Open your hearts to Him!
Open your hearts to Him!
We are now living the holy forty days following the Resurrection… And in these forty days Christ laid the foundation of everything, for He gathered with His disciples and spoke to them about all that pertains to the Church—its order, its rites, and its practice. He spoke to them about everything suitable to be said to leaders, not to the general people.
Therefore, when we say that the Church is Apostolic, we mean that the apostles founded it, and that these apostles took the doctrine from Christ Himself, because He stayed with them forty days speaking to them about the Church…
There are things that are not proper to be said to the general people, and Christ used to say them to His disciples privately… We see Peter the Apostle saying to Christ one day, “Did You say this parable to us, or to all?” And this means that there were words Christ said to the disciples alone—without the rest of the people!
For in the period of the holy forty days, there was teaching said to the twelve… the leaders… and from Christ came apostolic teaching—I mean divine teaching—during this period…
The prophet Moses spent forty days with God on the mountain—God spoke to him in them about the matters pertaining to God… and explained to him the chapters and their details, and the worship… to the extent that God said to him: “Make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain”… because God loves that teaching proceeds from Him… and He says in the Holy Bible: “They shall all be taught by God.” For God is the source of teaching, and He gives teaching to the apostles… then the apostles give the teaching to the people.
At the beginning of creation, God gave this also to Adam… but Adam sinned—when he took knowledge apart from God… And our mother Eve also sinned when she took knowledge from other than God…
Christ spoke to His disciples about the matters pertaining to the Kingdom of God… during the holy forty days… And the prophet Moses spent forty days on the mountain, during which God spoke to him about the matters pertaining to the Kingdom as well…!
“And the matters pertaining to the Kingdom”… have many meanings… And the Holy Bible says, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” Meaning that God reigns over you… and that is the general meaning of the Kingdom of God.
How does the Church reach every heart and every mind?… These also are matters pertaining to the Kingdom of God… and they may have an individual aspect… specific to each person… or a general aspect… connected to how the Kingdom is spread everywhere to reach every people and every individual…!
Christ spoke to His disciples about the matters pertaining to the Kingdom of God, in beneficial and important conversations… So are our conversations also about these matters? Many times our conversations are trivial, far removed from the matters connected to the Kingdom of God. And would that each of us ask himself, saying: Where are the matters pertaining to the Kingdom of God in my heart and in my life…
Would that each of us ask himself, saying: What do You want, O Lord, to do with me… What do You want, O Lord, to reign over within me?…
Would that each of us call upon the Lord, saying: Reign over me, O Lord, and come speak to me about the matters pertaining to Your Kingdom!
Have you not thought about what the matters pertaining to the Kingdom of God are? And if God wants to reign over any of you, how does He reign over him?… And what are the corners in your life that resist the Kingdom of God? And what are the rebellious members?… What hinders the Kingdom of God within you…? How can God reign over you, and you become within the Kingdom of God?
In this period—the period of the holy forty days—Christ laid every foundation of the Church’s building… It is one of the holiest periods in the Church… Christ walked on the earth during it—and the earth did not perceive Him… but only a certain group of people—the disciples—who opened their hearts to Him.
Before this period, all saw Him and mixed with Him… both the beloved and the enemies saw Him… Those who wanted His blessing sat with Him… and those who wanted to catch Him in a word also sat with Him!
John the beloved would meet Him and lean on His breast… and Judas Iscariot the traitor who sold Him for thirty pieces of silver would also meet Him!
All saw Him, met Him, and mingled with Him… but in the period of the forty days, Christ was walking on the earth, and none saw Him except the worthy ones who opened their hearts to Him… none heard Him except the select who deserved to hear the word from His mouth…
Christ was walking on the earth, and not all the earth enjoyed Him… This is an important point…
And here comes the meaning of the word “the elect”… the elect to whom He reveals Himself. And this point gives us an image of the heavenly Kingdom… God exists, but not every person can enjoy Him or see Him…
Christ lives among His lovers only!! If Christ were to come again and walk on the earth, would you be among those who meet Him and whom He speaks to about the matters pertaining to the Kingdom of God? Or would you consider yourself a stranger to Him?
In the story of the Apostle Paul there is a troubling scene. Paul, as he was walking on the road, saw Christ appear to him. But the others who were with Paul heard the sound but did not see anything…!
