My Kingdom Is Not Of This World

Deacon Tom writes

“My Kingdom Is Not Of This World” 

The Solemnity Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Pope Benedict XVI wrote the following comment about today’s Feast of Christ the King:

“Jesus of Nazareth is so intrinsically king that the title ‘King’ has actually become his name. By calling ourselves Christians, we label ourselves as followers of the king. God did not intend Israel to have a kingdom. The kingdom was a result of Israel’s rebellion against God.  The law was to be Israel’s king, and, through the law, God himself. God yielded to Israel’s obstinacy and so devised a new kind of kingship for them. The King is Jesus; in him God entered humanity and espoused it to himself. This is the usual form of the divine activity in relation to mankind. God does not have a fixed plan that he must carry out; on the contrary, he has many different ways of finding man and even of turning his wrong ways into right ways.  The feast of Christ the King is therefore not a feast of those who are subjugated, but a feast of those who know that they are in the hands of the one who writes straight on crooked lines”.

This reflection from the former pontiff challenges us to decide which of the many paths we will follow in this life. A few words from St. Matthew’s Gospel serve as a guide: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mt 6:21).  How we pursue the treasures we seek in this life is an expression of the divine activity within us. Let’s face it! We have so many choices today and hardly any reigns on how we pursue them.  How do we set priorities between our spiritual and physical needs? To whom will we pledge our loyalties during this life and at what cost?  Will we be serving the spirit of this world, thinking only of our own selves and needs, acting as if it’s all about me, declaring to those with different opinions “it’s my way OR the highway”?  Or, will we choose a different path, and live in solidarity with the poor, advocate for the weak and oppressed, seek shelter for the homeless and food for the hungry, be mindful of the plight of refugees and orphans?  Will we see ways to build relationships with those who oppose us or will we seek to annihilate them? This is the ultimate freedom we have today, the freedom to choose to be subjects of the creator and ruler of the cosmos who has … “set us free...to share in the glorious freedom of the children of God”  ROM 8:21.

Jesus was right to tell Pilate that “his kingdom does not belong to this world”. But, the way to the kingdom is here and is a conscious choice whenever we serve those who lack power, privilege and prestige, those very people Christ identified with, served, and redeemed. When we serve them, we declare with our lives where our treasures lie and we give witness to others of our deliberate choice to follow the man whose kingdom is not of this world.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom 

Image credit: Flickr.com

Only In God

Deacon Tom writes

“Only In God”

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

In the course of today’s readings we encounter several women who have remarkably strong faith. They are women whose actions demonstrate their dependence upon God to provide for all their needs, even for the most basic necessities of life!  We know neither of their names only that they share a common bond, that of widowhood. Being a widow was tantamount to being assigned to a most difficult and arduous station of life in the patriarchal society of the bible, and it remains such to this day. The loss of a husband meant a life of poverty. It reduced a woman to a life of begging and dependency upon the acts of charity from others in the community.

Despite her direful plight, the first widow we encounter in the Book of Kings offers the Prophet Elijah hospitality. She and her young son have only a “handful of flour… and a little oil” and that’s it. The widow and her son are themselves far beyond the bounds of destitution and yet she willingly makes “a little cake” for the Prophet leaving nothing for herself and her son!  Yet, “the jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry!”

In the Gospel Jesus notices what’s taking place at the Temple offering. “Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents”.  Jesus comments that this woman did not contribute from her wealth as the others did, “but from her poverty…she contributed all she had, her whole livelihood”.

These women teach us of a deep and trusting faith in God, lessons very appropriate for us today. They teach us not from their head, but from their heart and from their deep-seated experiences of life. Do we give to others from our surplus or from our need?  This is a difficult question for us to wrestle with, but one that is certainly worth the effort. If we spend some time thinking about this question it may lead us to reflect on an underlying struggle we face often in this life – that is, how much do we really trust that God will be there in our time of need, whatever that “need” might be.

There is an aspect to these widow’s faith that reflects Christ’s complete self-giving, his pouring himself out completely for our sake, Christ’s “kenosis” as St. Paul writes in Philippians 2:7, in which Christ surrenders his own will to the divine will of his Father.  This complete giving of self is a gift from God that scripture reveals mostly in the lives of the poor and lowly ones, such as these widows we encounter today.  They teach us that God cannot be outdone in generosity.  Their strong faith enables them to trust God completely, to trust “only in God” in all things, not only for all the necessities of the present moment but for all future needs also.

May our faith grow to be like theirs so we too willingly give all …even our whole livelihood…for the greater glory of God. 

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

Image credit: wikimedia.org-Hand_gottes.jpg