Thursday in the 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, November 10, 2022

Luke 17, 20-25

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.”

“Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come.”  The modern Christian may read these words and at once think that they refer to the end of the world, but that was not what the Pharisees were asking Jesus about.  According to their understanding, the Messiah sent by God would rise up from the tribe of Judah and proclaim the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel.  He would then lead his armies against the Roman occupiers and secure independence for the kingdom.  The end of the world and a great judgment would follow the Messiah’s thousand year reign.  The Pharisees were asking when the Messiah would rise up to do this.  They asked him this knowing that he had spoken of himself as the Son of man, the Messiah, and that large numbers of people believed that he was indeed the Messiah.  Perhaps the Pharisees were trying to get Jesus to reveal his plans to them, since they did not believe that he was the one to restore Israel.

The Lord’s reply would have disappointed them because he did not answer the question they intended to ask but the question which they did ask.  In this way he directed them to reconsider what the term “the Kingdom of God” meant.  “The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ ”  The Lord is explaining here that they should not conceive of the Kingdom in vulgar, materialistic terms.  “For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.”  The Greek word translated here as “among” has the primary meanings of “within” and “inside”.  The Lord could mean how those baptized in his Blood would become members of his Body in an invisible but very real unity. That would explain the choice of “among”.  Or, he could mean that the sanctified soul may be understood as the “Kingdom of God” in that it is entirely subject to God’s rule.  His main point was that it did not mean the restoration of the earthly kingdom of Israel.

“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.”  That is, during the persecutions, specifically that endured by the believers after the stoning of St. Stephen.  Many of the first Christians expected the Lord to return during their lifetimes and when this did not happen they must have suffered a terrible trial of their faith.  “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.”  The expectation of the Lord’s early return expressed itself in rumors so that groups of Gentile converts wondered if he had already come back and taken the just to heaven — and they had missed the event (2 Thessalonians 2, 2).  The Lord urges those who believe in him to wait calmly for him.  “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.”  Thus will be fulfilled Isaiah 40, 5: “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”  

“But first he must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation.”  The Lord ends this lesson by speaking of the rejection of the Messiah by the people he came to save, pointing out to the Pharisees that the Messiah is not who they have decided for themselves that he is.  The Lord thoroughly upends their vision for the Kingdom and the Messiah who would come to establish it.  

We pray for the grace to be ever more firmly bound to the Body of Christ that we may share in the joys of his Kingdom when he comes again.