Some years ago, one of the “venerable” parishioners from my former parish who at that time was in her nineties had just come back from Las Vegas. She pulled me aside following one of the Sunday morning masses and said “Father, Las Vegas was just magnificent, incredible! - can you imagine what heaven will be like!” This wonderful comment reflected not only this lovely lady’s appreciation for the beautiful things of this earth, but also the longing which should be in the heart of every Christian for heaven. A yearning in our lives for the fullness of God’s Kingdom to become a reality.
One of the predominate themes which the Advent Season sets before us is the great biblical concept of the “Kingdom of God” or “Reign of God”, as it is sometimes translated. Isaiah, our Advent prophet, has been painting word pictures for us these past few Sunday’s to evoke images in our mind of what the fullness of God’s reign will be like: The desert and the parched land will exult, the steppe will rejoice and bloom...Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; Then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the dumb will sing...sorrow and mourning will flee. [Isaiah 35].
John the Baptist speaks of the definitive in-breaking of the reign of God in Jesus when he proclaims, “The Kingdom of God is at hand”!
What exactly is this “Kingdom of God?” Do we have to wait until we die and go to heaven to experience it? Are we as Christians active or passive participants in this Reign of God?” On this Third Sunday of the Advent Season, our gathering in faith provides a good opportunity to reflect and perhaps come to a deeper understanding of these important questions.
Unlike the Deists who believe in the existence of a Creator God who is uninterested and uninvolved with creation - Jews and Christians alike believe in a God who is passionately concerned and involved with the work of His hands. All of Scripture narrates the saving stories of God’s intervention into human history so that his plan for humanity might become a reality. And what is that plan? Perhaps the old Baltimore Catechism said it best in response to the question: Why did God make us? The response being, To love and serve him in this life and to be happy with him forever in the next. Our God, then, has a plan for you and for me - that plan involves our coming to experience all that life can be for us - from God’s perspective.
In Jesus Christ we come to understand fully what living life from God’s perspective is all about. No wonder then, that John the Baptist pointed to the Lord and said, “The Kingdom of God is at hand!” In Jesus, God our Father, has set before us the model of how we are to live our lives as members of this new way. With an enduring conviction for the truth, selfless love for our brothers and sisters, forgiveness and compassion as a way of life - This is what distinguishes the Kingdom of God from the kingdoms of this World. And in Jesus, the Kingdom of God has begun - we don’t have to wait until heaven to experience it. The Second Vatican Council, while not equating the Kingdom of God with the Church, tells us that it is within the community of believers bound together by our baptismal dignity that God’s reign in our world begins to be experienced.
Yet, as realists, we need only look around us to realize that what has begun in Christ groans ever so slowly to become a perfect reality in our world. Violence and terrorism in the homes and streets of this nation is a daily occurrence. Yesterday, so many in our land sadly marked the seventh anniversary of the tragic shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in New Town, CT, a tragic reminder to us all of how our world in many respects is far from God’s Kingdom of peace and justice. We are painfully aware of a world scared with poverty; we witness on the evening news the haunting eyes and bloated stomachs of children who not only go to bed hungry but have never known what it means to be full. Yes, the definitive reign of God has begun with the Jesus of History but all too sadly it fails to become a living reality because we have not let the living Christ take root in us.
Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of God is within us. In other words, you and I have a dramatic and significant role to play in helping to make God’s reign a reality in our world today. What has begun in Christ must come to fulfillment through us - we who are members of His Body, the Church.
As wonderful as all the popularizations of Christmas are in our society, there is a danger that the power and challenge of the Incarnation might be missed in seeing the meaning of this feast solely in the charm of a little baby born in a manger. That child, of course will grow to maturity to challenge and confront the powers of darkness with the light of his truth - a truth lived by his life. As we continue our Advent preparation for the celebration of the Feast of Christmas, may we come to know and live, the call and commitment this day asks of us. So that the prayer we pray this day may become a living reality in our midst - Thy Kingdom come.