Paul was speaking to Christ… but the others were not… They saw Paul and heard him, but they did not see Christ nor hear Him… Why? Because they were not worthy, and because they had not reached the degree in which they would see Christ and hear His speech… “But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear…”
This is the degree of the apostles, and their privilege… For Christ remained forty days on earth—after His Resurrection—for the sake of the apostles… for the sake of His beloved… and He wanted to sit with them and speak to them…!
Christ did not ascend to heaven immediately after His Resurrection… but delayed that forty days… leaving the seraphim and cherubim and dominions and thrones… and all the glories of heaven that awaited Him, and cared for the disciples. And for their sake He stayed forty days on earth… because of the importance of the disciples…
Christ appeared once to five hundred brethren, and also to the two disciples of Emmaus… but the most important was for the sake of the twelve! So do you—my brother—have such importance in the Kingdom of God? That Christ would delay His ascension forty days for your sake?
There are people who have a rank and importance in the Kingdom… These are the ones who carry the torch for all generations, and undertake the service of preaching to the ends of the inhabited world and the ends of the earth… They are the torchbearers, the foundation layers!
These are the twelve… and one more… Paul… for Christ appeared to him and came to him and gave him the message…
I fear—beloved ones—that we might be preoccupied from the matters pertaining to the Kingdom of God… with the matters of the world and its trivialities and busy concerns and sins and desires…!
Christ may come to one of you and say to him: I came to you especially to speak to you about the matters pertaining to the Kingdom of God… but He does not find him ready… and finds him preoccupied with other matters!
There are people who do not want to open their hearts… and God does not differentiate between people… He is God of all and ready to sit with all and speak to them about the matters pertaining to the Kingdom of God… but there are hearts not ready… and closed… and rejecting Christ! He stands at the door and knocks, but we are the ones who close the door in His face and do not want to open to Him!
God wants to speak to us… but we do not give Him the opportunity, and we do not care about Him! There are people in whose lives the matters pertaining to the Kingdom of God have no importance… and they give them no attention…! But the disciples, every fiber of them pulsed with the love of Christ, and every thought of theirs was filled with the love of Christ… Christ for them filled the heart and mind and life… And as Peter said: “We have left everything and followed You”…!
These are the ones who deserved that Christ come to them and spend with them forty days… not only this period, but He said to them: “Behold, I am with you all the days, unto the end of the age”… and also said: “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them”…
This speech is directed to those concerned with the word of God, who desire the matters pertaining to the Kingdom… to the land that yields thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold!!
To these souls God comes and speaks about the matters pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
The Song of Songs tells us about one who was not ready… Christ came to her but she refused Him… so He left her and passed on, then she rose saying, “My beloved has turned away and passed”…! Why? Because she did not open to Him…!
If you want to hear the matters pertaining to the Kingdom of God, open your hearts to God… open to Christ and say to Him: Come, enter, and reign!
Do not be jealous… of the apostles, because Christ sat with them and spoke to them… for if you had the sentiments of the apostles, Christ would do with you as He did with them.
If you had for God the love of the apostles, and their readiness, and their concern for the word of God… Christ would come to you and sit with you speaking to you about the matters pertaining to the Kingdom of God!!
Christ often comes to you… in a spiritual message. Only the sensitive heart perceives it and receives it… And thus… thoughts come to us from God and messages pertaining to the Kingdom of God… but… one benefits from them… and another does not want to listen to the call… and to open the door of his heart and his life!
And in this the saying of the Holy Bible about Christ applies: “Among you stands One whom you do not know.”
He is—then—present. He came especially to speak about the matters pertaining to the Kingdom… but—as the Bible says—“Hearing they do not hear, and seeing they do not understand”!
We want to live in the spirituality of the holy forty days, and open our hearts to Christ, and our ears, and our minds also… so that we may hear the matters pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
We want hearts that love these matters and are occupied with them and rejoice in them… We want hearts like the heart of David who said: “I rejoiced at Your word as one who finds great spoil… Your word is sweeter than honey and the honeycomb in my mouth… In Your name I lift my hands; my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness…”
Christ comes, as He used to come to the disciples during the holy forty days… So who among you wants to open to Him?
Whoever opens receives and truly hears the matters pertaining to the Kingdom.
The holy forty days… stand at all times, and Christ comes at all times… but who is worthy to receive Him?
He is ready to pour into your heart in one minute what He poured into the heart of John the Beloved… Just open your heart to Him…
My brothers: Live in the blessing of the holy forty days… Live in fellowship with Christ and hear His speech about the matters pertaining to the Kingdom of God!
—A sermon by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in Watani newspaper on 30-4-1972.
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