IN OUR HEARTS

Thursday of the 32nd Week in Ordinary Time
Lk 17:20-25

When we look around us, we see so much evil. Terrorism lurks at almost every corner. Graft and corruption seem to be our national scourge. Oppression and violation of human rights continue. Poverty and starvation are perennial reasons for crime and even death of the many. Total annihilation of the human race by nuclear warfare is a constant threat. Sin is within and without us.

In the midst of all these, Jesus proclaims today, “The kingdom of God is among you!” But if the kingdom of God is among us, why all these evils? Where is that kingdom that Jesus points to?

The kingdom of God is in our hearts. It is in us rather than we are in it. It awaits our discover and we discover it only when we allow the innate goodness in us to take hold of our lives. It makes its presence felt each time we make others loved. The more we love the more that kingdom establishes itself in the world. Our refusal to surrender in despair to the evils around us reveals that that kingdom is far greater than any malevolence. The kingdom of God is among us because it is in us.

When we spend all our time and energies predicting the end of the world, we miss the whole point about the second coming of Jesus. The second coming of Jesus has already began and continues to progress. He comes each time we love. The criteria against which we shall be judged at the end of the world will reveal that Jesus, after all, has always been in our midst in the person of one another.

The kingdom of God is among us. The kingdom of God is in each of us. We are that kingdom because we are God’s dwelling places.

A boy looks intently on a sculptor finishing his work on a huge block of wood. He asked the sculptor, “Sir, how did you know that there is a lion inside that wood?” The sculptor turned to the boy and replied, “Son, I saw the lion first in my heart before I saw it in this piece of wood.”

See that lion in your heart! See the kingdom of God in your heart! See God in your heart. He is in our midst.