The Kingdom of God Is at Hand
July 8, 2007

Readings for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reading 1: Is. 66:10–14c

Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 66:1–3, 4–5, 6–7, 16, 20

Reading 2: Gal. 6:14–18

Gospel: Lk. 10:1–12, 17–20 or 10:1–9

Link to Readings

By Father Robert Pecotte

Let all the earth cry out to God with joy! For the Kingdom of God is at hand . . . and has been for quite some time now. That’s right; it has been for quite some time. What am I talking about? Aren’t there still wars, disease, and famines on earth? Isn’t evil flourishing in the cities and even on my beloved prairie? Well, yes, but that doesn’t mean that the Kingdom of God isn’t at hand.

Last week we heard Christ call certain men to follow Him in a radical way. Nothing on this earth is to come before God and His call to follow His Son. This week, the call continues with those who have been set apart to proclaim the Kingdom of God. Just as the Son of Man had angelic messengers (the word “angel” means messenger) to prepare those who would receive Him in His Incarnation and Nativity, so now He has human messengers sent before Him to prepare His people for the arrival of the great King. The Lord makes use of both material and immaterial persons, angles and men, because His Kingdom encompasses all of creation, visible and invisible.

When Christians hear the words the “Kingdom of God,” we usually go into what I call “thoughts of heaven autopilot mode.” This in itself is good and natural, for the Kingdom of God is most certainly at hand in heaven. Heaven is where Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of Man, sits enthroned as King over all creation.

The Kingdom of God on Earth

Yet when the Lord sends out the seventy-two ahead of Him (recall Mosses calling the seventy-two to come and share the responsibility for governing over Israel), He sends them to the local towns and villages that He is going to visit. And how are they to prepare the villages and towns? By proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is at hand. The King is on His way. And where the King is, there is the Kingdom.

Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her, all you who love her, exult, exult with her, all you who were mourning over her! Oh, that you may suck fully of the milk of her comfort, that you may nurse with delight at her abundant breasts! (Is. 66:10–11)

Indeed! Let us rejoice, for God has blessed Jerusalem with an abundance of grace and has given all the nations to her. Just as there is an earthly city called Jerusalem, so too a heavenly one. The earthly city is a model or template of that heavenly one. The New Jerusalem is the Kingdom of God on earth, but it is not a city located in the Middle East. It is the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of God present throughout the entire world.

St. Paul writes to the Galatians, “For neither does circumcision mean anything, nor does uncircumcision, but only a new creation. Peace and mercy be to all who follow this rule and to the Israel of God” (Gal 6:15-16). The Christian Church, which is and ever shall be the Catholic Church, is the True Israel of God and the Kingdom of God on Earth. All who dwell in the security and peace of His Kingdom on earth shall be forever united with Him in the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the Church Triumphant.

Grace Through the Sacraments

Indeed, God has blessed His Church superabundantly in the temporal and spiritual order. His principle gift is the sacramental life of the Church, through which all His children who inhabit the New Jerusalem receive the milk of her comfort. Where else are God’s gifts more abundantly bestowed than in the Church? Where else can we find the sure and certain refuge but in our mother’s arms, within the sheltering embrace of Holy Church? Holy Mother Church is where all of our tears are wiped away and where God gives Himself to His people and dwells ever present in their midst!

When Christ sends out the seventy-two, he sends them out empty-handed but empowered by the Son of God to proclaim the Kingdom of God. They proclaim the Kingdom of God through the spoken word and accompany it by signs to show forth the work of God by curing the ill and casting out demons.

Christ still empowers His priests with the same gifts, but in an even more abundant way. They are untied to Him in a sacramental bond that transcends nature and unites them to Christ Himself.

The baptized are healed of the power of sin and death by entering into a mystical union with God in Jesus Christ’s own person. They are thereby restored to His Kingdom and can benefit from the blessings and graces the are abundantly poured out upon the New Jerusalem. Through the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, we find Christ’s healing presence within the Church, both for the body and soul. I, myself, bear witness to these miraculous powers of healing, having witnessed them with my own eyes.

Mary, the mother of Christ, is the sole donor of His body, for she conceived the Christ by the Holy Spirit. When we come to Holy Communion we share in the milk of her comfort: As she nursed Christ and fondled Him in her lap, so our Mother Mary comforts us in Her Son’s Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. God bestows the soul and He is Divine in His nature, but Mary offers her body to form the body of her Son. This is the gift we receive every time we come to the altar of the Lord.

Receive Christ’s Message

All those who receive the messenger and His message receive Him who sent them. They are therefore able to be freed from any and all demonic bondage. This is the gift of peace bestowed upon His beloved: that they are no longer held by sin and death and are able to be released from demonic bondages. This principally takes place through the Sacrament of Confession, in which we bring what is empowered by darkness into the light of Christ. It may also take place through deliverance prayers and, if necessary, through the Rite of Exorcism.

Those who do not receive the messengers of God do not receive Him and are therefore bound by sin and death. They are more readily possessed by the demonic spirits who seek the ruin of their souls, for they belong to the same kingdom that the Prince of this world rules over. The Prince of this world has been judged and found wanting. His condemnation is complete, and so too is the condemnation of those who live under his rule. “Yet know this: the kingdom of God is at hand. I tell you it will be more tolerable for Sodom on that day than for that town” (Lk. 10:12). Does anyone imagine that it will be good for Sodom on that day? It will be even worse for those who reject the Son of Man!

Yet we do not fear, for we rejoice in Jesus Christ our Redeemer. He constantly offers His blood for our salvation, He is ready to forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, He breaks the bonds of death that shackle us to this world and its ruler. Our joy is made complete, for we know that if we but follow Him, our names are written in the book of everlasting life. None can erase them, for they are written in the Blood of the Lamb upon His Altar by His hand.

Praise Be Jesus Christ, now and forever: AMEN!

Fr. Robert Pecotte is a priest of the Diocese of Fargo, North Dakota.

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