It is hard to realize that we are already in the 3RD week of Ordinary Time. Christmas has come and gone . The Christmas season has fleeted away like the snow that falls and melts away in a day when it does fall here on the Island.
However, have we realized and been moved by what we have heard? Have we taken to heart the beautiful scripture passages that have been proclaimed here on this altar?
Have we taken to heart the words that came from the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, one if not the most recognized prophet of the Old Testament, to the beautiful words from the New Testament to include the Book Of Acts, the letters of a convert St. Paul, to the people whom he converted to Christianity, and to the rich and nourished filled words of the Gospels, to name just a few?
The scripture passages show the journey to salvation through the prophecy of a savior who would reconcile with and protect the nation of Israel, the chosen people of the Old Testament, and then leading through to Jesus’ birth and later his ministry and ultimately Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection that brought salvation to the world.
We then see the birth of the Church and the teachings that would enlighten our understanding of “the One Body in Christ”; All this for the Kingdom of God!!!
In today’s gospel, Jesus begins his public ministry. Jesus was bringing forth the center of his teaching, the vision of God’s Kingdom. This was the dream of the prophets of the Old Testament, the promise of God’s reign of truth and justice, and love, the biblical image of salvation.
Jesus says: “The Spirit of the Lord has anointed me. He has sent me to
bring good news to the poor, liberty to the captives, recovery of site to the blind, let the oppressed go free”. Taken from a worldly approach, we would think that Jesus is implying that he came to bring abundance to those who were poor, to free the slaves and the prisoners, to heal the blind, and to stop all worldly oppression.
Embracing a spiritual approach meant that Jesus was announcing the arrival of the “Kingdom of God” on earth. The Kingdom of God was the good news that Jesus was proclaiming. For the arrival of the Kingdom of God to be fulfilled, it meant the arrival of the promised Messiah, Jesus.
It meant that those who were spiritually blind would be enlightened, now being able to see the way, the truth, and the life. Those who were captives of sin, slaves to Satan, would be free, first through Baptism and then through the sacrament of Reconciliation so that they (WE) could enjoy eternal life after physical death. And Jesus brought hope for those who were oppressed through the vision of the eternal life to come, the fullness of God’s Kingdom.
The authors of the books of the bible, the prophets in particular, were only too aware of the injustice, the wrong from lies, the blindness to see the truth, the numerous forms of exploitation that arise from this fallen human nature. Those are the features of the kingdom of this world, so to speak, and they enter into our world, as we see in our society, even today.
God’s kingdom, on the other hand, is the symbol for the kind of relationships that take shape under the influence of God’s nature. It is a pattern of peace, justice, truth, holiness, love. To move from one to the other is to express salvation, from this world’s kingdom to the realization of God’s kingdom, to live in the love of Christ.
According to the prophets and Jesus, salvation will only be completely realized at the end of time, at the final judgment of humanity. In that sense, God’s Kingdom is always something that lies ahead of us, beyond our present vision, beyond any effort or action we do.
Is this what we think of when we here the phrase “The Kingdom of God”? Jesus proclaimed that the availability of the Kingdom was already here.
Christ presented himself as the Messiah, the person anointed by God to usher in his reign. And he presented his ministry as the fulfillment of what the prophets had looked forward too: God’s decisive intervention in history. He taught his followers to see that his time on earth was the start, or the dawn, of God’s Kingdom.
The Kingdom in its essence, is something we receive, a reality of God’s grace, not something we create or build by our own efforts as I stated before. It is something we are invited to cooperate with. The way to belong to God’s Kingdom is to put it into practice each day of our lives, until it becomes a part of us. Jesus showed us how and he used his life on earth as an example for us, living a life of truth, trust, happiness, joy, forgiveness, love.
The Kingdom takes shape in history, partly in the Christian Community, in the Church, in the sacraments, especially the Eucharist where Jesus brings himself to us, and in our hearing the word of God through the scripture passages we attest to every Sunday and at every celebration of the Eucharist we attend.
The Kingdom of God also takes shape in the efforts of Christians to live out what Jesus taught us. But the Kingdom also takes shape in everything that co-operates with truth, justice, and love. At its best, in spite of the human flaws, the Church has always and will always be the vehicle for God’s Kingdom.
That’s what it is suppose to be. And down through the ages, despite being in very different circumstances and periods of history, Christians who were open to the Holy Spirit have always been shown how to remain faithful to the vision and the values of the Kingdom of God, and how to keep God’s love and truth and Justice alive in the world.
Believe it or not, at the end of the day, that is still part of our journey to the fullness of God’s Kingdom. It is still the Church’s mission, every individual believers mission, not just to cultivate a private relationship with God but to make the Kingdom present in the world around us. It is the mission of every parish community to be the light of the gospel, attracting others to it.
My Sisters and Brothers, in keeping what Jesus has taught us in our
hearts, we will find God’s Kingdom now. In keeping our hearts open to the Holy Spirit, we find the guidance that will take us through our life
journey’s and to the end of our human existence where we will then experience the fullness of God’s kingdom in heaven, forever. We are now able to keep the scriptures alive, today, at this moment in time, and we are able to say with a loud voice, “today your words, Father, are fulfilled in my hearing”, as we now begin living in the Kingdom of God.