Homily for the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time, July 30, 2023. Gospel of St. Matthew 13:44-46. Theme: More Precious Than Treasures and Jewels!
As with last Sunday, so t0day we are hearing some of Jesus' parables about the kingdom of Heaven. He preached and taught more about this topic than anything else. The kingdom was at the heart of His message and He talked about it in so many ways, saying such things as, "...the kingdom is upon you...the kingdom draws near....the kingdom is in your midst...the kingdom is within you..." Every miracle Jesus worked was also related in one way or another to this central theme. His awesome deeds of healing the sick, expelling demons and raising the dead were unmistakable signs that the kingdom was bursting into human history and God was coming to the rescue of His people. So as disciples of Jesus it’s vitally important for us to understand what He meant by the "kingdom of Heaven '' or its more common alternative expression, the “kingdom of God”.
I think it’s easiest to first of all say what He does not mean. Jesus was not referring to a kingdom in the sense of a geographical territory or really to any kind of a physical place. Nor was He talking about the Heaven that we think of as our dwelling place in the afterlife. As a matter of fact, Jesus Himself never even called it the kingdom of Heaven. Those words come to us from his apostle, Matthew. You see, when Matthew wrote his Gospel for Jews who had accepted Jesus as the Messiah, he respected their custom of not speaking or writing the word “God”. They considered it too sacred to be used by humans. So, Matthew substituted it with the word Heaven. But the three other Gospel-writers (Mark, Luke and John) all call it the “kingdom of God” because that is what Jesus actually called it.
So, in any case, what precisely does the kingdom of God mean? This is not an easy question because Jesus Himself never gave us a clear answer! Instead He spoke about the kingdom by using metaphors and parables. But put most simply, the kingdom of God means that in and through Jesus, God was vanquishing the kingdom of darkness by conquering the rule of sin, Satan and death in the lives of those who turn to Him. And entering or possessing the kingdom means that we have chosen to enthrone God as Lord and King of our hearts. It means that we have made an intentional choice to remove ourselves from being the center of our existence and have taken up a new way of thinking, a new way of living that is different from what we were before entering the kingdom.
Jesus invited all kinds of people to enter into this kingdom and begin living in a right relationship with God. He reached out to the most devout Israelites as well as to the more notorious public sinners. He welcomed both Jews and Gentiles and made no distinction whatsoever among them because He said that God looks at the heart of a person and not at who they were or where they came from. And so Jesus taught that no one was to be denied entrance into the kingdom if they were willing to heed its entrance requirements. He spelled out these conditions for membership in the kingdom right at the beginning of His ministry when He said “The kingdom of God is at hand. So repent and believe the gospel.”
Thus, the first entrance requirement to the kingdom is that we repent, which means to have a change of heart, a reorientation in our attitude. We make a real effort to give up ways of thinking, speaking and behaving that are not compatible with Christianity. We begin to think differently about God, about life and about our place in this world than we did before entering the kingdom. We begin to receive the Sacraments with a new sense of devotion realizing that they deepen the kingdom of God within us. We look to the Gospel for light as to how we can best live out our relationship with God and neighbor and how we can help others learn about Jesus and enter the kingdom as well.
The second response Jesus asks of us is that we should believe the Gospel. To believe means to trust and the word gospel means “Good News”. And so we are being invited to have confidence in the Good News proclaimed by Jesus because His words are not those of just a man, but of God Himself Who has come among us in the flesh. And the Good News He tells us is this: that God wants to have an intimate personal relationship with each one of us, no matter who we are or what we are dealing with in our lives. Jesus assures us that the joy of the kingdom of God is something that we can begin to experience here and now and that it will find its ultimate expression in the gift of eternal life.
This is why He tells us today that learning about the kingdom of God is like discovering a hidden treasure or finding a pearl of great price that is worth possessing at any cost!
Jesus gave us the "Our Father "as THE Prayer of the Kingdom!
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