none of us, while seeing human sin, sees human repentance. Therefore, we must be careful not to rush to judge someone, because we, due to human weakness and limitations, judge in one way, and the Lord, as a righteous judge, judges in His own way, which is inseparable from His love. The kingdom of heaven does not come from outside, but is within man. The kingdom of God is the state of human nature renewed by divine grace; it is a kind of enthronement of Jesus Christ in the human mind and heart, through the action of the Holy Spirit.
Saint Symeon the New Theologian sings: “You are, Christ, the Kingdom of Heaven, You are the land of the meek, You are the green paradise. You are the divine chamber, You are the ineffable mystery. You are joy and peace, You are bliss and glory, You are gladness, You are joy.” Abba Isaiah teaches: “The Kingdom of God is the destruction of every sin.” Saint Ephraim the Syrian writes: “The presence of the Kingdom in us signifies nothing other than the heavenly joy of the spirit experienced by a worthy soul. Enter within yourself, live within yourself, in the beautiful chamber of your spirit, and seek the Kingdom there, as our Saviour taught.” Saint Cassian the Roman says that “the Kingdom of Christ in the saints begins when, through the eradication of vices in our hearts, the power of the devil ceases, and God, through the fragrance of virtues, begins to reign in us; when, instead of subdued carnal lust, purity reigns in our minds; instead of suppressed anger, humility; instead of crushed pride, humility”. Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov teaches: “The Kingdom of Heaven is the peace of Christ. In the soul in which passions have been subdued through obedience to God, God reigns, the peace of Christ reigns”.
The power that builds the Kingdom of God in man is the grace of the Holy Spirit. “The earthly kingdom is but for a short time, but the heavenly kingdom is forever and ever”, is the word of Saint Lazarus the martyr of Kosovo, who through these few words showed us the path we should walk. His commitment to the Kingdom of Heaven is the most important point of his life, but also the most important lesson of the Saint Lazarus ethos that was given to us through him.
The Kosovo martyr Lazarus testified to us that commitment to the Kingdom of Heaven always implies struggle, effort, perseverance and effort. Just as a plant that emerges from a seed goes through different stages of growth and development, so too a person who has accepted the teachings of Christ, with the help of the grace of God, gradually transforms and grows from within. At the beginning of his spiritual path, a person is full of good impulses, which seem fruitful, but which in fact turn out to be immature, like young shoots of growing plants. The Lord does not enslave a person’s will with His almighty power, but gives him time to enrich himself with this grace-filled power in order to gain strength in virtue. Only a spiritually mature person can bring God the perfect fruit of good deeds.
When God sees a person spiritually determined, mature, then He takes him to Himself from this life, which in the Gospel parable of the Sower and the Seed (Mk. 4:26-29) is called the “harvest”. Following the instructions of this parable of the invisibly growing seed, we must learn to be patient and condescending towards the weaknesses of the people around us, because we are all in the process of spiritual growth. Some reach spiritual maturity earlier, others later.
“The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until it was all leavened” (Mt. 13:33). The three measures of meal are all our good deeds, our whole life with all its troubles and sufferings, all our good intentions. But without good leaven, our whole life is worthless. Therefore, without the Kingdom of Heaven, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, without it, even suffering cannot teach a person anything, and even his good deeds have no value.
With his life example and words that testify to his commitment to the Kingdom of Heaven, Saint Lazarus the Kosovo Martyr tells us that finding the Kingdom of Heaven means renewing the connection with God and entering the space of the Holy Spirit – already here and now on earth.