in spite of desperate efforts. And so what I wanted to do then tonight is just privately let us prepare for tomorrow's Mass, that of the sixth Sunday after Pentecost, and then the last before the 24th Sunday, which is at the end of the... or an ecclesiastical year as the beginning of a new one. So we could start in explaining Laura's verse that the last sentence we have is Laura's gospel. Jesus spoke in these parables that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by a prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables, and I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.

[01:17]

I will open my mouth in parables. That is the Hebrew mashal. It is that word which breaks out the deeper truth, which is in a form of the simile. So it is an old way of teaching, as you know very well, a way of teaching which is fulfilled in the incarnation of the Word of God. Christ, the Word of God, made man. He is the semite. But you realize right away that he is a simile. Simile.

[02:20]

I-L-E. Simile. Simile. It is a simile. The simile is the word of God made man. And this word of God, the glory of God, The power of God emptied himself. And he became one of us. And he was found in the form of a slave. And he died obediently to the very hidden death of the death of the cross. Therefore God exalted him, gave him a name which is beyond all names. As in the name of the curious, the Lord every knee should meet, so that they should find themselves all them as these servants.

[03:31]

These shall be the servants of God. That is the nation. That is the power body. That is a word which transcends itself. A small little word. A word which in itself is very humble, very simple. And still in some mysterious way, it contains all the power of God. all the glory of God, all the salvation of God. And that is, you remember, that is what we have spoken about so often in the past, that we should not think of the kingdom of God and its realization here in between the times on this earth, this realization in the church,

[04:34]

And we should not think of it on the lines of any kind of human, mere human association. On the lines of a denomination. of something, a human association, which somebody can enter at will and leave at will without gaining too much or losing too much, except perhaps some social reputation. Not that way we should think about the kingdom of God, about the Church. But we should think about it in these terms of visibility. In this visible organization, which is subject to all human laws, to the laws of history, the failure, the ups and downs of history.

[05:37]

Still, in this simile, the power of God is effective and makes us to God, constitutes the kingdom of God, makes us to servants, to the servants of our heavenly Father, in and through Christ. So there is a word by which wisdom now adapts itself then slow as it were, in order to be received, in order to be full, because full, digestible by the sugar, that special character of this divine food, of this divine house, this divine mashach,

[06:40]

which is perfected in the incarnation, the death, the resurrection, the exaltation, for our Lord Jesus Christ, is that this wisdom is power. This word is an effective word. And that is the message of tomorrow's Sunday. It's what the Church wants to remind us of. The church, the kingdom of God, is filled with the presence and, let us say, the operating presence that means the power, it denotes, of God. The cogitation is purchased, the thought of peace that God thinks are effective, are saving, as his word has created So the example of that is given here first in the Gospel of St.

[07:51]

Matthew, where we find that Jesus the Lord opens his mouth to parents so that he may utter things, hidden, that means enigmatic, From the foundation of the world. The best translation of that probably would be in the light of the beginning. In the light of the beginning. From the foundation of the world. Because what is the object of these parables? The object of these parables is the parable. And that is the incarnation, the death, and the resurrection of the Word of God made flesh.

[08:53]

That is the real, the reality, which is hidden in these papers. Christ, when he speaks about the kingdom of God, speaks about himself. It's his own, one can say, what we call it, mystery. hidden things, the mysterium. But the mysterium is the sense that we always spoke about it during all these conferences that we have these nights. Mysterium which is not only an intellectual wiggle or something that simply is beyond our comprehension. No, a mysterium in the sense in which we have explained it. A mysterium as a manifestation and presence of glory. A mysterium in the sense of the redemption of the sinner.

[09:57]

As the manifestation of the divine agape, the mysterium. The Mysterium is the thing which lasts through all the ups and downs of history and makes, really, and constitutes its, what we call in Hebrew, Olam, its eternity. That is the Mysterium. And that is the Word of God, in whom the Word was created, through whom the Word was redeemed. So he himself is the, what is expressed in these parables. And we see in the light of the beginning, that means it's Christ himself who speaks about himself and therefore puts things into the light of the beginning. The situation that you have here in the gospel

[11:03]

in the 13th chapter of St. Matthew, is evidently that this little band of the Lord's disciples, and what disciples? Just look at them. How limited in their understanding, in their character. Small in number, absolutely insignificant. And of course, in this little band, there is timidity, and there's a lot of fear, anxiety for the future, what will become of us. And these pebbles here, in which the Lord speaks, evidently, in order to open to them what is covered and hidden, beneath the surface, this poor surface, this thing that hides the glory.

