Lk 17:20-25
The Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was to come. He answered, “The kingdom of God is not like something you can observe, and say of it, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘See, there it is!’ for the kingdom of God is within you.”
And Jesus said to his disciples, “The time is at hand, when you will long to see one of the glorious days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. Then people will tell you, ‘Look there! Look here!’ Do not go with them, do not follow them. As lightning flashes from one end of the sky to the other, so will it be with the Son of Man; but first he must suffer many things, and be rejected by this generation.
REFLECTION
Often, in the different Christian groups that surround us we hear news about the end of the ages and the coming of Jesus. Their predictions have been wrong and the history goes on amidst many eschatological signs.
Since the time of the Babylonian captivity, through the prophets Jeremiah and Daniel, Jews also were concerned about the arrival of the final kingdom of God.
So the words of Jesus are very suitable for our time, in which even films are so often very apocalyptical. He insists on the hidden presence of this kingdom among us as the seed or the leaven in the word preached and in the sacraments celebrated. The signs are somehow familiar and we have to discern them. If we are attentive, in ourselves and in our parishes, communities and associations, so many spiritual gifts and charismas suggest the growing presence of the kingdom. But we must distrust of the clamor for its arrival. The final radiance of the day of the Son of Man will be without possible confusion. For now we are, in sufferings and persecutions, silently spreading the kingdom with Jesus.
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