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Good morning Father Angelo,
I am Francesco and I wanted an explanation on this sentence: “But seek first the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides” (Mt 6,33).”.
What is the kingdom of God and how can I already see it here on earth?
I would like to meet a girl and get married, but the most important thing is the relationship with Jesus and everything else will be given to me in addition…this desire too?
I remember that it also said “It is not good for man to be alone: I will make a helper suitable for him” (Genesis 2,18).
Thank you Father Angelo
Answer of the priest
1. Jesus pronounces these words within the Sermon on the Mount when he asks his followers to trust in God’s love.
God is the most tender and almighty Father and he fulfills the needs of his children. He sees them from afar and is therefore provident.
2. He says: “Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?” (Mt 6,26-27). For this reason, shortly after he adds: “But seek first the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.” (Mt 6,33)
3. Therefore, while the pagans are scrambling to get hold of the things of the earth because they do not believe that there is anyone who thinks for them, Christians focus on the essential: “Seek first of all the Kingdom of God”.
God’s Kingdom is the place where God is almighty ruler.
Jesus therefore says: try to live so that God reigns sovereignly in your life and then you will lack nothing.
This means loving the Lord, his presence, the observance of his word, the escape of what sweeps away the Kingdom of God, namely sin.
Then one experiences how great God’s sovereign and omnipotent action is.
In this sense Don Bosco said to his boys: “Flee from sin and He who provides for the birds of the sky will also provide for your needs”.
4. In a word: God reigns supremely in our life when we live in grace, when we do not hinder his action with sin and indeed when we fear everything that offends God.
St. Thomas, after recalling that the word Kingdom derives from ruling, says that seeking the Kingdom of God means trying to be subject to God’s government, that is, to obey his commandments and the Gospel.
5. He also emphasizes that after having said “seek first of all the Kingdom of God” he adds: “and his justice”. “His, and not man’s, since for his own righteousness no one can join the Kingdom”.
God’s justice is his grace, his divine life in us.
6. Your great desire is to meet a girl and to establish a life of communion with her in marriage, especially since the Lord said: “it is not good for the man to be alone”.
This desire is right and holy.
Will the Lord give you this grace?
Yes, if you first seek the Kingdom of God.
This is important above all because everything was created through him and in view of him: in view of the sanctification and expansion of his sovereign and holy government in our hearts and in that of our neighbor.
7. However, we cannot fail to note this too: many times even in seeking the Kingdom of God and his holiness we are not granted what we desire, so that we too, like St. Paul, struggle: “through many sleepless nights, through hunger and thirst, through frequent fastings, through cold and exposure.” (2 Cor 11,27)
Saint Thomas comes to the aid “Hence as a physician sometimes takes away the food for the body’s health, so God for the soul’s health takes away temporal goods: or for one’s own good so that past sins are punished and future ones guarded against, or for the good of others so that they, seeing one’s patience, advance in the good.” ( Commentary on the gospel of Matthew 6,33)
With the hope that the Lord will grant you what you ask him holily, I assure you of my remembrance in prayer and I bless you.
Father Angelo
Translated by Emanuele Menchiari
Proof edited by Sara Bellei