Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Luke 12: 32 – 34
Jesus says it is our Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. What is the Kingdom of God? Many people answer that in extraordinarily different ways. The kingdom that most Jews expected at the time of Christ was a Messiah who would return Israel to being a powerful earthly kingdom, with Him reigning as king. We know that is not what Christ meant when He declared these words. He asks us to sell our possessions and give alms – that is how His Kingdom comes. When we say with all our heart, “everything I have is yours, Lord,” and sacrifice ourselves for others (giving alms is an example), that is His Kingdom. Jesus promises “unfailing treasure in heaven” if we choose for Him to reign in our hearts. Here is a great paradox: to receive the Kingdom of God and all that it contains, we have to give up the “possession” of our life and give Him the ownership. Profoundly simple – but the hardest thing to do, for a sinful race. If we do, however, God will grant us a new heart, capable of all that He asks of us.
Let us pray with St. Gregory:
God whose mercies are diverse and abundant, mighty and awesome God who loves mankind, blessed living God beyond description whose mere word can make anything possible
and for whose mind nothing is unthinkable.
You alone can repay the severity of thorns with sweetness of fruit.
You who are the author of that new and amazing law of life:
to do good to those who hate
and pray for those who persecute
and to seek salvation for those who wound
and ask forgiveness for those who murder.
These are the miraculous fruits you bestow, with sweetness beyond compare
made delectable by your divine will and savory by your praiseworthy lips,
Lord Christ, blessed on high
breath of our nostrils,
and the strength of our dignity.
Amen
Prayer 76 A
