The Kingdom of Heaven Suffers Violence
one
Matthew 11:11-15
Jesus spoke to the crowds: ‘I tell you solemnly, of all the children born of women, a greater than John the Baptist has never been seen; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is. Since John the Baptist came, up to this present time, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence and the violent are taking it by storm.
What does this mean – the violent take heaven by storm?
· Ambrose “To seize the Savior’s Kingdom we must first reign in ourselves.”
· Clement of Alexandria “The kingdom of heaven does not belong to those who …indulge all their desires, but to those who fight against themselves.”
The violent are the ones who fight against their disordered desires, vices and temptations that lead us to sin which separates us from God and the Kingdom of Heaven.
Our soul is made up of 3 parts: The Intellect, free-will and passions
The Passions are the good God-given feelings, emotions or desires Designed to propel us toward good and away from evil. These are great servants when they do what they are supposed to – propel us toward good and away from evil.
The problem is that because of Original Sin and our Fallen human nature – these passions now often do just the opposite – they propel us toward evil, selfishness, use and sin and they give us an aversion to what is good.
In their fallen state they have become the tyrannical master of our soul. They were meant to be good servants and they have become bad masters that make us slaves.
But this can be fixed and we can be set free and the passions can once again become good servants of the soul if, like mentioned in the gospel, we do violence to them – if we deny and discipline these unruly desires and passions. We can do this by conquering evil thoughts; refusing to feed every desire for pleasure; taking up our personal cross and following Jesus, and by surrendering to Mary.
two
We can do violence and take heaven by storm by conquering our evil thoughts. Thank God we can’t read each other’s mind. If you could read mine you would think I am a psychopath. And I would think the same of you. Crazy thoughts pop into our mind all the time don’t they. That’s not the problem – the issue is – what do we do with those crazy thoughts – do we entertain them, give in to them, let them take control or do we deny them and replace them with the right thought and then the right action. Deny the wrong thoughts – kill it – do violence to them. Then put in its place the right thought and right action.
three
If you feed your disordered passions and desires everything they want, they will grow so strong they will rule over you and destroy your pursuit of happiness and possibly your soul. Do violence to them, deny and discipline them. The desire to eat when I am not hungry, the desire to veg out and watch t.v, when I really need sleep or pray or exercise; the desire to be sucked in by the news, the desire to gossip, or look at pornography…the list goes on and on. But it is not enough to deny disordered desires. We must replace them with good desires and the pursuit of good things: prepare and eat a meal with friends; take a walk in nature; read a good book and discuss it with friends…
four
Jesus said plainly, you cannot be my disciple unless you take up your own personal cross daily. What you did not choose, do not like, and cannot change, accept with trust, offer it to Jesus with love and then bear it peacefully, cheerfully and courageously. St. Rose of Lima put it well: Apart from the cross there is no other ladder to heaven.
five
Try as you might you won’t be able to conquer every vice you have. So that we don’t fall into the trap of relying on ourselves – Go to Mary. The Holy Spirit works through her to enable you to do what you could never do on your own. She is the Sacrament of the Holy Spirit. Surrender yourself to Mary; let her pick you up and carry you where you could never go by your effort alone! In everything we cannot control, cannot conquer we should say: Mary I surrender to you – take care of everything!