The Kingdom of God

From a sermon by Meister Eckhart:

“Our Lord says:  Know that the kingdom of God is close to you.  Indeed, the kingdom of God is within us; God is closer to me than I am to myself: my being depends on God’s being near me and present to me. So he is also in a stone or a log of wood, only they do not know it. If the wood knew God and realized how close he is to it as the highest angel does, it would be as blessed as the highest angel. And so man is more blessed than a stone or a piece of wood because he is aware of God and knows how close God is to him. And I am the more blessed, the more I realize this, and I am the less blessed, the less I know this. I am not blessed because God is in me and is near me and because I possess him, but because I am aware of how close he is to me, and that I know God. The prophet says in the Psalter: Do not be without understanding like a mule or a horse. Again the patriarch Jacob says: God is in this place, and I knew it not. We should know God and be aware that God’s kingdom is near to hand.”