We suffer in both body and soul. In our body, suffering is a sign of its inherent imperfection; in our soul, it is a sign of impatience. For the soul knows—obscurely more often, but sometimes vividly—that it is awaited elsewhere.

And so, what is death to the body may be turned into gain to the soul, for every physical element of ourselves that comes to die is one less limitation that holds down the soul.

At the very moment when all the powers of our physical body will have been exhausted, our soul will be born to its true kingdom, to the eternal perfection of God’s domain—not alone, but paradoxically, with its humble brother body exalted to a new perfection.

Abel Bonnard, a French writer, said, “A cultured man always has a part of himself rising above anything that happens to him.” That part of himself is his immortal soul.

But if the soul bows excessively to the demands of matter, if it degrades itself to the search for anything less than the All-Perfect, it incurs in a way, the penalty of matter, which is death. But since the soul is immortal, what it then suffers is eternal dying.

Seek ye first the Kingdom of God (Lk 12:31). Knock and it shall be opened (Mt 7:7, Lk 11:9).

But if you refuse to seek, if you fail to knock, how could you possibly find? And who will open? Why would the Kingdom of God be given to those who refuse it?

Ask and you shall receive (Mt 7:7, Lk 11:9). The dreadful thing is that you will receive precisely what you ask for: either very little now and all forever, or everything now and nothing forever. And everything now is subject to decay.

If you ask for very little now and all forever, you shall receive, even now, well beyond your needs. And you will receive, forever, beyond your wildest dreams.

Reprinted with permission from Alleluia Press, Allendale, NJ 07401.