Wis.7:22-8:1/Ps. 118:89-91,130,175 / Luke 17:20-25

We have in our Gospel passage today, Jesus who highlights to the Pharisees who asked Him about the Kingdom of God. The Jews expected that the Messiah, promised by God, would establish a temporal kingdom, wherein the Jewish nation will have an edge over the other nations of the world. So, it is not surprising that Jesus took this opportunity to correct this notion.

The Lord told them that the Kingdom of God was not something that they could see from outside. The kingdom of God would not be localized, it would not be confined to a place, so those who confined the Kingdom of God to a place were mistaken.

The Kingdom of God is a Spiritual entity. Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is within you. The Kingdom of God affects and transforms the hearts, the minds and lives of people. It will transform every individual from within.

Beloved, Jesus in answer to them says “the Kingdom of God is in your midst” So, in what sense is the kingdom of God already among us today? It is among us when the sick and vulnerable are cared for, when people experience God’s favour in and through our lives, when communities formed value and treasure every member. This reminds us that the Lord is present in our lives in more ways than we realize. So, this empowers us through the various sacraments of the Church to live and exist together in harmony and love, living in the manner He himself has taught us, and which we should indeed be inspired and encouraged to follow and adhere to.

Lastly, Wisdom reflects God’s light and an image of God’s goodness. The kingdom of God is among us whenever anyone of us reflects to others something of the light of God’s love, whenever we show ourselves to be an image of God’s goodness. Friends, we are a graced people and the most appropriate response to being graced is allowing ourselves to be transformed from within through the presence of Christ; for where Christ is, there is the Kingdom.