The Kingdom of God: It’s Present Wherever and Whenever Jesus Rules!

(Sixteenth Sunday of the Year (A): This homily was given on July 23, 2023 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read Wisdom 12:13-19; Psalm 86:5-16; Romans 8:26-27; Matthew 13:24-43.)

 [For the audio version of this homily, click here: Sixteenth Sunday 2023]

“The kingdom of God”—a biblical concept which is very important and VERY CONFUSING!

Let me illustrate the confusion with a couple of questions.  Question #1: Is the kingdom of God something that is inside of us, or is it something that’s outside of us?  I ask that because in Luke 17:21 Jesus explicitly says, “The kingdom of God is within you”; but then in John 18:36 he seems to contradict himself by saying, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

Very confusing.

Question #2: Is the kingdom of God something that we can experience NOW on this earth, or is it something we can only experience AFTER WE DIE?  The answer to that one is not immediately obvious, because in Matthew 10:7 Jesus tells us, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (as if it is something we can experience right now!); but then, in Matthew 25, in the scene of the Last Judgment, Jesus says to those who are saved, “Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world”—as if the kingdom is something totally different from what we experience here on earth.

Very confusing.

But in spite of all the confusion, this is a biblical concept that we need to try to understand—because according to Jesus Christ the kingdom of God (whatever it is!) is extremely important!

We know this simply because Jesus preached about the kingdom all the time!  He wouldn’t have done that if he didn’t want us to take it seriously.  Believe it or not, in just the 4 canonical Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) the expression “the kingdom of God” or “the kingdom of heaven” is used about 50 times (I know that because I made a quick count once).  In today’s gospel alone, Jesus mentions it 3 times, using 3 analogies to drive home his message.

My purpose in this homily is to give you one key insight that can help you to make sense of this Gospel reading from Matthew 13 and every other passage of the New Testament where the kingdom of God is mentioned—including the ones that seem to contradict one another.  The insight comes from our former Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, and it can be found in chapter 3 of his book, Jesus of Nazareth.

I’ll paraphrase it in this way (which should be fairly easy to remember): According to Pope Benedict, the kingdom of God is present wherever and whenever Jesus is enthroned as Lord.

The kingdom of God is present, in other words, wherever and whenever Jesus rules!

Think back, now, to the questions I posed at the beginning of my homily.

Question #1: Is the kingdom of God something that is inside of us, or is it something that’s outside of us? 

The pope would say “It’s not an either/or situation.  Both can be true.  The kingdom can be inside of us and outside of us at the same time!”—which is precisely why Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you,” and “My kingdom is not of this world.”

You see, whenever Jesus is ruling our inner thoughts and attitudes, the kingdom is present.  Whenever we decide, by the grace of God, to forgive another person; whenever we choose to be patient or compassionate or pure; whenever we say no to sin and yes to what’s right, the kingdom of God is, in a very real sense, present within us!

But, of course, none of us is perfect.  So even though the kingdom is present within us whenever we resist sin and practice virtue, it will never be fully present inside us—or outside us for that matter—as long as we’re in this world.  That’s why Jesus’ second statement, “My kingdom is not of this world” is also true!

The fullness of the kingdom of God will only be experienced in heaven, simply because that’s the place where Jesus “rules” completely!  In heaven, there is no sin.  Jesus truly is the Lord of all that happens and the Lord of everyone who’s there.

So, is the kingdom of God something that we can experience NOW on this earth, or is it something we can only experience AFTER WE DIE? 

That was the second question, and, once again, Pope Benedict would say to us, “It’s not either/or; it’s both/and.  Because of the nature of the kingdom, both can be true.  Whenever we make Jesus Lord of a particular situation in our lives and do what he wants us to do, we experience a little bit of his kingdom.  Right here, right now.  But, once again, the fullness of that kingdom will only become a reality for us in heaven, where there’s no sin or death, and where Jesus is Lord completely.”

