God's Kingdom

Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come,
Jesus said in reply,
"The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed,
and no one will announce, 'Look, here it is,' or, 'There it is.'
For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you."

Then he said to his disciples,
"The days will come when you will long to see
one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.
There will be those who will say to you,
'Look, there he is,' or 'Look, here he is.'
Do not go off, do not run in pursuit.
For just as lightning flashes
and lights up the sky from one side to the other,
so will the Son of Man be in his day.
But first he must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation."
Luke 17:20-25

Reflection:
And he did suffer greatly by that generation, and every generation since. After he died and rose from the dead these words he spoke prior to his suffering, ring loud and true.

How many since his death have done exactly what he said. "Look, there he is." Remember, the story of Emmaus and the two travelers who came across Jesus not recognizing him, until after. Or the few who had seen him and ran to tell the others. What about the time he showed up in a locked room to the apostles, then was gone soon after.

He did an extraordinary thing after his resurrection, just to prove his words to them.

Like us today, how we are slowly removing him from our lives by replacing him with so much worldly goods. Yet in his love for us, he will appear occasionally to say look, I am with you stop rejecting me.

How many times has he done something for each of us to reinforce his love, to let us know how truly close he is. Yet we are made in the image and likeness of God, and look how often we reject people we see daily. How at times we deem those less fortunate as worthless. Yet as in the first reading we are told otherwise.

How often do we smile at strangers who look as if they would beat us up. Not many I'm sure. After all, we are afraid that would happen.

I just remembered something about a young man who I had the opportunity to work with. He had gone to jail for something or other. Well anyway, this young guy looked like an angry one most of the time. So one time I said something to him that just happened to bring a smile to his face, and I'll tell you it transformed him. So I told him he has a smile that lights up a room. Afterwards, every time I saw him he would smile brilliantly. I thank God for showing me the kingdom of God through this young man. Just as Jesus had said, you never know when he might appear in a flash like lightning. From a gloomy face to a brilliant smiling one, we see him.

If only we stop rejecting him in all we come across.