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| Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini |
“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.
Jesus isn't on our schedule.We should be on his instead. We rightfully long for the time when Jesus will come to set things right. We long to see swords turned to plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. We long for the blind to see, the hungry to be fed, and the captives and oppressed to be set free.
When we long to see one of his days but we do not see him we are tempted to run off and say "'Look, there he is' or 'Look, here he is.' toward natural solutions to the problems of the world. It is like believing that science could one day create an earthly paradise. It is like believing that medicine could make us happy, healthy, and immortal. It is as though human ingenuity could solve every problem. We may not believe lies so blatant as these. But we do believe them in some smaller ways. We are quick to prioritize the easily attainable natural remedies to worldly problems. We hope in the solutions they offer while our hope for heaven and the kingdom is vague and abstract.
This is a problem for us because we have a hard time believing that "the Kingdom of God is among you" and that it will one day come in fullness, "as lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other". If the Kingdom is already here, why do we have to wait and hope for more to come? Why not all at once? And so we work to try to bring it about all at once no matter what it takes. We don't really hope for the world to come, for the end times, for the reward of the righteous. On the other hand, if the Kingdom is yet to come, what can we do now? Maybe we should just eat, drink, and be merry. If the Kingdom is yet to come, why not indifference toward this present age? This indifference eventually leads us distract ourselves so much from this present age that our hope for the coming Kingdom grows dim.
How do we hold these two ideas about the kingdom at once? We need to realize that "if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you" (cf. Rom. 8:11) We are supposed to live now by the power that ultimately comes from the resurrection of the dead. And what does that mean, really? It doesn't mean that we get sick less or anything like that. It means that we are free from futility.We are no longer those "who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying" (cf. Heb. 2:15) Hope gives meaning to the hear and now. We are doing more than just working against some inevitable entropy and futility. We aren't just making art in the sand at low tide when we build the kingdom. The kingdom of God is among us. It is a kingdom which, though not yet come in fullness, will never pass away.
We learn to see things from a kingdom perspective rather than a worldly point of view. We take Paul's advice to "set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God." (cf. Col. 3:1) Because he takes his own advice Paul is able to see the Kingdom at work in the world. Instead of seeing Onesimus as a slave he seems him as a brother and fellow member of the kingdom.
Perhaps this is why he was away from you for a while,
that you might have him back forever,
no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother,
beloved especially to me, but even more so to you,
as a man and in the Lord.
Let us find our help in the God of Jacob. Because his Kingdom is both now and not yet we need to trust in his goodness. He sees our suffering. As much as we long for the fullness of the kingdom he longs for it still more. Jesus tells us that the Kingdom is among us. But he wants it to penetrate to the depths of our hearts. He wants it to be within us. This is a time of freedom when he will make our hearts like his own, if we let him.
The fatherless and the widow he sustains,
but the way of the wicked he thwarts.
The LORD shall reign forever;
your God, O Zion, through all generations. Alleluia.
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