In this homily, Father Richard reflects on Jesus’ teaching on the reign of God presented in Matthew’s Gospel:
I think what Jesus calls the kingdom of heaven or the reign of God is when we live inside of the Big Picture and not inside of the small pictures that we create and seem to prefer. Most of us live inside of our own small, self-created kingdoms: the kingdom of being American or the kingdom of being Catholic or the kingdom of being white. That’s all going to pass away. Those are not the kingdom of God.
The reign of God will not pass away. It’s the eternal state of things, how things finally and fully and freely are. To live in the reign of God is to live with that kind of big perspective, where we move beyond the tiny human-made boundaries that we all create. Most of us are afraid to venture out of our little comfort zone of “people just like me.”
In the second century, the Christian people started calling themselves the “catholic” people. Too few of us were taught that catholic simply means universal in Greek. From the beginning, Christians recognized that their message was not for any one ethnic group or nation, but in fact was about how things eternally are everywhere, all the time. If we can live at that level, then we’re in the kingdom of God. When we’ve had a glimpse of this kingdom, we keep pushing out the boundaries, so we can see God everywhere.
Matthew 4:15 says that Jesus moved away from Nazareth into “Galilee of the Gentiles.” Jesus deliberately moves on to the frontier, the edge, where not everybody is Jewish, where many cultures and ethnicities come together. It’s there, in the land of the Gentiles, that Jesus proclaims the reign of God.
We know we’re living in God’s Big Picture when we can see God in all cultures, in all social classes, and even in all religions. We have to stop thinking that any one religion has God in its pocket, or controls God, or that God only likes certain people who happen to be Christians. Would God be that stingy? Would God be that small and petty to only love people like me? I hope not. Because it’s precisely this great heart of God that is able to love all of God’s children. Jesus comes to the land of the Gentiles to proclaim a God for the universal kingdom.
Every time we pray “thy kingdom come” we’re praying that God can grant, and we can participate in, a universal, truly “catholic” world where all of us can love one another without distinction, and without discrimination. I’m afraid we have to admit that we haven’t gotten very far yet. We still have not caught up with Jesus. We prefer to live in our smaller kingdoms instead of the universal kingdom of God.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, “What Is the ‘Kingdom of God?’,” homily, January 26, 2014.
Image credit and inspiration: Harli Marten, untitled (detail), 2016, photo. Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. The reign of God is peace, even today, between two people and a tree at sunset.
Story from Our Community:
When I think of the kingdom of God, I like Diarmuid O’Murchu’s characterization: “the companionship of empowerment.” What a marvelous vision of community! In other words, the kingdom of God is togetherness with God.
—Susan J.
