THY KINGDOM COME!

There is one prayer that every Christian knows by heart and that is the Lord’s Prayer. The center of this prayer is the concept of the Kingdom. For example, when we pray the Lord’s prayer, we say, “Thy Kingdom come and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Today as we celebrate the solemnity of Christ the King, it is quite fitting to reflect on the meaning and implication of Jesus’ Kingdom and His Kingship. (Evidently, king and kingship is not an attractive terms in this age of democracy. As people become more and more focused on individual independence, the term kingship does not have any fascination at all. For many people the word King is a synonym for tyranny and subjugation.)

WHAT IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD? It is very different from our popular understanding. The petition “Thy will be done on earth as it is heaven” gives sufficient insights to this question. Kingdom of God is equivalent to heavenly life. Heavenly life is life in the presence of the Lord. This was the life style of the paradise which we lost by human defiance. Therefore, Jesus said to the penitent thief, “You will be with me in Paradise.”

When we are in the Kingdom, we are in the presence of God. This does not mean the disappearance of pain and struggle. The presence of God in our life, however, gives us a new way of seeing things. We are able to see things from the perspective of God. This makes a difference in life. For instance, forgiveness, sacrifice, love and sharing find new values. This is exactly what happened to the ‘good thief’. In the presence of Jesus, he discovered himself in a new way. He brought heaven to the Earth. Therefore, Kingdom of God is not a place or an institution, it is a situation where I allow God to take over my life and replace my plan with God’s plan. It is living as Jesus lived.

WHY IS JESUS THE KING? The Kingdom of God became a complete reality in the person of Jesus. Jesus submitted His life to His Father and consequently He mirrored God in His life. The result was that Jesus and God, the Father became one. Jesus became the way to God, the Father. As far as Jesus is the Way, He is our King.

Jesus was not an oppressive king. His was shepherding. In Jesus’ presence, everyone experienced freedom, life and joy. For Jesus the king the lost sheep never lost His attention. For Jesus neither the prodigal son nor the women caught in adultery was a hopeless case.

PARAMETERS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD

REGENERATION: According to Jesus, what we need is not merely a good example or new teaching but regeneration (conversion). He said to Nicodemus, “Except one is born anew, he cannot see the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3-7). Continuous openness to growth, profound desire to confirm after the image of Jesus and courageous acts to accomplish it, is the principal mark of a person in the Kingdom of God.

EXTRA MILE MORALITY: Jesus said : Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and Scribes, you will not enter the Kingdom of God. Sermon on the Mount explains this new code of conduct. This is a total reversal of secular values. According to this new approach, greatness comes through service and love, not by power and might. “Great people show their strength through forgiveness where as the weak prove their strength through fight under the façade of ‘justice.’

CENTRALITY OF HUMAN PERSON: In the Kingdom of God, we grow from rituals to relationship. Jesus said, “Sabbath is for man and man is not for Sabbath”. Man/woman and his/her needs determine the course of action. Remember how Jesus appreciated the act of the Good Samaritan. (The priest and the Levite ignore the wounded man in view of offering sacrifice with cleanliness.) It is sad to see how these days cats and dogs take the place of human beings!

SHARING AND CARING: “If you want to follow me, sell your possessions, distribute it with the poor and then follow me”, Jesus said to the young man. He returned home sad since he had a lot of wealth. God punished the Rich Man not because he was wealthy but because of his reluctance to share his blessing with Lazarus, the hungry. Zacchaeus found salvation when he decided to share his wealth with others. The criterion for the last judgment is ‘nothing but our willingness to reach out to each other with a sharing and caring hand.” The road to the Kingdom passes through the neighbors’ house.

Religion of the Heart

22nd Sunday in ordinary Time
(Dt. 4:1-8; Ps 15: 2-5; James 1: 17-27; Mk 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23)

Jesus said, “I have come not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.” Very seldom do we see Jesus obeying the Jewish laws. The Bible reported many incidents where he broke the sacred law of the Sabbath. In fact, this was one of the accusations against Jesus.

We cannot imagine a situation devoid of laws। Lawlessness creates chaos. Obedience to the law is the foundation of discipline and discipline is the mother of life. Law creates order and order produces life. The purpose of any law is order and life. A law that does not serve this purpose is not binding anybody. Let me give an example. On our highways and in our cities we have traffic regulations. Traffic rules are for our safety. They are made to help avoid accidents and help save lives. At a red traffic light, we must stop the car. Ignorance of this rule will invite accidents and the loss of life. So we observe traffic rules to save lives. But an ambulance can continue to go ahead even if the signal is red. Why? For, the ambulance may be carrying a patient who is seriously ill. A delay may cause this persons’ death. The ambulance breaks the law to save a life.

The criterion of law is, therefore, whether it protects and or promotes life। Jesus violated the law to heal the sick, to feed the hungry and to save a life. He came so that we may have life. He is life and his activities are life giving.It is not the letter of the law but the spirit of the law that is binding.

