RBWords

    Jesus' words, quoted above, are spoken to the Pharisees, whose behavior he repeatedly criticized for its hypocrisy.  They were taunting him about what they would have called "your so-called kingdom."  The Kingdom of God does not arrive externally like some kind of victory parade and demonstration of religio-political power.  It arrives first and foremost in faith within the believer which is then manifested in love of God and neighbor.  Good deeds, even heroic humanistic deeds, can be done by those who do not believe in God.  The way in which a Christian acts manifests the way in which he or she first believes.

     There is a tendency to identify the external manifestation of the church as the "Kingdom of God" with all its pomp, ceremony and splendor.  But the church is first and foremost the Body of Christ, manifested in the bodies of believers.  This is most clearly demonstrated in those parts of the world where public Christian worship is prohibited!   During the days of the "cold war" when I was in grade school, we learned about the "underground church" of believers who kept faith under terrible circumstances.  

     The Pharisees were looking for the wrong kind of kingdom.  Even some of Jesus' own disciples misunderstood his teaching about this.  The Kingdom of God will not be imposed by human statutes and laws or event planners.  It is offered at baptism and encouraged by other faithful believers.  Jesus' own presence among us is experienced sacramentally, but he is not absent when sacraments are impeded!  The COVID pandemic may teach us how important sacraments are, but it may also teach us about the real meaning of "the Kingdom of God."  AMEN