The
Kingdom of Heaven,” said the Lord Christ, “is among you. But what, precisely, is the Kingdom of Heaven? You cannot point to existing specimens,
saying ‘Lo, here!’ or ‘Lo, there!’ You
can only experience it. But what is it
like, so that we may recognize it? Well,
it is a change, like being born again and re-learning everything from the
start. It is a secret, living power –
like yeast. It is something that grows,
like seed. It is precious like buried
treasure, like rich pearl, and you have to pay for it. It is a sharp cleavage through the rich
jumble of things which life presents: like
fish and rubbish in a draw–net, like wheat and tares; like wisdom and folly;
and it carries with it a kind of menacing finality; it is new, yet in a sense
it was always there – like turning out a cupboard and finding there your own
childhood as well as your present self; it makes demands, it is like an
invitation to a royal banquet – gratifying, but not to be disregarded, and you
have to live up to it; where it is equal, it seems unjust, where it is just it
is clearly not equal – as with the single pound, the diverse talents, the
laborers in the vineyard, you have what you bargained for; it knows no
compromises between an uncalculating mercy and terrible justice – like the
unmerciful servant, you get what you give; it is helpless in your hands like
the King’s Son, but if you slay it, it will judge you; it was from the
foundations of the world; it is to come; it is here and now; it is within you. It is recorded that the multitudes sometimes
failed to understand.”
Dorothy L. Sayers, The Poetry of
Search and the Poetry of Statement, p. 281
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