November 16, 2017

Gospel: 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:
“The Kingdom of God is within you“ says Jesus in our gospel reading. Immediately it tells us that God‘s kingdom is not a territorial jurisdiction. It is within us. It is in our heart, when we allow God to reign and to rule our hearts. It is within us when we allow Jesus to walk with us and we decide to walk with Him wherever, whenever and whatever he wants to. In the Lord‘s Prayer, we pray “hollowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as in heaven.“ God‘s kingdom is where God‘s will is perfectly done on earth as in heaven.
Sometimes, we are graced to experience God‘s kingdom. In intense prayer, where there is nothing but quiet, wherein we are so possessed by God and we so possessed God, we experience real peace and joy that can never be compared with anything. It is an exclusive presence of the ME and my God. For me this is a foretaste of God‘s kingdom. It is so sweet an experience with a God who loves us most.