One Must Seek the Kingdom of God
3rd Sunday after Pentecost
Romans 5:1-10; Matthew 6:22-33
A person has many concerns in life. The typical Ukrainian parish in eastern Canada consists mostly of immigrants, and an immigrant has to start everything from scratch, having nothing. Sooner or later, one has to buy a house and everything for the house, and then a car, which we will buy and pay for as long as we live in Canada. And washing machines, dryers, refrigerators, freezers, televisions, and the like—we will keep buying until the end of our lives—because we can no longer live without these things.
Sometimes a person thinks—when will all this end? When will all those debts, mortgages, end, when will the worries end?
— Mortgages, debts have to end eventually if a person hasn’t spent their earnings on drink or lost them gambling. But if he drinks and loses at cards, he will be an eternal debtor to the companies that lend him money.
Debts may end, but a person wants not only to end debts, but also to feel happy. And here is the question: What does a person need for happiness? A sick person with poor health will say that if he or she regained good health, he or she would feel happy. Is this true?
— For some time, indeed it is...
Many people will strive for a better house, a better car, and there will be no end to it. I know a man who, while he was studying, said that he would be happy if he graduated from university, got a profession and paid off all his debts. But when all this happened, he began to complain that he had an unsuitable wife (she was good, as long as she worked hard and supported him while he studied).
There are people who, God willing, are very rich, have millions, but when you read about their lives, their alienation from God, from a virtuous life with their neighbours, you can see that they are mostly unhappy people.
There are artists and singers who have talent, good looks, and money, but their children do not have fathers or mothers and mostly grow up as orphans, without maternal love and care. Are those people happy?
— If not, then why?
Those people were seeking for themselves: recognition of their talents, human fame, and material wealth – they obtained all of that, but the overwhelming majority remained unhappy in their families, because in those families there was no place left for true love, for the expression of faith, and for unity with God the Creator.
The Lord Jesus Christ, as we heard from the Gospel, addressed people with the call:
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
(Matthew 6:33)
The people we mentioned earlier did not seek the Kingdom of God; in most cases, they sought satisfaction of bodily passions. Even when priests appeal to them with Christ’s call, they mock the naivete of those servants of God. They say that they have outgrown God... Wealth and luxury made people cynical, and, consequently, they do not want to know either God or God’s commandments.
That is why their children, having fathers and mothers alive, grow up as orphans, why fathers and mothers rely on alcohol and drugs to keep themselves stimulated, inspired, and destroy more and more their physical, and even more so, their spiritual health.
The Lord calls us to seek first the Kingdom of God—yet where to seek it? This is not a vain question: many people confuse the two concepts: The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven. Of course, the Kingdom of Heaven can be entered only after our life's journey on earth is over, if we have earned it with our lives.
When the teachers of the law asked:
“When will the Kingdom of God come?”
The Lord answered them:
“The kingdom of God will not come with observation; nor will they say: ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21)
When the Kingdom of God is within us, we cannot hope that someone will bring it to us or that God will reveal it to us in thunder and storm, as was accompanied by the revelation of God's Commandments. We must gradually build the Kingdom of God in our lives; we ourselves must be the builders of that Kingdom of God.
The fulfilled Commandments of God, of Christ, are the bricks from which that Kingdom is built - the state of spiritual perfection. The commandment of love, the fulfillment of relationships with love among the followers of the Christian faith, is the foundation, the cornerstone of the Kingdom of God on earth.
If greed for gain, hatred, pride, and self-love have gained mastery over us, we will never be capable of reaching that state of spiritual perfection.
“For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17)
When we live according to the commandments of Christ not formally, but by doing good with love and joy, with peace in our hearts, we will find and feel that joy in the Holy Spirit – we will have the Kingdom of God within us. And this is the only thing we need to seek and strive for – everything else will be added to us.
The Kingdom of God – the Heavenly Kingdom – the Lord will grant to all who have grasped the Kingdom of God within themselves while living here on earth. Eternal life in God, in Christ – that is the Heavenly Kingdom (John 5:24), when a faithful person passes “from death into life.”
Amen.
Very Rev. Fr. Taras Slavchenko
Taras Slavchenko was born on March 8, 1918 in Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine. After graduating from school and the Pedagogical College, he entered the language and literature faculty of the Scientific Pedagogical Institute. Having successfully completed it in 1938, he served as a teacher in a secondary school.
