Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.
Matthew 13:16
Dear members and friends,
One of the most profound and yet troublesome tasks for all humans is figuring out the truth. Its challenge is stated in a phrase like this, “a fact is the same to all, but truth about the fact may vary from one person to another.” On the one hand, we are all seeking truth, while on the other hand, we may be seeking a way to justify one’s way of living as true. The debate and argument regarding truth has been especially intense among religious communities. For instance, Christians have been debating the truth of Jesus’ teachings in the Four Gospels for over two thousand years. Yet, if you listen very carefully to these debates, you might realize that their focal point is not about finding, learning, and living the truth of Jesus, but about justifying their right to rule over others.
In Matthew, Jesus says, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” (13:11) Here Jesus makes a distinction between his disciples and the rest of the people. Jesus addresses his disciples as “you” and the rest of the people as “them.” It seems that there is definitely something special about being Jesus’s disciples, because they were given the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, while others were not. The disciples were those who were called by Jesus and chose to renounce their worldly life to follow him. Thus, the disciples illustrate and symbolize the spiritual preparedness for the spiritual journey. However, there is one big requirement to initiate the spiritual journey: we need to leave the material world behind. If we may compare the love of God to rain, our minds are buckets. The emptier our minds become from the material world, the more of our minds could be filled with the love of God. As more of our minds are filled with the love of God, we become more spiritual, and consequently get closer to truth!
My brothers and sisters in God, let us take a moment to let go of our desires for the material, and empty our minds and hearts so that they will be filled with the love of God from heaven.
Blessings, Rev. Junchol Lee