The question posed to our blessed Lord and Savior by the Pharisees, in which
they asked him when the kingdom of God would come, is a question
about fulfillment. The Jews anticipated the restoration of the
kingdom and hoped, as the Pharisees did, that the Romans would be driven out and
they would become a free and mighty nation once again. But our Lord's answer
to the question goes well beyond any kind of restoration in this world. Our
Lord is answering about final things, about the final question of our
eternal destiny. And so he had to begin by correcting their idea that this would
be some temporal kingdom, some grandiose defeat of the Romans and of all the
enemies of the Jews. So he says the kingdom of God cannot be observed. And in
the Greek, the word that means cannot be observed there, actually more accurately
translated, cannot be observed, cannot be observed, cannot be observed, cannot be
would be anottled in to what this title says as the Lord,sale it
translated is, without outward show, it's not going to be spectacular, it's not
going to be something that is put down in the history books. Of course, we know
in the end the last judgment the coming of our Lord at the end of time will be
the real end. But our Lord goes on to say that, for behold the kingdom of a God is
of a god is among you some translations say within you because it's here and now theologians
say we live in the already and not yet kingdom of god is already among us we're already experiencing
the final things we already have the promise of eternity and yet on the other hand we we know
we're still in the veil of tears and our the mystery that we experience more often is the
cross and not so much the resurrection and so our lord is trying to correct this error on the part
of the pharisees and encourage them to look within to recognize the presence of the kingdom already
and
and
and you know this is um our constant struggle you know people live in the world today as if there is
no kingdom as if there will be no end no consequences it's bishop sheen used to point
out that in the east under the soviet empire that there was this theoretical atheism you know
militant atheism being pushed
you know
right and left we have a bit we have our fair share of it here in the west but more often what
we have is practical atheism we believe in god but we act like we don't and this of course is
what we experience throughout our culture in the education system in the media everywhere we go
people behave and act as if there is no kingdom nothing beyond this world no consequences
to our actions
today we celebrate the feast of saint nicholas tavalek and his companion martyrs three martyrs
nicholas peter and stephen and their story is very similar to the stories of many other
friars franciscan friars who went to preach the gospel in the holy land like saint berard
companions and saint daniel and companions and there are many others they they went to the holy land the supreme priest HA digitize F건 Monk
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with every expectation of dying a martyr
and every desire to die a martyr.
They went there to preach the gospel
and to give their lives for Christ.
And they got their example, of course, from St. Francis,
who attempted to make it to the Holy Land,
I think, on three occasions
and only made it on his third try.
And his goal was to die a martyr in Egypt,
and that didn't happen.
And he tried to convert the emir there.
And this man was so enamored with St. Francis
that he was very impressed.
And he didn't convert,
but he didn't want to kill St. Francis either.
The story goes that in the end he did convert,
but he did so later in life
because he was afraid of losing his life
as he would have if he had converted openly.
But after the example of St. Francis,
many of the early Franciscans went to the Holy Land
in view of the kingdom,
realizing that the presence of Christ was already with them
and that they wanted to give this presence,
this kingdom, to everyone,
to preach it, the coming of Christ,
and that the ultimate judgment will be dependent upon
whether we accept him or not.
With every expectation, as I said,
that they would...
that they would suffer martyrdom.
If we think about the martyrs and their motivations,
what led them to this kind of behavior,
what gave them strength and courage
to do this seemingly without fear,
you know, in fact,
Nicholas and his companions told...
told the Qadi,
the man, the leader of the Muslims,
that they were not afraid.
It doesn't matter what you do to us.
We will not renounce our faith.
We have come here to tell you
that the only way to heaven
is through Jesus Christ.
It's because they possessed the kingdom.
It's because they possessed Christ within them.
It's because they had his grace.
And they treasured that above all things.
You know, so we have to recognize the kingdom
and the world in which we live.
We'd always like to find things to be different
than they are,
better than they are,
than they are, holier than they are, around people that were more cooperative and accepting
of God's favor and of his mercy, but we live in the circumstances in which we live and
we must find the kingdom of God there and be willing to choose Christ above all things
and to suffer whatever it is God sends us in order to be faithful to him.
In the book of Wisdom, we hear about Wisdom, she's personified as a woman, you know, fairer
than the sun, who surpasses every constellation, compared to light she takes precedence.
For that indeed night supplants, but wickedness prevails not over Wisdom.
Wisdom will always prevail, she is always pure and holy and resplendent.
And the Wisdom that God gives us is...
is the Wisdom to put love over everything else.
We're able to assess everything around us by the charity of Christ and recognize that
everything that we've been given, our purpose for being here, is about loving our Lord and
not counting the cost.
Sacred Scripture here in Wisdom is used by Holy Mother Church to also personify the Blessed
Mother.
Because, you know, all of us are blessed.
All of us are blessed.
All of us are blessed.
All of us are blessed.
All of these words apply to her as we know, for she is an hour of the Might of God, and
a pure effusion of the Glory of the Almighty.
Therefore not that it is sullied enters into her.
These are all applied to our Lady, because she is truly wise.
She chooses God above all things.
She chooses the kingdom that's been given to her before anything else.
And she is free, immaculately free, from all sin.
Then we have then...
the wisdom of the martyrs so that we recognize that the kingdom of God is within us and that
it can't be taken from us except by our own willing to be separated from the Lord through
sin. God's wisdom is his power and he sends his mother as our protector to help us be like
Saint Nicholas and companions be willing to give everything out of love for Christ recognizing
that his kingdom is with us and is coming and we will see him face to face in heaven for all eternity.
Thank you.