There is more. The Holy Spirit is indispensable for our life in the Kingdom of Heaven. In a sense the Spirit 
is identified with that Kingdom. Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is within us. St Seraphim of Sarov stated quite categorically: “By the Kingdom of God the Lord meant the grace of the Holy Spirit.” Also, there are some manuscripts of the Gospels, known to the fathers who commented on them, in which the Lord’s Prayer reads not “Thy kingdom come,” but “Let Thy Spirit come.”
The sacramental presence of Christ that is renewed within us at each Holy Communion enables us to live even now as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. There is a twofold dimension of the Spirit/Kingdom reality that is expressed in the prayers of the Liturgy. In the two prayers that implore God for the fruits of divine Communion we ask for the fulfillment of the Kingdom of Heaven and for the inheritance of the same Kingdom.
So the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven is, like that of “eternal life” in the Gospel of John, one that is “already and not yet,” a mystery that is presently realized but still to come in its full and visible manifestation. Thus the Kingdom is fulfilled as the Heavenly Spirit brings Christ to dwell in us. Where Christ dwells He is present in the fullness of his truth and love and saving work. His presence now is trans-historical and hence contains the past, present, and future as one unending “moment” of divine existence and presence. That is why we can “remember,” in the offering of the Holy Gifts, “the second and glorious coming,” along with the Cross, the Resurrection, the Ascension, etc. So the Kingdom can be fulfilled in us now because Christ is in us now.
This does not mean that we should expect to arrive instantly at moral and spiritual perfection, or at the complete and harmonious integration of body, soul, and spirit, as we approach the sacred chalice. But it means that all we need for this is present within us now; the reservoir is full. Our life’s work is to draw from the fountain of eternal life within us that never runs dry (see John 4: 14).
Still, there is the “not yet” dimension to the Kingdom. That is why we continue to pray that we may inherit it, and why we pray in the Our Father for the Kingdom to come. The Kingdom of Heaven is present in us mystically. (I don’t like when people say things like, “not just mystically [or spiritually], but really.” Mystically is really; spiritually is really!) God’s kingdom is simply not yet manifest in its eschatological glory and universal extension, and in our permanent establishment therein. This is what we are praying for when ask to inherit it. As Fr Raymond Gawronski writes, “The Church’s contemplation is an eschatological look-out for eternity” (Word and Silence). So, even as the Holy Spirit brings the life and grace of the Kingdom to our souls with every Holy Communion, we are always turned toward the east, the place of the rising the sun, of the return of the Light, the place from which the Son of Man will come as lightning flashing from east to west (see Matthew 24:27), so that every eye will see Him as the gates of Heaven swing open to welcome the elect.
Having seen the true Light and received the Heavenly Spirit, we also rejoice in having “found the true faith.” Does this mean that we have “joined the right church”? Well, yes and no. The sacramental Mystery of the Eucharist is “the heart of Thy Church,” and it is true that the Holy Eucharist is not available in every church. Hence one must belong where the Eucharist is present if one wants to have that life Jesus promised to those who eat and drink his flesh and blood (John 6:54). Yet “true faith” is much more than church membership or correct doctrine. The Pharisees had the correct doctrine, all the traditions, and the God-given authority to teach and lead the people of God. But did they have true faith? Jesus evidently did not think so. They received his most stinging reproaches. True faith must be understood as true life.
John Eldredge writes in The Journey of Desire: “Christianity is often presented as essentially the transfer of a body of knowledge… Right belief is seen as the means to life… content is what matters. But notice this—the Pharisees knew more about the Bible than most of us ever will, and it hardened their hearts.” He goes on to quote T.S. Eliot, who wrote that we have “Knowledge of words, but ignorance of the Word.”
Continuing to make this point, Eldredge writes: “And this, we are told, is the good news. Know the right thing; do the right thing. This is life? … We don’t need more facts, and we certainly don’t need more things to do. We need Life, and we’ve been looking for it ever since we lost Paradise. Jesus appeals to our desire because he came to speak to it. When we abandon desire, we no longer hear or understand what he is saying. But we have returned to…preaching the law… We are told to kill desire and call it sanctification… As a result, [Dallas] Willard says, ‘The souls of human beings are left to shrivel and die on the plains of life because they are not introduced into the environment for which they were made.’”
Finding the true faith means finding the One who said, “I am the Truth; I am the Life.” We can have our names listed in the registry of the “true” Church, and still end up hearing from Christ what He said to certain others who boasted of their association with Him: “I do not know you” (see Matthew 7: 22-23; 25: 11-12).
We say we have found the true faith after receiving the Eucharist because now Christ abides in us and we in him (John 6: 56). The true faith is not merely a list of things to believe and do, and not merely the act of our intellectual assent to them. Having the true faith means being in love with God and living life in a grateful response to the unrestrained self-bestowal of the One who loved us first. All the rest of the details follow from this essential and irreplaceable reality. If you have all the details and not the personal, living relationship, you have nothing—not true faith, not true life.
The call to approach with faith the Holy Mysteries, which the deacon (or priest) utters just before Communion, should be for us a wake-up call. “If only you knew the gift of God,” Jesus said to the Samaritan woman. This is what He is saying to us as well. We are invited to “feast on the riches of God’s house, and drink from the stream of his delight” (Psalm 35/36:9). Are we sufficiently aware that we have divine life within us, that the very Blood of Christ is flowing through our veins?
As this realization dawns upon us, we spontaneously begin to worship the Holy Trinity for having saved us, loved us, granted blessings and gifts to us, and for everything else that belongs to God’s loving watchfulness over our lives.
Jesus said that He came to earth to cast fire upon it (Lk 12:49). Well, He did it, all right. It’s in his Blood; it’s in his Body. Let it ignite your soul. See the Light, receive the Spirit, discover what it means to have true faith—and worship the undivided Trinity for having saved you.
Making All Things New 