We have read many times already that Christ's Kingdom is not like all our human "kingdoms." It is like salt in food, like yeast in dough, like a seed in the ground that has not yet sprouted. It is real, but not visible to the "naked eye." It cannot be defined by our concepts, but its presence irreversibly changes this world.

That is exactly why it is so hard to limit "membership" in this Kingdom, however much "chosen ones" of every kind try to do so. The question asked of Jesus about the number of those being saved, that is, the participants in God's Kingdom, in essence means a demand to mark the boundaries of salvation: "who is inside, and who is outside?"

This question remains unanswered: instead of a limited sect, there is a call for everyone. Yes, entering by the "narrow gate" is hard, and the chance of being left out is quite real. But the gate is not closed; it is merely narrow. And everyone for whom this is truly important and necessary can find himself at Christ's feast with those who have also passed along this path.

The Kingdom of God, the presence of Christ in our life, is often imagined as something great and bright, something impossible to miss. But in the parable of the mustard seed the Lord Jesus gives us a completely different image. The seed of the mustard tree can barely be seen with the naked eye. It is so small that it is unnoticed by an outsider, and often even by its owner.

That is, the Kingdom has already been given to us as if in potential, in the form of a tiny seed. It does not look like a great tree, like the tangible presence we long for so much. And yet, just as genetically the seed and the tree are one and the same organism, so the small particle of the Kingdom that each of us has and that must grow is the same Kingdom that appeared in its fullness in the person of Jesus.

Continuing his discussion of the life of the Kingdom, Paul turns to the theme of family relationships, the relationships between spouses (vv. 22-28). At first glance, this theme is not directly connected with the apostle's preceding reflections: marriage is only a particular case of relationships between neighbors. And yet that is not quite so. Already from the time of the prophet Hosea, marital relations became the model by which relations between God and the human person, or between God and the people of God, were described. Likeness to marital relations became traditional both for Yahwism and for Judaism. And Paul, likening the relationship between Christ and the Church to family relationships, is clearly following this tradition.

But he goes still further: he likens marital relations themselves to the relationship between Christ and the Church (vv. 24-27). In doing so, the apostle refers to the story in Genesis about the creation of the human being (vv. 31-32), which speaks of a depth of marital relations that far surpasses any natural bonds conditioned only by the laws of nature, even bonds as deep as the relationship between children and parents (Gen 2:22-24).

Apparently Paul was trying to convey a simple thought to the readers of his letter: between people created by God in His image and likeness, there can in principle be no "nonspiritual" relationships conditioned by natural laws alone. Family relations were the clearest example in this case. It is precisely here that the natural, physical bond becomes especially visible, so visible that fallen humanity, often failing to notice spiritual realities, has often been inclined to reduce the whole meaning of relations between man and woman to it. On the one hand, such an approach inevitably leads to the destruction of the family, impoverishing marriage and often making it completely meaningless. But the "justification" of marriage so common in religious circles, by childbearing as its only purpose and as something conditioned exclusively by the need to continue the human race, also turns out to be a distortion of the idea of marriage as Paul understands it.

Marital relations, like all other relationships, need no justification before our still untransformed world and no grounds built according to its laws. Their only justification and their only basis is in the Kingdom. If they root those whom they bind in it, they are infinitely precious and absolutely justified in the eyes of God, and marital relations then also become an absolute value in themselves (vv. 31-33). But if this does not happen, they will never become part of the Kingdom, however powerful their natural foundation may be and however deep and strong they may seem to those whom they bind.