[12:09]

That is the essence of it. Hiddenness is that what hides the glory. And there they are, afraid, deadly afraid. And then the Lord opens to them in these two parables the inner power, which is present under this very insignificant historical beginning. So he says, Jesus spoke to the multitude this parable, the kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which is the least indeed of all seeds. But when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs and becomes a tree, so that the herbs of the air come and drill in the branches thereof. In the right way, another parable is added, so that these two, in some way, may complement each other.

[13:19]

The kingdom of heaven is like to live in. which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened. All these things Jesus spoke in parables. Though those are the two, two parables. They are like two, one can say, words, you know, which in themselves are again sacramental. The high beneath them is hidden, the whole powerful. of the kingdom, that means of the world made flesh, and dies and rises. One can say that here, what is it that our Lord speaks about? What is it that he reveals? One can say, really, what is indicated in Detroit, cogitationis agis, and non affliction. I think thoughts of peace and not of affliction.

[14:22]

That is the mystery. The meaning, the inner divine meaning of history. as it is realized in the way in which God here on earth, through the ups and downs of history, establishes his kingdom in order to lead man into the fullness of salvation. The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed. Now, we know that. That here, the point of this parable is the absolute disproportion between the beginning and the end. Usually, one may say that this parable here speaks about the miraculous and rapid extension of growth of Christianity. And sometimes one calls these parables parables of growth.

[15:25]

Now, there is something truer, some truth to it, no doubt about it. Provided one realizes, or let us put it this way, provided one does not approach these parables or this globe, which is here hinted at, with the mind, you know, of the Western man. Western man always thinks of development. The eastern and the east, the orientals are different. They see the beginning and they see the end. A very insignificant, small beginning and suddenly a marvelous end. A tremendous dimension. Disproportionate. What is it? A miracle. What is in between? Now, of course, now the Western man comes and says, now let's see what happens to the sea.

[16:31]

The sea disappeared, but he will kind of pick it out of the ground. Now we have to see what has happened. And in the end, it's all very natural. For the oriental man, This kind of, you know, the absent, one can say, is not in the inquiry and the discovery of what happens between the beginning and the end. But he sees that tremendous disproportion. And what is the bridge between the beginning and the end? For him, it is the power of God. And so in this way, certainly, he The parable is meant here when it is applied to the kingdom of God. The tremendous difference between the beginning and the end in the history of the church, but that is why do I also remember that this is just an imitation, as we will see in the epistle, of

[17:44]

the beginning and the end of Christ, he himself, the Word of God made man, is the seed. And there he is, the little mustard seed, the child born in Bethlehem, born in the stable. And there he is, that mustard seed, that he himself proclaims, yes, you are right, I am a king. But nobody else believes it. He is actual holy. Look there. What a pitiful human being. Actual. A pitiful human being. That is the mustard seed. And then the mustard seed is buried. Buried in the ground. Descendida in. Passus mortus sepultus. He died, and he was buried in the ground.

[18:46]

And then out of there, he rises again. And then he breathes the breath of life upon the apostles. And in that way, the church, his kingdom, starts its triumphant march through history to Rome. So that is what has met him. It is that there must be the kingdom of God. What is the essence of the kingdom of God? It is that power which binds together the small, humble beginning and the exaltation, the glorification. In that way, the kingdom of God, of course, is really also a lot of sins. What we learn and what the rule of our Holy Father sent building, what else is it, but the rule of the kingdom.

[19:55]

Those who are humble, they will be exalted. Those who are exalted themselves, they will be humbled. It's the whole seventh chapter of the rule of Saint Benedict, which is here indicated. There is a real mystery. The power of God works through this kenosis, through this emptying of one's wisdom, and through in this way, One single little seed has to die. It's buried in the ground. And then it grows and it multiplies. That is this. Die in order to blossom into the fullness of God. That is the mystery, the mystery of the kittens.

[20:59]

exemplifying, stated forever in the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ, repeated in the whole history of the Church and in the history of the soul of every individual Christian. And in this similar way, the other parable brings out the same. The first parable, that is true, gives that, it ends with this picture of the tree. The tree in comparison to the sea, the sea is the human element. The sea is the historical element. The tree is the divine fullness. The tree is the divine end, the completion, what we call in Greek, the pleura, the fullness.

[22:01]

And that tree then here, as they say in the parable, the king, the birds of heaven, they make their nest. And then, of course, is an old expression for the power of the king. A kingdom is likened to a tree already in the Old Testament, in which the birds then take and make their nests. And so it is said here of the kingdom of heaven. So it is true that in this first parable, and somewhere also, we know, let us say, of extension concepts. It's an expansion. There is one that is a little world in the beginning. There's a tremendous tree in the end. And many that take make their nests in this tree.

