Thursday in the 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, November 12, 2020

Luke 17:20-25

For those looking for a solid critique of the recently released report on the utterly disgraced former Cardinal McCarrick, go to the website for The Wanderer newspaper.  This paper was exposing the crimes of people like Howard Hubbard, Rembert Weakland, McCarrick, and Joseph Bernardin back in the 1980’s and ‘90’s. 

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.”

St. Paul tells us, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard: neither has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2, 9).  This refers both to heaven and to the spiritual life in the present world of a person in love with God.  Belonging to God through baptism, his adopted child, in fact, this blessed one follows the divine will and even rejoices in suffering persecution for his sake (cf. Acts 5, 41).  The Lord Jesus does not deliver lectures or draw schematics on the nature of the Kingdom of God which consists of heaven and union with God.  Whatever could be said about it would not suffice to give even the well-disposed more than a hint of its reality.  Because of this, the Lord turns to metaphors and parables to talk about it.

The very material-minded Pharisees insist on a very material Kingdom of heaven and so they ask the Lord, when it would come.  They do not see it, and so it must not have come yet.  They have decided that Jesus must be speaking of the restoration of Israel and its independence from foreign rule.  The Lord’s answer would not have made them happy: “The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ ”  The Greek text actually says, “The Kingdom of heaven does not come with [or, “after”] watching.”  This means that we cannot force the Kingdom to come, but neither will we see it come.  The Lord then explains, “The Kingdom of heaven is within you.”  Now, the Greek εντός can mean “within”, but also “inside”, “among”, and “in the midst”, among other things.  Some biblical translations go so far as to translate this phrase as “the Kingdom of God surrounds you”, which is incorrect.  The Venerable Bede sums up the opinion of the Fathers by saying that this phrase means that the Lord reigns in the heart of a man by his faith.  

“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.”  The Lord speaks on another occasion to his disciples here, perhaps after the Pharisees have melted away after his answer to their question.  “One of the days of the Son of Man” refers to the time in which the Lord will return to judge the living and the dead.  This will inaugurate the reception of the fullness of the Kingdom of God for the elect.  “You will long” for the Lord and for his judgment because of the rampant evil upon the earth.  This brings to mind the beatitude, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill” (Matthew 5, 6).  Indeed, all of the beatitudes will be fulfilled at that time.  “But you will not see it”, that is, the Lord will come in his good time, not ours.  “There will be those who will say to you, ‘Look, there he is,’ or ‘Look, here he is.’ ”  These would be the spiritual descendants of the Pharisees who desire a physical kingdom of Israel, as well as frauds and fools.  Later, the Lord will tell them, “If any man shall say to you, Lo here is Christ, or there: do not believe him. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets” (Matthew 24, 23-24), and, “But of that day and hour no one knows” (Matthew 24, 36).  “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.”  His coming will be sudden, unexpected, and unstoppable.  It will also be exhilarating for some, and terrifying and destructive for others.

“But first he must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation.”  The Lord reminds his disciples of his coming Passion, and locates the time of the judgment, the time of the fullness of the Kingdom, at some point after this.  “Rejected by this generation” does not mean simply the Jewish leadership of his time, as the “generation” extends from the time of the Lord’s Conception until the time when he comes again.  When he returns, he will confront those of this generation who rejected him and send them off to suffer greatly from the consequences of their rejection.  And st that time those who longed for him will experience that which the Lord has promised to those who love him.