31st Sunday Homily: Thy Kingdom Come
Jesus never preached the Kingdom as a political reality, nor even a national identity.
The Kingdom that Jesus preached and initiated was always about an attitude, a belief.
The Kingdom of God is anywhere and with anyone who lives out the virtues of God.
The Kingdom is of justice, mercy, compassion, inclusion; it is a attitude of love.
This Love that Jesus preached, that he lived and died for, and was raised from the dead… this love is the choice to believe in goodness.
It is the choice to give of oneself for the good of others.
Love believes in the goodness of another person and within ourselves; Love believes in the goodness of God.
When we choose to Love, then we cannot choose to treat a person as anything less.
When we choose to believe in our own goodness, nobody else can demean that in us.
When we choose to believe in the Goodness of God, then all is good.
This is the Kingdom.
The kingdom grows when a man and a woman commit themselves 100% to each other and begin a family.
The Kingdom grows when men and women commit themselves 100% to serve others as Priests, Nuns and Brothers.
The Kingdom thrives whenever anyone gives of herself or himself and helps another person in need; who does not let fears keep them from being welcoming and generous to the stranger, the migrant, the poor.
The Kingdom thrives when people treat each other equally.
Imagine a home, society, a world, a church in which all people look at other and see goodness.
There would be no need to fear them; no matter where they are from, their immigration status, their religious practice; no reason.
We would see a need, and we would make effort to address that need.
We ourselves may have a need and others would make an effort to address that need.
Imagine then, no more poverty, no more racism, sexism, no more phobic attitudes;
No need to fear a loss of power; no more fearing loss of our stuff.
Imagine making a mistake and being open to accepting forgiveness
Imagine someone hurts us,and we forgive willingly.
This is the Kingdom.
It begins we Jesus Christ.
So great was the Father’s love for us, that the beloved Son was sent, so that we can know of that love, know of that power of our goodness. So that we can be free to express it and help one another live it.
The Father looks at each one of us, and sees the goodness there.
The Father does not see immigration status, nation of birth, political citizenship, or even religion. The Father only sees the Good Person the Father made.
The Father wants that goodness to come out. This is the Will of God
Our mistakes, our sins, our failures, cannot stop nor diminish The Father’s love.
Jesus’ death and resurrection reveals this.
Our mission as Christians, as Catholics, is to live this Kingdom, to make it real in our lives, our homes, our world.
This weekend is begins National Vocations awareness week.
We are reminded that all of us have a Vocation, the call to be saints, meaning, to be true to ourselves, as persons.
Traditionally as Catholics we say that our path to sainthood is expressed through the Vocation of Marriage and the Vocation to the Religious Life, and in recent decades, we recognize that sainthood also lived in vocation to a dedicated single life.
Each differs. Marriage, a woman and man help each other to be the saints. It is a joint venture, in a very very intimate way.
A dedicated single life acknowledges that some people give of themselves to service to others, finding that goodness in helping others, all while working and living in the world.
A Religious Vocation is when a person is called to serve the other two groups.
Our sainthood, our holiness, our goodness is found in service to the people of God; helping all understand and find their own inherent goodness; thus moving forward the Kingdom of God.
No one group is better than another or more holy; all are good and all are called to achieve the same end. Love.
The challenge for all of us today is Love.
We can choose to divide ourselves from others, choose to think of others as enemies, threats, less than human…
Or we can truly make the difference
Imagine someone hurts us,and we forgive willingly.
This is the Kingdom.
It begins we Jesus Christ.
So great was the Father’s love for us, that the beloved Son was sent, so that we can know of that love, know of that power of our goodness. So that we can be free to express it and help one another live it.
The Father looks at each one of us, and sees the goodness there.
The Father does not see immigration status, nation of birth, political citizenship, or even religion. The Father only sees the Good Person the Father made.
The Father wants that goodness to come out. This is the Will of God
Our mistakes, our sins, our failures, cannot stop nor diminish The Father’s love.
Jesus’ death and resurrection reveals this.
Our mission as Christians, as Catholics, is to live this Kingdom, to make it real in our lives, our homes, our world.
This weekend is begins National Vocations awareness week.
We are reminded that all of us have a Vocation, the call to be saints, meaning, to be true to ourselves, as persons.
Traditionally as Catholics we say that our path to sainthood is expressed through the Vocation of Marriage and the Vocation to the Religious Life, and in recent decades, we recognize that sainthood also lived in vocation to a dedicated single life.
Each differs. Marriage, a woman and man help each other to be the saints. It is a joint venture, in a very very intimate way.
A dedicated single life acknowledges that some people give of themselves to service to others, finding that goodness in helping others, all while working and living in the world.
A Religious Vocation is when a person is called to serve the other two groups.
Our sainthood, our holiness, our goodness is found in service to the people of God; helping all understand and find their own inherent goodness; thus moving forward the Kingdom of God.
No one group is better than another or more holy; all are good and all are called to achieve the same end. Love.
The challenge for all of us today is Love.
We can choose to divide ourselves from others, choose to think of others as enemies, threats, less than human…
Or we can truly make the difference
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