Thursday of Week 32 of Ordinary Time – Gospel
Commentary on Luke 17:20-25
Jesus was asked by some Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come. In their mind, it was a definitive time that would be suddenly realised by the arrival of a triumphant Messiah-King. Jesus says it is not going to be like that at all. The Kingdom cannot be found by looking around for telltale signs so that you can say it is ‘here’ or ‘there’.
No, says Jesus:
…in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.
Not only is it “among” them, it is right in front of them! It is first of all in the very person of Jesus, who is the embodiment of God’s Reign. He is the Messiah-King. He is the living incarnation of God’s loving power revealed in his authoritative teaching, in his many healings of the sick, in his freeing of those from the power of evil spirits, and in his compassion for the sinner and the outcast. All are clear evidence that the reign of God “is among you”.
In every age, including our own time, there are people who get worked up about the ‘final coming of Christ’. But, instead of focusing on a date in the calendar, we should be focusing on the realities of our everyday lives where, to those with eyes that see, the reign of God can easily be discerned working in other people’s lives and in our own. Wherever people are reflecting in their lives the vision of life—the values that Jesus revealed to us—the Kingdom is there. And such people are not confined to the Church. They can be, and are found, everywhere.
Jesus then turns to his disciples, telling them they :
…will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.
In the very early Church, many were convinced that Jesus would make his final coming during their own lifetime. It is likely that, from time to time, certain events were interpreted as signs of that final coming. People were saying, “Look there! or Look here”…i.e. he is to be found in this place or that. But by the time Luke’s Gospel was written, many in that first generation of Christians had already died and there was still no sign of Jesus’ coming.
The ‘days’ following his expected coming may have all the more been longed for during times of severe persecution, when they looked for relief and help from their pain. An anxiety is reflected in the story of the disciples’ trying to wake a sleeping Jesus while their boat is threatened by mountainous seas (see Mark 4:35-41).
Jesus says that, when his day does come, it will be:
…as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other…
It will be both sudden and everywhere. In the meantime, Jesus:
…must endure much suffering and be rejected by this generation.
These words clearly refer to his own suffering and death, but can also be applied to the whole Risen Christ, including the Church, his risen Body, into our own age.
So, on the one hand, the reign of God is already here among us, and we need look no further than the daily experiences of our own lives to know and experience the power and presence of Jesus. On the other hand, the time of that final coming which “will wipe every tear from [our] eyes” and be the end of all suffering and rejection is not for us to decide—nor to be anxious about.