Homily for 12 Nov 2015

12 Nov 2015

Memorial of St Josaphat

The Kingdom isn’t anything we can “observe,” as Jesus tells the Pharisees.  It’s not anything we can put under a microscope; it’s not something we can see more clearly if we just look more carefully.  Instead, the Kingdom—or, at least, the start of the Kingdom—is when brothers and sisters in Christ live in harmony and unity. 

And that idea of “unity” is pretty important if the idea of the “Kingdom” is going to mean to anything to us.  After all, we don’t see the Kingdom so much as we experience it . . . if we’re open to experiencing real love and unity (which, of course, the Pharisees weren’t interested in).  And the Kingdom is already “among us:” in whatever unity and love and mercy we experience and give to each other.

But the Kingdom Jesus talks about (and the Kingdom we hope for) is more than an earthly kingdom.  We certainly hope that the Kingdom of God is bigger and brighter, more beautiful and more fulfilling than life is here on earth—even though life on earth is good.  We hope the Kingdom is more.  And it is. 

We hear God’s Wisdom described as a spirit “pervading all spirits,” “mobile beyond all motion.”  She “penetrates and pervades all things,” “and governs all things well.”  The Spirit of God is the “glue” that holds every good thing together: earth, heaven, the visible and the invisible.  And that unified whole is the “more” that we hope to be a part of when the Kingdom is finally revealed in all its fullness.  We don’t want division; we want peace and harmony, and for everything to be good and true and beautiful. 

Is it any wonder that we pray: “Come, Holy Spirit.  Fill our hearts with your love.”  I mean, we’re praying that the spiritual essence of the Kingdom will come and make us part of this perfect unity and oneness we call “the Kingdom!”  A unity that stretches from the depths of the earth to the highest heavens, from one end of the cosmos to the other!  Come, Holy Spirit!  But, of course, that’s the full Kingdom.  And we still wait with hope for that to come.

The Kingdom won’t pass us by . . . unless we don’t want to see it and experience it, like the Pharisees.  The Kingdom won’t pass us by.  Don’t worry about that.  Just be open to the idea of real “unity;” look for it, nurture it, let God give it to us.  And then someday, when we die (and we won’t miss that when it happens), we’ll come to see the fuller unity of “the Kingdom;” a life of unity with God and others we began to live here on earth.