[23:05]

Then the other parable has the same disproportion. There's a little, small, little piece of leaven And in the end, there are, I don't know how to say it here, three measures of me. Three measures of me. Now, one has to keep in mind that there is enormous mass. That is enough to feed about a hundred people. So it is again emphasized. And that is also so beautiful here in these parables. That, as in the first part, the little grain of mustard seed, which is the least indeed of all seeds. And then it is described what man takes it and he puts it, so as it is said here in his field, it's rather he puts it in the ground in his garden.

[24:14]

And then when it is grown up, So now we see man here, also that's so significant, doing a small insignificant little thing. Just imagine him taking this little, little thing out and putting this little seed and then carefully carving it further. In itself, that is a completely insignificant little action. But again, so typical. Because, as you know so very well, also from our whole monastic approach to the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven is not something that is built up in tremendous spectacular accomplishments. But it is done in very small, humble little things. Think of St.

[25:17]

Teresa of Lisieux. Think of the little way And that is such an important thought, just in the realm of our monastic life, because in some way, the retirement of the monk into the monastic realm as retirement of the world is also retirement and a renouncement to the big, great things of history. The one who becomes a monk renounces all dreams of being the leader of an army, of being the tremendous popular representative of the people, or anything like that. And in that way, then, pushing and pulling his weight around, and pushing his weight into the spikes of history, and then turning this whole immense machine

[26:18]

All that for the world, that's finished. We are not here in order, let us say, to do and work in tremendous dimensions. We put a little seed, and that is the little seed, go on and say, of our healthy good will. And then we put it to the ground and be better. And out of them rises the kingdom of heaven. The tremendous tree and the bird's garden. They make their destiny. It's not our doing. Once man has finished putting the seed in the ground, his work is done. And that is the idea for the oriental mind. The rest is up to God. And then after time, I look again and Something has become of it which manifests a power which is completely different from it.

[27:24]

It's God's power. It is that power, I can say, that raises the dead into life. It's the power of the resurrection. And that is what's indicated in these parables. It's the glorified Christ and his spirit which is revealed. And that is very evident if we think of the leaven. Because the leaven, you know, adds another element. The kingdom of heaven is like to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of pain until the whole was leavened. What happens? Again, the woman. So it's not the man. In the first, of course, at least, comes the man and puts him into the scarf. So here it's the woman. The woman is, as you know, in the Orient, considered as the crown of creation.

[28:27]

And so the woman comes. And these little things are the daily life that keep the family going. While the lamb is out, the husband is out, you know, to, [...] And again, you know, that, of course, is simply, you know, our own subjective, let us say, and devotional, you know, approach and further, let us say, I wouldn't even say explanation, but further spinning out of the thoughts which are begun in this period with somebody, the woman. We think, of course, right away there, too, of Our Lady, how do you think of the church as the woman? And we think of the leaven that is taken, that is Our Lady's humble contribution, so to speak, that she, in the open hand of mankind, she gives her own flesh and blood so that the world in that way may within penetrate the whole mass of mankind like a new leaven by dye.

[29:55]

And so here it is. Woman takes that leaven and she puts it into this enormous mass of dough. And then what happens, usually that mass of dough is covered. And then what does, leaves it to itself. What doesn't move it there. That's the reason maybe why the woman's work is now considered as such a tremendous contribution, just as in the first painting. And then the whole is leveled. So that indicates, again, you know, the power of the resurrection. But I would say still in a world, in a world, you said, beautiful, more precise way that this power of the resurrection, when we speak about it, what we mean again is the world becomes flesh and in this way enters into the whole dough of humanity and then there

[31:13]

died and in this way then in the power of the spirit penetrates the whole and in this way changes this as it were into the kingdom puts it into the heart of my heavenly father Now, the way in which that, in a concrete, what is, let us say, appears to us, that is then shown so beautifully in the abyss, tomorrow's abyss, where St. Paul speaks about the Thessalonians. And you know that the Thessalonians were kind of his first troops after he had passed, or made a hero, and under the impetus of the Spirit, not urged by the Spirit. And then he speaks about, we give thanks to God always for you, making a remembrance of you in our prayers without ceasing.

[32:28]

That's what we say about that. Be mindful of the work of your faith and of the labor of your charity and of the endless enduring waiting of your hope of our Lord Jesus Christ before God and our Father. And of course, this last Trinitibus of our Lord Jesus Christ before God and our Father could be really drawn to all the three things. Faith, charity, and hope. And the way in which St. Paul describes them is just in the way in which he speaks, in which the Gospel speaks about the mustard seed. The work of faith, the labor of the charity, that endless patient waiting of your hope. It is beautiful that the faith is here considered as ergo, as a work.

