“If you read the Bible prayerfully you will see a pattern emerge: Victory comes through suffering, exaltation through humiliation, and ultimately, the kingdom through the cross…… The gospel message is a counterintuitive message and will sound strange to the world…….Catholics were never meant to be “normal”. We’ve always been holy troublemakers, incompatible with the status quo; we do not accept the world as it is, but we insist on the world becoming the way that God wants it to be….. The real question is: The Kingdom of God is available to you, but are you available to the Kingdom?”

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.”

 

Reflect, today, upon this sacred teaching of our Lord: “The Kingdom of God is among you.” Meditate on those words and pray for insight and understanding. Jesus’ words are true. His Kingdom truly is everywhere, all around us and within us. It is alive and well. Do you see it? Do you perceive it? Do you see your role in building it? Use these questions as a test of your own level of faith and know that God wants to reveal to you these mysteries that are only able to be comprehended by His grace.