Gospel Reflection for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

30th July – What is the Kingdom of God like?

Through last Sunday’s gospel, Jesus described the Kingdom of God in several different ways; the Kingdom of God is like a small mustard seed and the Kingdom of God is like yeast. This Sunday, Jesus continues to talk about and describe God’s Kingdom using more images and symbols.

Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of God is like a treasure buried in a field. The Kingdom of God is like someone looking for rare and precious pearls. When one such pearl is found, the person who finds it sells everything to own this priceless gem.

What are we to make of this today? Over the centuries, there have been countless kings, queens, generals and even dictators who claimed to have biggest and most powerful of kingdoms. In many of these cases, these ‘kingdoms’ have been gained through war, battles and much loss of life. These kingdoms were often maintained through fear and oppression. This is not the sort of Kingdom Jesus is describing or the kingdom he came create and establish.

It is worth noting that nowhere in the gospels does Jesus call it his Kingdom; it is God’s Kingdom. God’s kingdom is not built on power, but through peace. It is not about fear, it is about faith. God’s Kingdom is built on justice, mercy, forgiveness, compassion and concern for the poor. God’s Kingdom is not a physical place somewhere; we won’t find on any map. God’s Kingdom is about relationships; God’s relationship with us, and our relationship with each other. Jesus reminds us of this when says, love each other as I love you.

The Kingdom of God is about how we live our lives with each other as followers and disciples of Jesus. We are called to promote and build the Kingdom of God here and now as we prepare to enter into the fullness of the Kingdom at the end of time. But the challenge and responsibility is for us to be people of light where there is darkness, to be people of hope where this despair and to be people good news where there is fake news. The work of building God’s Kingdom begins here and now.

If I don’t help to build God’s Kingdom who will? I don’t do it here, where will I do it? If I don’t do it now, when will I?

As missionary disciples, each of us is called not only to be a member of God’s Kingdom, we are also called to do all we can to promote and build it. We are called to build God’s Kingdom, not our own, and this Kingdom will have no end.

• Michael Moore OMI