By Ishongkun Kurbah csc –
Readings: Wis 7:22-8:1; Lk 17:20-25
In the gospel, the Jews asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming because they had been longing for liberation from the rulings of the Roman empire. They wanted to be freed from the oppression of Roman power. They had been waiting for a Messiah, who would free them from their bondage and give them political freedom. Answering their question Jesus said, ‘The Kingdom
of God is among you.’
The Pharisees and the Jewish leaders failed to recognize the Messiah who was standing among them as ‘Jesus’. Throughout his life, Jesus had been trying to liberate them from their hypocrisy and their extreme way of observing the laws to the extent of forgetting the needs of the poor. If they changed, they could have experienced the Kingdom of God, which would bring peace and in their personal life and in the community they lived in. We too long for the Kingdom of God. All of us want a peaceful and joyful life in an equal and just community.
In our prayer for our departed ones, we pray, ‘Lord grant them eternal bliss,’ all of us cravingly wait to experience that peace and joy that will exist forever. However, we also see and experience conflict and pain in our lives. We see violence, rape, murder, oppression against women, children and the powerless, and conflict in families amidst us. We all ask, ‘When will the kingdom of God come?’ The answer is the same, “The Kingdom of God is among you.”
As we pray in Our Father, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we must do the will of God, be merciful, forgive, love, share, and care for one another in our families, in our neighbourhoods and in society. As believers of Christ, it is our mission to realize the Kingdom of God here on earth, in our hearts first, in our families next and let it spread to the entire community. It is a battle that we have to keep on fighting, so let us pray to God to grant us the strength to go on.