The quest of the people of God for God is increasing every day, but the “pearl”, the ‘Kingdom of God' is getting buried deeper and deeper day by day, due to human ignorance and lack
of correct spiritual guidance.
The Holy Spirit guides a person in search of God, right from the beginning — the state of, what we call, being begotten by the Spirit where the Holy Spirit marks one with His seal, up to the final stage where one experiences the indwelling of the Holy Trinity.
The final stage is an intimacy of love, where one is wrapped in the embrace of God — wrapped within the WITHIN. For a Christian, the experience of the Trinity is the true experience of the oneness with God. It is experiencing the embrace, the squeeze, the hug, the kiss of the Father; the deep presence of Jesus in the centre of one's being and the gentle movement of the WIND - the Holy Spirit.
This leads to a gradual but tremendous inner liberation. It is a liberation from all forms of slavery that binds one's freedom: anxiety, tension, worries, anger, unforgiveness, mood swings, jealousy, sloth, hatred, greed lust of the eye, craving for name, fame, praise, honor, esteem, appreciation, power and positions, cravings for degrees in secular and ecclesiastical fields; liberation from all sorts of fears - fear of domination, rejection, persecution, being forgotten, abandoned and the like.
As one's liberation continues, there is nothing on earth that can bind one's freedom; no social, political, economic or religious structure. The liberating words of Jesus Christ now
come to fulfillment in the person, 'I have come to set the prisoners free.’ (Luke 4:18).
Also the words of St Paul, one can claim to be his/her own: "Who can separate me from the love of Christ? Will famine, anguish....? In all these things we are more than conquerors. I believe that neither death nor Ife...” (Romans 8:35-39). Yes, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing can bind one's inner freedom. The person is a free person in Jesus Christ!
Jesus frequently used the term ‘Kingdom of God" to express this reality of love that God wants to communicate with each one of us, and this would be available to all, in the
the outpouring of the Spirit through His death and resurrection.
We have to realise that our primary calling is to experience this love of God poured out in Jesus Christ. It is for this love of the Father that Jesus has died. Matthew 1:21 says it all — His name shall be Jesus for He will deliver His people from the slavery of sin.
It is a very sorrowful state to see that many in the church and even priests, nuns and religious caught up with works rather than seeking the Kingdom. Imagine a priest without the experience of the Kingdom and yet doing wonderful works. It is like a king without a kingdom! Today, religious are caught up in the slavery of work; work in hospitals, social work, and work in schools as teachers, principals, headmistresses... Priests pursuing their own careers rather than seeking the Kingdom — careers of philosophers, theologians, doctors, counselors and even psychologists and caught up in the race for ecclesiastical positions.
Yes, caught up in the slavery of knowledge and power. And good persons from the laity are not exempt from this malaise too.
Remember your first calling — Jesus Christ! Jesus died for you and not for your works. We cannot deny works and Jesus wants us to do work. But first He wants us to experience the love of the Father for which He died. Remember His words: Seek first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness and all these other things will be added unto you.’ (Matthew 6:33). Our works will be blessed and will be fruitful, provided we are rooted in the Kingdom.
In vain do human beings try to fulfill this desire for life’ either through the gathering of immense wealth, pursuing a career, developments in science and technology, or holding positions of so-called honor. Yet these things never fulfill this desire and they end up desiring still more and more of these things for they are never satisfied. God has put this ‘desire’ in the human heart primarily to love Him and through this love to find the true fulfillment of the human heart. Make no mistake - Man, anthropologically a bundle of desires, will be fulfilled only in the one desire - GOD.
The Holy Virgin Mary never forgot her first calling and she is honored universally as Queen of the church. May her prayers obtain for us the removal of this spiritual blindness and replace it with a genuine zeal for a true God experience. As she said in her apparition at Fatima, Portugal, "In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph and an Era of Peace will come’.
Triumph it surely will, but not before the terrible & clearly visible, ongoing universal chastisement allowed by God purifies humanity - the church included.