What is the Kingdom of God? Justice, peace, righteousness, holiness, joy.
Romans 14:17. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Where is the Kingdom of God? Within us. Amidst us.
Luke 17:21. When asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God will not come with observable signs. Nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is,’ or ‘There it is.’ For you see, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
When is the Kingdom of God? Here and Now. Incarnation.
As above, so below.
On earth as in heaven.
As within, so without.
“Thy Kingdom come.”
The finite manifests the infinite, and the physical is the doorway to the the spiritual. In other words, all you need is right here and right now--in this world. This is the way to that! Heaven includes earth.
Kingdom of God = Heaven = Union with God. Heaven is not a place, but a state of life.
We are Kingdom workers. But not our efforts. Only God can give growth. Blessed Oscar Romero states: “Every now and then it helps us to take a step back and to see things from a distance. The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is also beyond our visions. In our lives, we manage to achieve only a small part of the marvellous plan that is God’s work. Nothing that we do is complete, which is to say that the Kingdom is greater than ourselves. No statement says everything that can be said. No prayer completely expresses the faith. No Creed brings perfection. No pastoral visit solves every problem. No programme fully accomplishes the mission of the Church. No goal or purpose ever reaches completion. This is what it is about: We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that others will watch over them. We lay the foundations of something that will develop. We add the yeast which will multiply our possibilities. We cannot do everything, yet it is liberating to begin. This gives us the strength to do something and to do it well. It may remain incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way. It is an opportunity for the grace of God to enter and to do the rest. It may be that we will never see its completion, but that is the difference between the master and the labourer. We are labourers, not master builders, servants, not the Messiah. We are prophets of a future that does not belong to us.”
On earth as in heaven.
As within, so without.
“Thy Kingdom come.”
The finite manifests the infinite, and the physical is the doorway to the the spiritual. In other words, all you need is right here and right now--in this world. This is the way to that! Heaven includes earth.
Kingdom of God = Heaven = Union with God. Heaven is not a place, but a state of life.
We are Kingdom workers. But not our efforts. Only God can give growth. Blessed Oscar Romero states: “Every now and then it helps us to take a step back and to see things from a distance. The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is also beyond our visions. In our lives, we manage to achieve only a small part of the marvellous plan that is God’s work. Nothing that we do is complete, which is to say that the Kingdom is greater than ourselves. No statement says everything that can be said. No prayer completely expresses the faith. No Creed brings perfection. No pastoral visit solves every problem. No programme fully accomplishes the mission of the Church. No goal or purpose ever reaches completion. This is what it is about: We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that others will watch over them. We lay the foundations of something that will develop. We add the yeast which will multiply our possibilities. We cannot do everything, yet it is liberating to begin. This gives us the strength to do something and to do it well. It may remain incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way. It is an opportunity for the grace of God to enter and to do the rest. It may be that we will never see its completion, but that is the difference between the master and the labourer. We are labourers, not master builders, servants, not the Messiah. We are prophets of a future that does not belong to us.”
Jesus is the Way—he’s not standing in the way!
Your job is simply to exemplify heaven now. God will take it from there. Here is the remedy when you find it hard to exemplify heaven now: Let love happen. Remember, you cannot “get there”; you can only be here. Love is just like prayer; it is not so much an action that we do but a reality that we already are. We don't decide to “be loving.”
Why should I be uncomfortable with sin? Whether in me or in the other.
The shape of evil is much more superficiality and blindness than the usually listed "hot sins." God hides, and is found, precisely in the depths of everything, even and maybe especially in the deep fathoming of our fallings and failures. Sin is to stay on the surface of even holy things, like Bible, sacrament, or church. God is everywhere and always and scandalously found even in the failure of sin.
Nothing can stop God from loving us. God’s love does not depend on the faithfulness or the worthiness or the holiness of the object. He loves. That’s all. He is love itself. God does not love you because you are good. God loves you because God is good.
God loves you precisely in your obstinate unworthiness… God totally loves you.
God cannot not see his Son Jesus in you. You are the body of Christ. You are bone of His bone, and that’s why God cannot stop loving you. That’s why no amount of effort will make Him love you any more than He loves you right now. And despite your best efforts to be terrible, you cannot make Him love you any less than He loves you right now.
What we can do is to surrender ourselves and enter into this dance of unhindered dialogue, this circle of praise, this web of communion whom we call God, who is love in perfect totality. Let us celebrate this beauty of love, God’s love which is unconditional and unfailing, the love that totally transforms us from within.
Your job is simply to exemplify heaven now. God will take it from there. Here is the remedy when you find it hard to exemplify heaven now: Let love happen. Remember, you cannot “get there”; you can only be here. Love is just like prayer; it is not so much an action that we do but a reality that we already are. We don't decide to “be loving.”
Why should I be uncomfortable with sin? Whether in me or in the other.
The shape of evil is much more superficiality and blindness than the usually listed "hot sins." God hides, and is found, precisely in the depths of everything, even and maybe especially in the deep fathoming of our fallings and failures. Sin is to stay on the surface of even holy things, like Bible, sacrament, or church. God is everywhere and always and scandalously found even in the failure of sin.
Nothing can stop God from loving us. God’s love does not depend on the faithfulness or the worthiness or the holiness of the object. He loves. That’s all. He is love itself. God does not love you because you are good. God loves you because God is good.
God loves you precisely in your obstinate unworthiness… God totally loves you.
God cannot not see his Son Jesus in you. You are the body of Christ. You are bone of His bone, and that’s why God cannot stop loving you. That’s why no amount of effort will make Him love you any more than He loves you right now. And despite your best efforts to be terrible, you cannot make Him love you any less than He loves you right now.
What we can do is to surrender ourselves and enter into this dance of unhindered dialogue, this circle of praise, this web of communion whom we call God, who is love in perfect totality. Let us celebrate this beauty of love, God’s love which is unconditional and unfailing, the love that totally transforms us from within.
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