Finding the Kingdom, 32nd Thursday (I), November 11, 2021

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Sacred Heart Convent of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Thursday of the 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of St. Martin of Tours
November 11, 2021
Wis 7:22-8:1, Ps 119, Lk 17:20-25

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click here: 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• The Pharisees in today’s Gospel asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God would come. They were doubtless asking this within messianic expectations, presuming that the kingdom of God would erupt through fulfilling the Jewish hopes of evicting the Romans from Israel and reestablishing the Davidic throne. In the question, they were probably egging Jesus on to see whether he thought he was the Messiah and what his future plans might be. But Jesus, as he is wont to do, transcended the question. He said that the inauguration of the Kingdom wouldn’t be a spectacle to be observed. There wouldn’t be trumpets sounding. There wouldn’t be heralds indicating that the kingdom is “here” or “there.” Rather, Jesus said, “Behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.”
• This means, first, that the Kingdom had already come because the King was present. The Kingdom is where the King is and Jesus was already present. Second, the Kingdom had already come because some people had already embraced it, entered it and were living in it because they were living with the King. There’s a couplet in the Our Father in which we pray, first, “Thy kingdom come!” and then repeat it in other words, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The Kingdom of God is wherever God’s will is done, whenever one begins to live in relationship with God and his kingdom. Jesus reveals to us various other qualities about his kingdom and the conditions for entering it and living in it. He says that the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are “poor in spirit,” to those who treasure God more than all the treasures of the world. He says that it belongs to those who “convert and become like little children,” who trust in God and accept it as a gift. He says that the kingdom is like a “wedding banquet” full of joy and those who live in the kingdom are those who are profoundly and serenely joyful. He says the kingdom grows like a mustard seed or yeast, imperceptible to people on the outside but the growth is real. Third, Jesus says that we should look for the kingdom and the King not just “among” us on the outside, but the Greek preposition can also mean “within.” We should seek to find the King and the Kingdom in ordinary life, in the gentle whisper, rather than in the earthquakes, hurricanes, and firestorms.
• Cardinal Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, said very powerfully in a 2000 talk to catechists from around the world, “The kingdom of God … is ‘not a thing.’ The Kingdom of God is God. The Kingdom of God means: God exists. God is alive. God is present and acts in the world, in our – in my life. God is not a faraway ‘ultimate cause,’ God is not the ‘great architect’ of deism, who created the machine of the world and is no longer part of it – on the contrary: God is the most present and decisive reality in each and every act of my life, in each and every moment of history.” The kingdom has come to a person when God is truly God of each and every act of one’s life.
• Once we’re living in the kingdom in this way, all of life begins to change. We become more and more a reflection of the King we’re serving. In today’s first reading, we hear “Wisdom” described with a waterfall of 21 adjectives. All of these predicates can be said of the God-man who incarnates wisdom and the way the Holy Spirit, who is likewise wisdom, seeks to fill us with the gift of wisdom. When we’re living in the kingdom, we become increasingly:
  • Intelligent — capable literally of “reading between the lines of” situations and finding God and his kingdom;
  • Holy — meaning cut off from the profane, from earthly kingdoms, and “heavy” (qadosh) with God’s way of looking at things;
  • Unique — there’s nothing like God’s kingdom and nothing we wouldn’t trade anything for it;
  • Manifold — expressing itself in so many ways in our life;
  • Subtle — showing itself in even the most ordinary and hidden of ways and making us capable of acting with humility;
  • Agile — coming to us from numerous directions and helping us get beyond obstacles;
  • Clear — filling us with light and the clarity that comes from God’s simplicity;
  • Unstained — unalloyed with mixed motives, but desiring to live blamelessly;
  • Certain — giving us a great security even in the midst of earthly uncertainty;
  • Not baneful — helping us not to become thorns in others sides but helpers;
  • Loving the good — because we see it and desire it;
  • Keen — because we’re eager to have others liv by God’s wisdom;
  • Unhampered — because we’re not carrying around the weight of our sins and earthly desires;
  • Beneficent — because God’s wisdom makes us see the charity others need and gives us the desire to do it, knowing wisely that it’s through giving in this way that we will be happy;
  • Kindly — behaving it in a way in which someone feels loved and sees the beauty of goodness;
  • Firm — because we are strengthened by the truth;
  • Secure — living in such a way that people can depend on us and build their lives on us;
  • Tranquil — because things are in order and we’re at peace;
  • All-powerful — because we wisely recognize that we can’t do anything on our own but can do all things in Him who strengthens us;
  • All-seeing — because even when things remain mysterious, we look at them with the eyes of faith and can see Christ in each circumstance;
  • Pervading all spirits — because God’s kingdom is wherever his kingdom is, wherever his Spirit is and is received;
• When we live in this way, we become like the “aura” of God, a “pure effusion” of his glory, a “refulgence” of his light, a “spotless mirror” of his power, an “image of his goodness,” and “fairer than the sun.”
• Someone who showed us how to live in the kingdom, somehow who was known for a life of wisdom featuring so many of these attributes just described, is Saint Martin of Tours whom the Church celebrates today. St. Martin was the son of a pagan army officer and was brought into the Roman army as a teenager. His conversion story is famous. He was stationed to Amiens in the north of France and was on patrol duty one frigid night when he saw a shivering, lightly clad man begging for alms near the city gate. Martin was shocked that no one was giving this man assistance. Martin had no money on him; all he had was his horse, his armor and his own clothes. But he dismounted, took out his Roman lance, and — “beneficent” and “kindly” — cut his military cappa in two, covering the beggar with half and wearing the other half himself. Later that night, Jesus appeared to him in a dream dressed in the half of the cape given to the beggar, teaching Martin that whenever he cared for, whenever he served, anyone else, he was caring for Christ himself. He was a catechumen at this point but immediately sought and received baptism. Knowing that he could not fully live the Gospel and live by the principles of the Roman army any longer, he soon left the army, put himself under the charge of St. Hilary of Poitiers and began a life of prayer as a hermit, which is how he lived for more than a decade. In 371, the Christians of Tours demanded him to be ordained their bishop. There his faith grew as he cared for the various spiritual and physical maladies of the age. He fought ferociously against the paganism of the territory and against the false wisdom of heresies in Christianity. He traveled throughout his enormous diocese by foot, on a donkey or by boat. Even when it was clear that his ascetical life, age and hard work were catching up with him, he kept on going. There was a controversy in the parish of Candes because of disputes among priests and he wanted to visit to help remove the sin from their midst. Those around him tried to prevent him, saying he would likely die on the way. But he was living in the Kingdom, living with the King, and was unafraid. He turned to the Lord and said, “Lord, if your people still need me, I am ready for the task. Your will be done.” He went and reconciled the priests and people. He knew the end was near and informed them that he was about to die. As he lay on his death bed, they wanted to turn him around to prevent bedsores, but he said, “Allow me to look to heaven rather than at earth, so that my spirit may set on the right course when the time comes for me to go on my journey to the Lord.” His whole life post conversion was summarized by the way he finished, trying to set his spirit on the right course and to journey with the Lord. That is the life of the kingdom, where one becomes intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, agile, clear, unstained, certain, good, keen, beneficent, unhampered, kindly, firm, secure, tranquil, powerful and perceptive!
• Today, we come to welcome the King within us and we ask for the gift of wisdom always to remain aware of him and consciously in communion with him so that we will always dwell in his kingdom. The Kingdom of God and the King is at hand!

The readings for today’s Mass were:

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