All of this is implied, believe it or not, in that simple phrase “thy kingdom come” in the Lord’s Prayer.  We’re saying, “Lord, may your kingdom be present inside of me—in my thoughts and in my heart; may it be present outside of me in my words and acts of love and service.  Help me, through my attitudes and choices, to experience your kingdom right now to the extent that I can; and prepare me for that glorious moment when I will experience the fullness of your kingdom in heaven.”  With those 3 little words—“thy kingdom come”—we’re implying all those things.  Let’s keep that in mind when we pray the Our Father later at this Mass, and whenever we pray it publicly or privately in the future.

 

Was Jesus Christ a Schlep?

Jesus expels the moneychangers from the Temple.

(Fourteenth Sunday of the Year (A): This homily was given on July 9, 2023 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read Zechariah 9:9-10; Psalm 145:1-14; Romans 8:9-13; Matthew 11:25-30.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Fourteenth Sunday 2023]

Was Jesus Christ a schlep?

I hope no one is offended by that question.  I ask it in all seriousness, based on an all-too-common misinterpretation of the word “meek” as it appears in the Bible.  In our first reading—in this famous text from Zechariah 9—we are told that the Messiah will be “meek,” and that he will enter the city of Jerusalem on a donkey.  (This prophecy, of course, was fulfilled on the very first Palm Sunday when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem.)  And then, in this well-known Gospel passage from Matthew 11, Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.”

So, what exactly does it mean to be “meek?”

Well, I submit to you that most people today think being meek means being a schlep!  Now just in case your Yiddish is a bit rusty, I should mention that a schlep is someone who just plods along clumsily through life—without any initiative, without any assertiveness, without any backbone.

The pop singer Frank Zappa was certainly no prophet, but he did accurately express this misunderstanding of meekness in one of his songs, when he wrote: “Some take the Bible for what it’s worth, when it says that the meek shall inherit the earth; well I heard that some sheik bought New Jersey last week, and you . . . ain’t gettin’ nothing!”—the implication being that “meek” people are wimpy schleps who allow others to take advantage of them.

That’s wrong! 

If that were meekness, my brothers and sisters, then “meek” Jesus would never have driven the money-changers out of the temple or reprimanded the Pharisees!  Clearly Jesus was not a schlep!  Neither was Moses, who tossed the Ten Commandments down Mt. Sinai at Aaron and the Israelites after they had sinned by worshipping the golden calf!  And yet, in the book of Numbers, this same Moses is called “the meekest of men.”

Biblically speaking, meekness is not weakness, it’s strength!  Meekness is the strength to deal with adversity without complaining; meekness is the strength to accept God’s will even when we might not like it or understand it (which can happen quite often!); meekness is the strength to keep our emotions under control when they could easily get out of control—like when we’re driving around Westerly in the summertime!

That’s why Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek!”  If you can deal with adversity without complaining, and accept God’s will even when it’s difficult and you don’t understand it, and keep your emotions in check all the time—even when the summer traffic in our beautiful town is at its worst, then you definitely will be a blessed person!  No doubt about it!

And how can we learn this virtue of meekness?

According to Jesus, we can—and we should—learn it, first and foremost, from him!  As he said to us today, “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” 

No one of us has faced more adversity than Jesus Christ faced, because no one of us has had to take the sins of the whole world upon himself.  No one of us has been challenged to accept God’s will more than Jesus was challenged, since for him God’s will was the Cross!  And no human being alive today is as “emotionally together” as Jesus was.  For example, consider the very common emotion of anger.  Whenever Jesus Christ got angry, you could be absolutely certain of three things: it was justified, it was not sinful, and it was not excessive.  Would that we could always say that about our anger!

Jesus says here that he wants to give us “rest”—which signifies his peace.  But it’s clear from the text that meekness is a pre-requisite for receiving this peace in its fullness.  It’s not optional.  Consequently our prayer at this Mass should be, “O Lord Jesus, please help me and teach me to be meek, as you were meek—help me to imitate you—so that I might experience a greater measure of your peace in my life. Amen.”