Kingdom of God ‘Is’ Among You!

Thursday, November 16, 2023

Wis 7:22-8:1; Lk 17:20-25

In today’s Gospel, Jesus highlights the ‘present’ nature of the Kingdom. 

I believe that there is an intrinsic connection between the Beatitudes and Jesus’ statement on the coming of the Kingdom. 

The reason for my belief is their grammatical construction. Both have been constructed in the present tense. It is as if Jesus instructs us that blessedness and realization of God’s Kingdom are ‘not’ future realities but ‘contemporary responsibilities’ for Christians. 

As such, when Jesus says, ‘The Kingdom of God is among you,’ it is important for us in two ways. 

A Call: ‘Kingdom of God is among you’ is an earnest call to realize the Kingdom in the here and now. If we think of it as a future reality, we might overlook its injunction for the present. Christians cannot abdicate their present responsibilities, citing the future reality as an excuse. Hence, implementing God’s will is an urgent task for us. 

A Reminder: ‘Kingdom of God is among you’ is a reminder in the sense that the realizing of it in the present world is a precondition for the reenactment of it in the heavenly abode. As a prerequisite, establishing God’s Kingdom on earth is an unavoidable obligation for us. The earth is the platform for heaven!

If we can understand the coming of the Kingdom and what it implies as a call and reminder, we will not be deceived by fallacious claims regarding its appearance. 

If it can be ‘only’ among us, how can we look for it elsewhere?

Kingdom of God is not an external spectacle. It is an internal realization manifested in life. 

Let us pray for the grace to realize God’s Kingdom in our lives, in our own little ways.

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar