How near God is to us and how we are to search for and know God and his kingdom in us for all time and places.
Scitote, quia prope est regnum dei (Latin from Luke 21:31).
Know that the kingdom of God is near.
Our dear Lord says here that the kingdom of God is near to us. Yes, the kingdom of God is in us. St. Paul also says that our salvation is nearer to us than we believe. Now you shall know how the kingdom of God is near to us and when the kingdom of God is near.
Here, we must take diligent notice of the sense of these words, for if I were a king and did not know that, then I would not be a king. However, if I thought I were a king and all the people said and thought that as well, and I knew that all the people said and thought such as well, then I would be a king. All the riches of the king would be mine. If any of these three things failed, then I could not be king. Such is also our blessedness, dependent upon the fact that one confesses and knows the highest good, which is God himself. I have the ability within my soul to be sensitive to God. I am so aware of this as I live that nothing is closer to me than God. God is closer to me than I am to myself. God’s nature is marked by him being near and present to me. He is also present thus to a stone or a piece of wood, but they do not know this. If the piece of wood knew God and recognized how near he is, as the highest angel recognizes, then the piece of wood would also be as blessed as the highest angel. Therefore, man is more blessed than a piece of wood, because he confesses God and knows how near God is to him. He is also more blessed as he confesses Him more; he is less blessed as he confesses Him less. He is not blessed because God is in him and is so near to him, nor because he has God, but because he confesses God, how close he is to God, and because he is cognizant of and loves God. This one shall confess that God’s kingdom is near.
When I think about God’s kingdom, that often causes me to keep silent, because of His vastness. For God’s kingdom is God Himself with all of His riches. God’s kingdom is no small matter. If you could imagine all the worlds that God could possibly make, those are not God’s kingdom. In whichever soul God’s kingdom has appeared and which recognizes God’s kingdom, one cannot preach about this nor teach, for it is therein taught and assured of eternal life. Whoever knows and recognizes how near God’s kingdom is may speak with Jacob, “God is in this place, and I did not know it.” God is equally near to all creatures.
The wise man says, “God has spread His nets and halters on all creatures, so that whoever desires to recognize this can find Him in anything and confess.”
A master says, “He who immediately recognizes God in all things confesses Him correctly.” If you serve God out of fear, that is good. It is better to serve Him out of love. However, if you can take the love in fear, that is the best.
If someone has a quiet or peaceful life in God, that is good. If someone endures a painful life with patience, that is better. However, if someone can have strength even in a painful life, that is the best. If someone goes out into a field and speaks his prayers and confesses God, or if he is in the church and confesses God, does he, therefore, confess more because he is in a peaceful place? This happens because of his frailty, not because of God. God is the same in all things and in all places, and is ready to give Himself immediately as long as it depends upon Him. He confesses God correctly, who immediately confesses Him.
St. Bernhard says, “Why does my eye confess heaven and not my feet? It is because my eye is more similar to heaven than my feet.” If my soul is now to confess God, so must it be heavenly. What now will bring my soul to the point that it recognizes God in itself and knows how near God is to it? Take notice! Heaven cannot receive any foreign impression; it cannot be impressed by any embarrassing distress that could dismay it. The soul must also be attached and confirmed in God. Those who confess God shall not be shaken, neither by hope nor fear nor joy nor sorrow nor love or suffering nor many other things that would try to dismay them.
Heaven is at all places equally distant from the earth. Thus, the soul should also be equally distant from all earthly things. It should not be closer to one over the other, and it should hold itself equally distant in love, in suffering, in plenty, in want. Rather, to all these things it shall die, leave behind, and be raised again.
Heaven is pure and clear of all spots; heaven is not touched by time or place.
No physical things have a place there. It is not in time; its revolutions are incredibly quick, and its course is outside of time. But, from its course comes time. Nothing prevents the soul so much in its confession of God as time and place. Time and place are pieces, but God is one. Therefore, if the soul shall recognize God, then it must recognize Him above time and above place. For God is neither this nor that as these multifaceted things, for God is one.
If the soul is going to see, then it must not look at anything in time, for as much as the soul recognizes time or place or something equal, then it can never recognize God. For if the eye is to recognize a color, then it must separate that color first from all colors.
If the soul is going to recognize God, then it must have no fellowship with the void. Whoever sees God recognizes that all creatures are nothing. For when one places one creature against another, then it appears to be beautiful and is something. However, when one places it against God, then it is nothing.
Further, I say, if the soul is going to recognize God, then it must forget itself and must lose itself. For if it sees itself and recognizes itself, we see that it does not yet recognize God. In the manner in which it loses itself through God and leaves behind all things, so it finds itself again in God. When it recognizes God, then it recognizes itself and all things (from which it has separated itself) completely in God. If I am going to truly recognize the highest good or eternal goodness, then I must confess that they are good in themselves, and goodness is not divided. If I am going to confess the true nature, then I must confess what that nature is in itself, that is, in God.
In God alone is the entire godly essence, but all of humanity is not in one man. For one man is not all mankind. But in God, the soul confesses all of mankind and all things in the highest, for it confesses them according to their essences. If a man is in a nicely painted house, he knows much more about it than someone who was never in it. He could also speak a lot about it. Therefore, I know, as truly as I live and God lives, if the soul is to confess God, then it must confess him over time and place. Such a soul confesses God and knows how near God’s kingdom is, that is, God with all his wealth. The professors receive many questions in the schools about how it is possible for the soul to confess God. It is not because of God’s severity that he demands much from humanity. It is out of his great leniency that he desires for the soul to further itself, that it might receive much and that he may give it much. No one should think that it is difficult to arrive at such. It might sound difficult, and it is also difficult in the beginning and in the separating and dying to all things. However, when one has become comfortable therein, one’s life is lighter, more airy, and lovelier. For God is very diligent as he is always with this person, teaching him, and bringing him to himself, so that he desires to follow in another way. No one has desired something as much as God desires to bring a person to confessing him. God is always ready, but we are very much not ready. God is near to us, but we are far from him. God is from within, but we are from outside. God is at home, but we are foreign. The prophet speaks, “God leads the righteous through a narrow path into the broad street so that they may come into the vastness and into the breadth which is the true freedom of the spirit which has become one spirit with God.” May God help us all to follow him that he may bring us into himself. Amen.
- translated from German to English by Laura Glassel
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