“Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming."

“When you expect the world to end at any moment, you know there is no need to hurry. You take your time, you do your work well.” ― Thomas Merton: (1915 – 1968: was an American Catholic writer, theologian and Trappist monk)

Gospel Text: (LK 17:20-25)

Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come,
Jesus said in reply,
"The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed,
and no one will announce, 'Look, here it is,' or, 'There it is.'
For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you."

Then he said to his disciples,
"The days will come when you will long to see
one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.
There will be those who will say to you,
'Look, there he is,' or 'Look, here he is.'
Do not go off, do not run in pursuit.
For just as lightning flashes
and lights up the sky from one side to the other,
so will the Son of Man be in his day.
But first he must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation."

The Kingdom of God is already within us. It is in every person who believes in the Lord, in his Church and its sacraments and in the world. God reveals himself to us in countless ways. The Kingdom is where God and his values are. The Kingdom of God is in all the good people in the world.

To bring about the Kingdom of God the Son of God came into the world as man, suffered and died for all. Through God's call and grace, his followers are tasked to continue his mission of bringing God's love and mercy to the world. At the same time we all await the coming and fulfillment of the Kingdom of God when Our Lord appears at his second coming at the end of time.

Let us seek the Kingdom of God, making it grow within us and throughout the world until its final realization at the end of time.