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REFLECTION
The Kingdom of God
On January 26, 2005, our Superior General, Father Gregory Gay, CM, addressed the annual Vincentian Convocation at St. John’s University in New York. His talk was entitled “A Passion for Justice.” What follows is an excerpt from that address.
The importance of the Kingdom of God for Jesus is underlined by the earliest gospel, Mark. The first words from Jesus are about the Kingdom of God: “Now after John the Baptizer was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying: ‘The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the good news’” (Mark 1:14-15).
When Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God, his hearers would have noticed an important contrast. They lived under other kingdoms; the kingdom of Herod and the kingdom of Caesar. They knew what these kingdoms were like; they suffered poverty and oppression every day under these kingdoms. What was different about what Jesus was announcing? In a sentence, Jesus was proclaiming a Kingdom that showed what life would be like on earth if God were king and the rulers of this world were not. God’s Kingdom is about God’s justice; as such, it is in stark opposition to the systemic injustice of the kingdoms and domination systems of this world.
Significantly, the Kingdom of God for Jesus was something for the earth, something for the right here and right now. Perhaps we have often lost sight of this. Maybe we have even forged a false divide between our spiritual quest for holiness and the promotion of justice. But the coming of the Kingdom of God is for this earth of ours. So it is not surprising that the Lord’s Prayer we recite so often contains this petition: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.” Heaven’s doing fine; earth is where we have got work to do.
The Kingdom of God is what life would be like on earth if God were in charge. It is God’s dream, God’s passion. Jesus was so passionate about fulfilling God’s dream that he lived and died for it. It is the dream for this earth of ours.
Down through the centuries, countless women and men have latched on to the dream. They sensed that the dream required them not only to seek the holiness of a right relationship with God, but also to pursue and promote justice with passionate hearts. They were jolted into the consciousness that more was demanded than personal honesty and private charity. They needed to participate in the struggle to change whatever it was that caused people to be hungry or homeless, oppressed or victimized, in the first place. These men and women, our heroes and heroines in the faith, could not do everything, but they did something, and did it well. Yes, and did it passionately.
Vincentian is published bimonthly by the Midwest and Southern Provinces of the Congregation of the Mission, the Vincentian Priests and Brothers, to promote the apostolic works of its members and those of the larger Vincentian Family.
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