On the basis of this discussion we can talk about two kinds of Religion: Religion of the Heart and Religion of the Rituals. Pharisees and Scribes belong to the religion of the rituals. They are happy if the rituals are performed correctly. As they were obsessed with rituals, they missed the core of religion that is relationship. The purpose of religion is to facilitate relationship. Jesus focused on this aspect of religion: Conversion of the heart and the resultant growth in fellowship. So Jesus said’ “What comes out of man make him defiled or undefiled.”

Religion must help us to grow from ritual to relationship. Jesus therefore summarized all the religious laws into a single law: Law of Love. There is only one law for Jesus- ‘Do what is more loving in a given situation.’

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I will be on vacation during the month of September. Reflections will continue in the month of October.
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Test Of Love

LOVE IN ACTION
I know a beautiful story about a couple with whom I personally became very close. Both of them were working in an Income Tax Office. It was at this place where they met for the very first time. Their relationship progressed and developed until it reached the point where both of them considered the possibility of marriage. Just three months before the wedding was to take place, the young man was in a serious accident and he became totally paralyzed. It was a terrible disappointment for the couple and everybody else that knew them. His fiancé stayed with him in the hospital. Her parents tried to persuade her not to do this. No one was, however, able to change her mind. She decided to marry him as they had originally planned. She said: “It wasn’t his body that I loved ... I love him ... I love his person”.

CALL TO LOVE
If there is no love, there is no Christianity. If we don’t abide in love, we don’t know anything about God because God is love. Love is not a quality of God. God is love. Jesus himself underscored this view when he said: ’By your love you will reveal that you are my disciples’. On the sixth Sunday of Easter, we are invited to reflect on this basic principle of Christianity. For example, the second reading (1John 4:7-10) starts with this advice: “Beloved, let us love one another, because God is love; everyone who loves is begotten by God”. Jesus repeats the same message in the Gospel: “As Father loves me, so also I love you. Remain in my love” (John 15:9-17). Therefore, Christian vocation, as St. Therese of Lisieux put it rightly, is a call to love.

LOVING AND LIKING
There is an inner urge in every human person to love and to be loved. Everyone talks about the beauty and fruit of love. In spite of all this talk and excitement about love, everyone finds it difficult to stay in love. Where is the problem? The problem lies in the fact that many of us are confused with the concepts of loving and liking. They are two different realities. Liking is the function of instincts of which we haven’t much control. It is an instinctual behavior. Anything that flows from an instinct is not premeditative. A human Instinct responds to whatever appeals to the senses. It can be looks of a person, the color of an object, the way she/he dresses, a certain manner of behavior, a particular quality of a person and so forth. We subconsciously fall in love with whatever is appealing to the senses. Very often we fall in love with people because of certain fascinations that have a quick impression on the senses. This sort of love ceases to exist as soon as these qualities disappear. Love based on liking alone is doomed to fail because the external appearances are transient.

On the other hand, love is a decision. It is an act of the will (Thomas Aquinas). Therefore even though we may not like someone, still we can choose to love him/her. In genuine love, likeability is only one aspect of many. Likeability definitely makes love easy; likeability makes a person more lovable.

One’s philosophy and vision of life can be a strong factor in loving someone. For example, what inspired Maxmillian Colby to die for a fellow prisoner was the statement of Jesus that “there is no greater love than laying down one’s life for one’s friends.” Jesus could lay down his life for all humanity because he accepted everyone including the prodigal son as members of his family. Even though, we may disagree with someone or do not like certain behavioral patterns of a person, still we can make a decision to love him/her. The decision to love someone helps us to look for the likeability in that person. That in turn changes our attitude towards him/her. This is the challenge Jesus places before each of his followers.

Criteria of Love
Love is an act of will. It is wishing the good of the other as other. Love is sacrificing one’s self to the extent of creating enough space in one’s self for the other. How do we know that we really love someone? What are the parameters of love? Christian love has three characteristics:
1. It is other oriented. The moment you start to think about others and their growth, you have begun to live Christian Love. If your life and activities do not bring happiness and growth to others, yours is not Christian love.
2. Christian Love is action oriented. Love is not an abstract thing. It should take on a concrete form. For example, we make available our time, talents, and treasures to the person we love. In genuine love there is always an exchange of words, an exchange of persons and an exchange of gifts. God so loved us by sending His own Son. Jesus loved us by giving His own Body and Blood. We must show our love through concrete actions.
3. Christian Love is expensive. There is no genuine love without a price or sacrifice. For example, to forgive someone who offended us or to defend somebody whom we don’t like…is really a sacrificial act. The amount of sacrifice that goes along with our concrete actions measures the real depth of our Christian Love!!

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No one is rich enough to do without a neighbor (Danish proverb)
Love your enemies, for they tell your faults (B.Franklin)
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A mother was telling her six year old about the Golden rule.
‘Always remember,’ she said, ‘ that we are here to help others.’
The youngster mulled this over for a minute and then asked, ‘Well, what are the others here for?’ (Christian Herald)

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