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Theo Tigno•
7/8/2009 10:58 pm
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Thursday, July 9th 2009 |
Matthew 10:7-15
Jesus said to his Apostles: "As you go, make this proclamation: 'The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give. Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick. The laborer deserves his keep. Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it, and stay there until you leave. As you enter a house, wish it peace. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you. Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet. Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town."
Dawg's thought:
Today's prayer intention is for those who have fallen away from the Church.
Today's prayer intention comes from the late Pope John Paul II (I tried to find a good snippet, but this snippet is about is abbreviated as I could come up with ...)
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Jesus Christ began his messianic mission with the proclamation: "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand" (Mk 1:15). Those words indicate the start of "the fullness of time," as St. Paul says (cf. Gal 4:4). They prepare the way for the new covenant, which is based on the mystery of the Son's redemptive Incarnation and destined to be an eternal covenant. In Jesus Christ's life and mission the kingdom of God is not only "at hand" (Lk 10:9), but is already present in the world, already at work in human history. Jesus himself said: "The kingdom of God is among you" (Lk 17:21).
The difference in standard and quality between the time of preparation and that of fulfillment--between the old and new covenant--was made known by Jesus himself when he spoke about his precursor, John the Baptist, saying: "Amen, I say to you, among those born of woman there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he" (Mt 11:11). From the banks of the Jordan (and from prison), John certainly made a greater contribution than anyone else, even more than the ancient prophets (cf. Lk 7:26-27), in preparing the immediate way for the Messiah. Nevertheless, in a certain sense he still remained on the threshold of the new kingdom which entered the world with Christ's coming and became manifest through his messianic ministry. Only through Christ do individuals become true "children of the kingdom," that is, children of the new kingdom which is superior to the one to which Jews at the time considered themselves the natural heirs (cf. Mt 8:12).
The new kingdom has an eminently spiritual character. To enter it, it is necessary to repent and believe in the Gospel, to be freed from the power of the spirit of darkness, to submit to the power of God's Spirit, which Christ brings to human beings. As Jesus says: "But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Mt 12:28; cf. Lk 11:20).
The spiritual and transcendent nature of this kingdom is also expressed in the equivalent term we find in the Gospel texts: "kingdom of heaven." It is a wonderful image which allows us to glimpse the origin and purpose of the kingdom--"heaven"--and the same divine-human dignity of him in whom the kingdom of God is made historically concrete through the Incarnation: Christ.
The transcendence of God's kingdom results from the fact that it takes its origin not only from human initiative, but from the plan, design and will of God himself. Jesus Christ, who makes it present and realizes it in the world, is not merely one of the prophets sent by God, but the consubstantial Son of the Father, who became man in the Incarnation. The kingdom of God is thus the kingdom of the Father and his Son. The kingdom of God is the kingdom of Christ; it is the kingdom of heaven which has begun on earth to allow men to enter this new world of spirituality and eternity. Jesus stated, "All things have been handed over to me by my Father.... No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him" (Mt 11:27). "For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to his Son the possession of life in himself. And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man" (Jn 5:26-27).
Along with the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit is also at work, realizing the kingdom in this world. Jesus himself reveals this. The Son of Man "drives out demons by the Spirit of God," and for this reason "the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Mt 12:28).
But although the kingdom of God is realized and develops in this world, it has its purpose in "heaven." It is transcendent in its origin and also in its goal, which is reached in eternity, on condition that one is faithful to Christ in this life and throughout the course of time. Jesus informed us of this when he said that, in conformity with his power of "judging" (Jn 5:27), at the end of the world the Son of Man will give the command to collect "out of his kingdom all who cause others to sin," namely, all the iniquities committed even in the confines of Christ's kingdom. Jesus added: "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Mt 13:41, 43). Then the full and definitive realization of the "kingdom of the Father" will occur, to whom the Son will hand over the elect who have been saved by him in virtue of the redemption and by the work of the Holy Spirit. The messianic kingdom will then reveal its identity with the kingdom of God (cf. Mt 25:34; 1 Cor 15:24).
There is, then, a historical cycle to the kingdom of Christ, the incarnate Word. But the alpha and omega of this kingdom, and one would even say, the basis on which it begins, lives, develops and reaches its fulfillment, is the mysterium Trinitatis. We have already said, and we will see again later, that the mysterium ecclesiae takes root in this mystery.
The point of transition and connection from one mystery to the other is Christ, who was already predicted in the old covenant and awaited as a Messiah-King with whom the kingdom of God is identified. In the new covenant Christ identifies the kingdom of God with his own person and his own mission. He not only proclaims the fact that with him the kingdom of God is in the world, but he teaches that one should give up everything which is humanly most valuable "for the kingdom of God" (cf. Lk 18:29-30), and at another point, to leave all this "for the sake of my name" (cf. Mt 19:29) or "for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel" (Mk 10:29).
The kingdom of God is thus identified with the kingdom of Christ. It is present in him; it is realized in him. It passes from him, on his own initiative, to the apostles, and through them to all those who will believe in him: "I confer a kingdom on you, just as my Father has conferred one on me" (Lk 22:29). It is a kingdom which consists in the spread of Christ himself through the world, through human history, as a new life which comes from him and is communicated to believers in virtue of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, whom he sends (cf. Jn 1:16; 7:38-39; 15:26; 16:7).
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Take care and God Bless.
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