Friday of the 34th week in Ordinary Time
Readings of the day: Revelation 20:1-4, 11-21:2; Psalm 84:3, 4, 5-6a, 8a; Luke 21:29-33
Readings of the day: Revelation 20:1-4, 11-21:2; Psalm 84:3, 4, 5-6a, 8a; Luke 21:29-33
What are and will be the signs of God’s
Kingdom reaching its fullness? What will last beyond these so-called “end
times”? These are two of perhaps many questions to which our readings today
give rise.
What are and will be the signs of God’s
kingdom reaching its fullness; of God’s final judgment? The Book of Revelation
gives us terrifying images of the final judgment: The imprisonment, short
release, and then final defeat of Satan; those who have given their lives for
Christ reigning with Christ “for a thousand years” (for eternity, in the
symbolic language of Revelation); “the sea” and “Death and Hades” giving up
their dead for judgment; the book of life and the pool of fire…
Our Gospel reading from Luke presents us
with much more gentle and peaceful images of the end times than does
Revelation. Jesus compares the blossoming of the fig tree, the beginning of
summer, to the coming to fullness of God’s Kingdom. More importantly, Jesus
says, the signs of God’s Kingdom are discernible in the present: “When you see
these things happening, know that the Kingdom of God is near.” Our Psalm
response we have prayed today is even more to the point: “Here God lives among
his people.”
What are and will be the signs of God’s
Kingdom reaching its fullness? What are the signs of God’s Kingdom here and
now; signs of God already living among us, “his people”? God’s Kingdom is most
present to us in the peace of our prayer. It is in the celebration of the
Eucharist and the other sacraments of the Church. God’s kingdom is present in
the gentle coo of a child; grandchild; great-grandchild; in our time with
parents; grandparents; great-grandparents. God’s kingdom has been present in
our recent celebration of Thanksgiving. God’s kingdom is present in nature; in
our winter landscape. God’s kingdom is present in our help to a person in need;
in someone helping us in our need; in a kind or encouraging word we have spoken
or heard. Perhaps we are to be signs of God’s Kingdom, already present and yet
coming to fullness among ourselves, here and now.
What are and will be the signs of God’s
Kingdom? “Here God lives among his people.” What will last beyond the “end
times”? Jesus says in our Gospel reading, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but
my words will not pass away.” In Revelation John sees “a new heaven and a new
earth… the holy city, a new Jerusalem” descending “out of heaven.”
What will the
decisive coming to fullness of God’s kingdom look like? Will it be like the
terrifying images of Revelation, or the gentle signs of which Jesus speaks in
our Gospel? Nobody knows for sure. But we know that “here God lives among his
people.” We know that Jesus’ “words will not pass away.” We are entrusted with
being Christ-like in our words and actions among one another. We are to be
signs of God’s kingdom coming into its fullness, here and now; signs, words,
presence, and actions that “will not pass away.”
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