"The kingdom of God has come upon you" (Mt 12:28). This is one of the messages Fr. David touched on several weeks ago. It's important to remember that heaven isn't some city far away in the cosmos that we will someday reach. Christianity isn't about the idea that the good believer will die and his soul will escape into the sky to go live with God. It's about the truth that Jesus promises to come back and bring his heavenly city with him. It's about the belief that, one day, the Heavenly Jerusalem will be here among us.
While it's true that this time hasn't come yet, and can never fully come until the end of days, Jesus also tells us that his kingdom is already here. "[The kingdom of heaven] is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants" (Mk 4:31-32); "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field" (Mt 13:44).
Jesus' obscure sayings about the kingdom of heaven all point to the same idea: that God's kingdom is already within this world, and that it will grow and reveal itself ever more clearly until the final coming of the Lord, when its glory will burst forth in its full blinding magnificence. We see glimpses of that light in Jesus' Transfiguration. The glory of heaven is both here and not-yet-here. The kingdom of God is both obvious and out of our grasp.
In the Our Father, we pray that God's kingdom will come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. While we are praying for God to do His final work of establishing His throne on earth, we are also called to nourish the kingdom here and now so it can flourish and thrive to its full earthly potential. While only God can complete the work, we are certainly called to help it along.
"The kingdom of heaven is near" (Mt 3:2). How can we, as a community, recognize the signs of God's kingdom and work in its favor?
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
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