These famous words of Jesus Christ in the context of the parable of the lamp virtually coincide with the Gospels of Marc and Luc (in Luke 8:18" shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have. ") These words are pronounced after the words: "If any man has ears to hear, let him hear! Take heed what ye hear "(Luke 8:18 "So take care how you listen…”). And although these same words are used in the Gospel of Matthew in a different context - as answer to the question of the followers: “why do you speak to them in parables”? ", - this only helps to understand the meaning of these words.

It is doubtless here a matter of giving heed in our heart to God’s words and about their preservation in our minds, about having them in our memory. It is effectively by such words that evangelist Luke characterize the relation of the Mother of Jesus to God’s will and activities. She" treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart" (Luke 2:19). It is necessary to have firstly in heart all, that God says; otherwise everything will be vain - all the words of the Divine commandments will volatilize, they will have no effect on our deeds, and will bring no fruit to us: everything “shall be taken away”.

In the story of Jesus calming the sudden storm, the most interesting thing is the dialogue between the Teacher and the disciples. He reproaches them for their little faith, and they, struck by what has happened, try to understand: who is He, that He has authority even over the elements? As we can see, the evangelist emphasizes precisely this, there is no other word for it, misunderstanding between Jesus and the apostles. And the point is not that the disciples cannot understand Who is before them. The point is that they are unable to concentrate their spiritual attention on what is necessary for an adequate understanding of the situation. In their souls there still lives the fear of imminent death they experienced during the storm, overlaid by a mystical, almost superstitious dread before the power their Teacher possesses. But He wants to turn their spiritual gaze from the outer to the inner, from effects to the meaning of what is happening. That is why He speaks to them about faith, about trust, without which there is no Kingdom, whether trust in God, in Christ, or in one's neighbor.

If the disciples had had enough trust and inner wholeness, without which, as without trust, there can be no talk of faith, the storm would have subsided according to their faith, without Jesus' intervention. But the point is that, as we see, the apostles do not yet have this inner wholeness. They have enough faith to follow the Teacher, but not enough to remain in the spiritual space of the Kingdom. In that very spiritual space where there is no place for a storm, where the elements are completely subject to the human will: the will not only of the Messiah, but of every person living the life of the Kingdom. If the disciples had been rooted in the Kingdom, they would not have had to wake the Teacher; the storm would have subsided at the command of any one of them, or perhaps it would not have begun at all.

Of course, in the Kingdom the relationship between Christ and each of His disciples remains no less close than in the untransformed world. There it even proves still deeper, more conscious, more intense than in this world. But Christ does not need to pull a person rooted in the Kingdom by the hand out of every difficult situation, if only because in the life of a person rooted in the Kingdom there are no accidental difficult situations. As we can see, this is exactly the thought Jesus is trying to convey to His disciples.

But their attention is wholly absorbed by the extraordinary power their Teacher has revealed. This is no surprise: power always attracts more attention than the Kingdom. And to learn to see the Kingdom, the breath of the Kingdom must touch a person and change his heart. That is what happened to the apostles on the day of Pentecost.

Today the Lord addresses to us one of the most important questions: "How do we listen?" We regularly read the Bible, and even visit Bible sites on the Internet, but do we have ears to receive the Word, let it take root in our heart, and bear fruit?

The Lord says: "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and more will be added to you who hear." In essence this means: what a person wants to find in Scripture, and in God's revelation in general, is what he will find. The Bible can provide us with the richest material for history, literature, philology, mysticism, and so on, but only the one who seeks in it the knowledge of God, that is, living personal relations with Him built on trust and love, will be able to find God in reading Holy Scripture.

And here the words that "to the one who has, more will be given" acquire their meaning. In listening to and understanding the Word of God, we can only deepen and multiply what we already have; that is, we must approach it from within an already existing bond with God, in faith and prayer.