Main news for 23 May 2022

Jesus says that His departure, the completion of His earthly path, is not the end at all. It is only the beginning. The beginning of the process that can be called the Kingdom's entrance into the world. His Kingdom. And His Father's Kingdom. That is why the revelation of this Kingdom's fullness is connected with His departure. And the point is not that He must disappear in order to make room for someone else. It is simply that the Kingdom, entering the world, becomes ever fuller. More spacious. Deeper. It is this depth that the apostles begin to sense during the Ascension.

He disappears into the depth of His Kingdom. Into a depth the apostles had not known before because they had not noticed it. And now they began to notice it. But Jesus warns His disciples beforehand. And the point is not that the breath of God, the Spirit of which He speaks, replaces Him for the apostles. The point is different. The point is to follow Him. The Messiah. The King of His Kingdom. But for this one must first enter that Kingdom. Become partaker of it. It is not enough simply to be physically near Jesus. It is the same with the Kingdom: one can be in its presence, so to speak, on the territory of the Kingdom, and not notice it. And to notice it, one must make room for it within oneself.

His breath, which is also God's breath. Then one will be able to see in Jesus that very King. Otherwise one may stand beside Him and have no relation to His true life. And what use is such standing nearby? That is why Jesus says that it is better for Him now to go away. He must complete His earthly path. He must rise from the dead and continue that path already in the fullness of the Kingdom. He must bring this Kingdom into the world. In a word, He must finish to the end everything for which He came. And for His disciples it will truly be better this way.

Although it may seem to them that this is not so. They want to be near the Teacher. But the Teacher wants to lead them into His Kingdom, to make them partakers of the fullness of the life He Himself lives. He wants them to feel God's breath, the breath of the Kingdom, for themselves, to breathe it in fully. And for this the apostles must be drawn into this spiritual dynamic of the approaching Kingdom. They must become part of it, just as He Himself is. For the Kingdom will enter the world through them too. Although they do not yet know this, for Pentecost is still ahead of them.