The book ‘Knock, and it shall be opened unto you’ belongs to a series of volumes of questions and answers that explore key issues of modern life. A multitude of questions arise in our efforts to assimilate the supranatural revelation of Christ the Saviour, as we do not want to stray from the path that leads to the perfection that He has ordained and the union with His Spirit for which we long.
The mystery of God, and the mystery of man, occupy our spirit vehemently. We are astonished before the indescribable humility of the Incarnate Word and His crucified love unto the end. As a refuge in our struggle we have the words of Holy Scripture, the invocation of the all-holy Name of the Lord, and the Sacraments of our Church. In the rough waves of the times we are established steadfast upon the unshakeable rock of the word of our Holy Fathers. This word opens up new horizons before us and helps us to understand our grievous suffering as the way to the blissfulness of the Day of the Lord; it initiates us into the ‘otherness’ of the blameless love of Christ, while at the same time it chastises us, so that we may break free from the suffocating embrace of our self-love and embrace with brotherly love in Christ all our fellows.
We live in a momentous age, not only in terms of scientific achievement and the benefits it brings, but also in terms of challenges and evils. Everything around us is being shaken, values are being flattened. But in the bosom of the Church, we have peace, because we know from the experience and the word of our Saints that, throughout the centuries, ‘no wild storm ever flooded the hull of the Church, but the Church quelled the tempest.’ And as we see the calamities increasing, we lift up our heads in hope, knowing from the irrefutable word of the Almighty Jesus that ‘our redemption is at hand’.
And our generation has been given the clearest sign of Christ: the saints. Their word, given by the Holy Spirit, crushes the arrogance of our age. It points to the incomprehensible way of the Lord Jesus, He Who ‘first descended and later ascended’. All at once, He heals and comforts with the consolation of our Comforter God.
God has set man as the target of His loving care. He knocks with His grace at the door of his heart. But He never violates the freedom of His creature. He does not invade our hearts if we are not inclined to open the door for Him. He is well pleased if we make Him our target too by standing at the door of His mercy and knocking with all our might. And when the door of the heart is knocked upon from both sides, then the bolts of the passion are crushed and the Christian experiences his personal Passover, the feast of God with man.