[33:37]

I would not, at the moment, you know, I would not like to go into that because I'm not in a way too sure about it. But one thing is clear, you see that here, faith, which is first gift, which is the light that is given to us, and it is the first act, the baptism, first act, through which we are received into the kingdom of God. that this faith here is called an elder, a work. Then the next, charity agape, the labor of your charity, the labor of your charity. That means that just as faith is not simply something which falls from heaven, And there is there in our minds errors and undisturbed light. But as faith is something which constantly works in us, which leads us from conversion to conversion, which leads us from death to death, which has to be gained every day again,

[34:58]

which we not simply can't say, you know, that we have it once and for all, and now we can look down upon everybody else who doesn't have it. No, faith cannot be separated, really, from conversion. It's the redeeming essence of our conversion. What is faith? It's the conversion from the idols to the glory of the living God. That's faith. And that conversion is not only once in us and then forever, but it is there as a constant renewed experience. It's something in which we die and rise every day again. I believe, O Lord, help my own faith. That's the inner, one can say, the divine mystery of faith. It is light in darkness.

[36:00]

That's the mystery. And that is the entrance into the kingdom of God. That's the work of our faith. The labor of your charity, that means the labor of your love. Love in the human sense, if you take it as apples, love is something which is a delight. Love is something which means a fulfillment of man. Love is something which has in itself, as we said in the past, the taste of eternity. But this is agape, the labor of your agape. And what is it? That actually is evident when we look at the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the labor of charity. And therefore, wherever that charity is, there is that labor.

[37:03]

And again, that is the mystery of the kingdom of God. We die, and in this way, we live. As those who have nothing and still, we have all. and all the opposites possessing all things. That is the Leivach Church. The enduring, patient waiting of the hope. That's the other one. Hope in itself, you know, is something which lifts up the minds. Hope is like a beautiful perspective in the future. to which we are drawn. But then when we think of the Christian hope, enduring patient waiting, waiting from day to day, I would be tempted to say, waiting from night to night.

[38:09]

And how much we experience that in this time and also in the Advent season. So it's all, in all these virtues, Light in darkness, love in death, and then patient waiting in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ before God and our Father. Knowing, brethren, beloved of God, your election, for your other gospel has not been unto you in word only, but in power also. And there again is that same basic motif. The power of God in the world, in the world of the Apostle. You know very well how the Apostle Paul himself spoke about it. That the wisdom of his world is not the wisdom of the wise of this world.

[39:14]

but that there are few wise there who believe. So, in word only, but in power also, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much fullness. What a wonderful, what a wonderful trinity that is in these, not in power also, word in itself, one can say the spoken word Is something of the most. And then say of the weakest. Thing in the world. The world. Easily. But what is. Parsons like. With the sound. Has in itself. Is a weak instrument. And still this works. And feel. As the kingdom. Of all kingdom of God. With dunamis. With pop. and in the Holy Ghost, and in much fullness.

[40:21]

That means in absolute, deep, quiet persuasion, fullness of knowledge, and the fullness of virtue. As you know what manner of man we have been among you for your sake, and you became followers of us, and of the Lord imitators, false, receiving the world in much tribulation, with joy of the Holy Ghost. There again you have that mystery of the kingdom of God, that world is received in much tribulation, but with joy of the Holy Ghost, death and resurrection, so that you may make pattern to all that believe in Macedonia and in Raphael. Those of you who have received the word in this way, in much tribulation and in the joy of the Holy Spirit, are kings.

[41:32]

Think of our own and apply it always to our own monastic life. How true that is. In the tribulation, in the joy of the Holy Spirit. And then what do you become? You see, then the growth starts. The growth of the kingdom. But how is this growth? You become then a typos. You become a pattern. How does a pattern work? Not by, you know, again, you know, moving the earth, but simply by its being. There it is, a pattern. What do I say a pattern? A canon, a norm. What does this norm do? It simply lives according to its own standards. But what is the effect? Other people see it. And they say, ah, there is something completely new.

[42:36]

There is something that we have never seen or experienced before. And in that way, the world spreads and the kingdom spreads. And in every place your faith, which is closed down, is gone through, so that we need not to speak anything. For they themselves relate of us what manner of entering we had unto it. and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and you wait for his Son from heaven, Jesus, who has delivered us from the wrath to come. So again, it's not great and skillful propaganda, but it is simply that there is sign-wise. Who is that sign? It is the Christian itself. And what does he do? He lives. He lives according to his deep conviction in that fullness, in the Holy Spirit, in the power of the resurrection, in much tribulation, in the joy of the Holy Spirit.

[43:43]

That's the new thing. That is what the world does not know. And that is the mystery of the kingdom of God. And let us live that in our own lusts.

[43:57]

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