The Kingdom of Heaven.THE TRUTH WILL MAKE YOU FREE (John 8:23) Two thousand years ago the long-expected Messiah brought the Kingdom of God to earth but immediately told His disciples that it would not "admit of observation" (Luke 17:20). "What kind of a kingdom is that?" wondered his disciples. Now, as then, we ask ourselves the same question. Christ came when the world, saturated with pagan idols, cruelty and lack of love, lived aimlessly aim·less adj. Devoid of direction or purpose. aim  less·ly adv.aim in spiritual darkness. Did he change this situation at once? Not at all. Even in the Roman Empire--not to mention Asia, Africa, Australia and America--it took almost 300 years before the Church He founded was even recognized as legal and permissible. Until then His followers had had no perceptible effect on the institutions of society. Emperor Constantine abolished crucifixion as a form of execution but, aside from that, imperial affairs continued to be pursued as usual, until the invasion by the wild tribes from the north and east put an end to the Empire in Western Europe Western Europe The countries of western Europe, especially those that are allied with the United States and Canada in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (established 1949 and usually known as NATO). by overrunning it. Yet, mysteriously, the new religion of Christianity survived the collapse of that Roman civilization. Its members, forming the only entity in possession of universal laws and an all-embracing spiritual vision, began to rebuild a new civilization more directly based on love of God and neighbour. In all this, Jesus, Lord and yet brother, spread his love to the lowly, the simple, the humble, the gentle just as He had done from the beginning. "And in that region there were shepherds out in the field ... And an angel of the Lord appeared to them ... and he said to them, 'Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David City of David, in the Bible, epithet of Bethlehem, the birthplace of David, and of Jerusalem, his capital. a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord ...'" (Luke 2:8-11). The announcement was made to shepherds, of all people the lowest of the low, without any material power whatever. What were they going to do about the new Kingdom? Everything else followed the same pattern of seeming powerlessness: the birth in a stable, refuge in Egypt, the life of a carpenter, ordinary working men as disciples, adding only one learned Pharisee Pharisee Member of a Jewish religious party in Palestine that emerged c. 160 BC in opposition to the Sadducees. The Pharisees held that the Jewish oral tradition was as valid as the Torah. later on, being an itinerant traveler, and, finally, an ignominious ig·no·min·i·ous adj. 1. Marked by shame or disgrace: "It was an ignominious end ... as a desperate mutiny by a handful of soldiers blossomed into full-scale revolt" Angus Deming. death at the hands of the ruling class. How could anything possibly grow from this? However, something did grow from these inauspicious in·aus·pi·cious adj. Not favorable; not auspicious. in  aus·pi beginnings. As Daniel, the prophet, had foretold fore·told v. Past tense and past participle of foretell. to King Nebuchadnezzar, explaining the image of a shattered statue he had seen in a dream, "As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it smote the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces; then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces and became like the chaff chaff 1. chaffed hay; called also chop. 2. the winnowings from a threshing, consisting of awns, husks, glumes and other relatively indigestible materials. of the summer threshing threshing or thrashing, separation of grain from the stalk on which it grows and from the chaff or pod that covers it. The first known method was by striking the reaped ears of grain with a flail. floors ... But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth." (Daniel 2:31-35). What did Jesus, who Himself in and with His church is today that great mountain, do to bring this about? At the Last Supper Last Supper, in the New Testament, meal taken by Jesus and his disciples on the eve of the passion. Jesus broke bread and passed a cup of wine among the disciples, identifying himself with the bread and the wine and linking the meal to his impending death on the , a day before His He instituted the Eucharist, the great thanksgiving: "Take this and eat; this is my body. Take this and drink, this is my blood." Thus He united all His followers in and through the gift of divine grace, which brings life eternal. "Communion with God is followed necessarily by communion of brothers among themselves," Pope Benedict said recently, commenting on Psalm 121 (Oct. 12, 2005). The way of the world, meanwhile, has not changed during the last 2000 years. There has been no darker age than the 20th century: two world wars; twelve years of Nazi fury; seventy years of brutal communist totalitarianism in Russia, Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, today still continued in a ruthless, repressive China, paranoid North Korea, and oppressive Cuba; plus a decadent hedonism hedonism (hē`dənĭz'əm) [Gr.,=pleasure], the doctrine that holds that pleasure is the highest good. Ancient hedonism expressed itself in two ways: the cruder form was that proposed by Aristippus and the early Cyrenaics, who believed in Western Europe and America for over two hundred years, now accelerating into a devil's pit with immorality being formally made legal as the law of the land. Should we throw up our hands? No. Should we despair? Certainly not. But we should understand that the Kingdom of Heaven is not of this world. And in the end, it is this Kingdom which counts, not that of the world. 'Joy to the world.' |
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