The Kingdom Of God
by Miriam Hogan, O.C.D.
Every day we say the Our Father and pray “may your Kingdom come.” For what are we asking? What is God’s Kingdom and how does it apply in our Postmodern world views? Further, when we go to read Scripture what do we understand by the notion that Christ came to proclaim the Kingdom of God? In this article I will briefly trace how the Kingdom has been understood by Pope Benedict XVI and some of our Carmelite Saints.
In his book entitled Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI devotes a chapter to “The Gospel of the Kingdom of God.” In fact he points out that, “the core content of the Gospel is this: The Kingdom of God is at hand. A milestone is set up in the flow of time; something new takes place”…Referring to scripture he notes that “the phrase ‘Kingdom of God’ occurs 122 times in the New Testament as a whole; 99 of these passages are found in the three Synoptic gospels, and 90 of these 99 texts report words of Jesus.” (p. 47) Yet, even within the recorded words of Scripture there are different ways used to explain the meaning of the Kingdom. To give a few examples in the New Testament, Jesus states in parables the example of the mustard seed, the leaven, the treasure.
Further, there are different dimensions to our interpretation of the Kingdom. Pope Benedict strongly favors the Christological dimension. Simply put, Christ is the Kingdom in person. The Kingdom of God is the presence of God among us and within us.
Another dimension that is mentioned is the mystical interpretation. This does not take us away from Scripture for, as Pope Benedict notes: “The saints are the true interpreters of Holy Scripture.”(p. 78)
St. Teresa of Jesus, in The Way of Perfection, states that “it is good, daughters, that you understand what you are asking for in the Our Father so that if the Eternal Father should offer it to you, you would not scoff at it.” In the same text Teresa goes on to explain the contemplation that goes with vocal prayer. “He gives us a clear foretaste of what will be given to those He brings to His Kingdom. And to those to whom He gives here below the Kingdom we ask for, He gives pledges so that through these they may have great hope of going to enjoy perpetually what here on earth is given only in sips.”
I Know From Experience
In The Story of a Soul, St. Thérèse writes that: “I know from experience that ‘the Kingdom of God is within you.’ Jesus has no need of books or teachers to instruct souls; He teaches without the noise of words. Never have I heard Him speak, but I feel that He is within me at each moment; He is guiding and inspiring me with what I must say and do. I find just when I need them, certain lights which I had not seen until then, and it isn’t most frequently during my hours of prayer that these are most abundant but rather in the midst of my daily occupations.”
St. John of the Cross, in his Prayer of a soul taken with Love, rejoices in the presence of God in the soul and owns all that belongs to God:
Mine are the heavens
and mine is the earth.
Mine are the nations,
the just are mine and mine the sinners.
The angels are mine,
and the Mother of God, and all things are mine;
and God himself is mine and for me,
because Christ is mine and all for me.
Finally, the third dimension, or way of interpreting the Kingdom, Benedict calls “ecclesiastical: the Kingdom of God and the Church are related in different ways and brought into more or less close proximity.” (p.50) This aspect of understanding the Kingdom is also usually operative or lacking in our social and political realms. This dimension can be considered the “goal of history” and include the “common task of building the ‘Kingdom,’ a world, in other words where peace, justice, and respect for creation are the dominant values.” (p.54) Sometimes this third dimension becomes so emphasized that the first and second dimensions are ignored and the Kingdom of God becomes merely the Kingdom of human beings.
“When Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of God, he is quite simply proclaiming God, and proclaiming him to be the living God, who is able to act concretely in the world and in history and is even now so acting” (p. 55) Returning to the question of prayer, we are invited to unite our prayer with the prayer of Jesus and sip of the newness of God’s life in and among us now, as we entrust both our personal and collective lives to a personal and almighty God. Once again, looking to the future, even past Postmodernism, we ask “Lord, teach us to pray.”
__________
Main Reference: Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth. trans. Adrian J. Walker, (Doubleday) 2007
Other quotes are from various Carmelite sources as indicated.