soil and produced their crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Listen anyone who has ears. [Matthew 13.4-9]
Again, it is only those who transcend a worldly way of thinking by persevering in virtue, and put down roots in the dark soil of affliction, who grow to maturity and so produce a bountiful harvest.
Just as one of the servants in the parable of the talents made five and received five more, it is interesting to note that the 10 Commandments were themselves written on two tablets. We are not told the division, but it is intriguing to observe that five commandments deal with desire and its impact on humanity and five deal with our higher supernatural relationship with God. Five deal with the lower cardinal virtues of life and five deal with the action of the theological virtues of faith, hope and love. Both are brought together in the “Great Commandment”:
Just as one of the servants in the parable of the talents made five and received five more, it is interesting to note that the 10 Commandments were themselves written on two tablets. We are not told the division, but it is intriguing to observe that five commandments deal with desire and its impact on humanity and five deal with our higher supernatural relationship with God. Five deal with the lower cardinal virtues of life and five deal with the action of the theological virtues of faith, hope and love. Both are brought together in the “Great Commandment”:
One of the scribes who had listened to them debating and had observed how well Jesus had answered them, now came up and put a question to him, ‘Which is the first of all the commandments?’ Jesus replied, ‘This is the first: Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You must love your neighbour as yourself.
[Mark 12. 28-32]
[Mark 12. 28-
Thus love of God is not possible without love of neighbour, nor is love of neighbour possible without love of God. To live both is to live by the mystery of the Trinity. Jesus exists as a trinity and so do faith, hope and love. It is only by living this trinity that the Christ child can be born into our consciousness and grow to maturity as “the mind of Christ”. As Saint Paul says, “Spiritual things are learned spiritually.” The mind builds on what fills the human heart.
This is summed up in the writings of St John:
This is summed up in the writings of St John:
I write to you dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. I write to you fathers because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you young men because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you dear children because you have known the Father. I write to you fathers because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you young men because you are strong and the word of God lives in you and you have overcome the evil one. [1 John 2.12-14]
St John recognizes three levels of spiritual awareness: children, young men and fathers, corresponding to the three levels of slave, friend and son. St Paul also uses a schema of personal growth in dealing with spirituality when he says:
Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly – mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. [1 Corinthians 3.1-2]
Thus the “Kingdom of Heaven” can be compared to a mountain, a mountain that issues from the very mouth of God. It is a mountain that can only be climbed by being born again in mind, body and
