The kingdom of God is here

Realize that we live for God and with God.

Surely each of us will remember our childhood times when our parents read us fairy tales. In almost every story, it took place in a certain kingdom. In it, the king rules his subjects, the army helps him, and certain laws must be observed for there to be peace in the land in the kingdom.

Jesus also mentions the kingdom in today’s gospel. It is at the beginning of its public ministry, and its first statements include the words, “The kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15). What kind of kingdom is this? Who rules in it, and what laws apply here? Before we talk about the kingdom of God, it is important to note the first part of the sentence: “The time is fulfilled” (Mark 1:15).

Dear brothers and sisters! What can be fulfilled? For example, the vessel, the dam’s reservoir, and the riverbed are filled with water, but not the river itself, because it is still flowing. Something similar seems to apply to time. We can fill an hour with fun, a year with study, life with good deeds. But time as such goes on. He was in front of us, and he will be after us. But will it be eternal? The Bible teaches us that God is the Lord of time. He is the one who creates things and people and gives everyone some time to fulfill the task God has given him. The people of Israel also got their time: from Abraham to Christ. This time is filled with the great works of God: the election of Abraham, the deliverance from Egypt, the sending of prophets. All of this was sufficient preparation in God’s eyes for the Jews to be able to receive Christ.
Therefore, the Old Testament had its time to come. Jesus Christ is born, and the kingdom of God came to earth in his person. While the Old Testament received participation in God’s kingdom through faith in one God, the faithfulness of the covenant, and the hopeful expectation of the promised Messiah, Jesus announces, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). The kingdom of God is already here on earth, not just after death or at the end of the ages. To fulfill the will of the Father, Christ established the kingdom of heaven on earth. And the Father’s will is to elevate people to participate in God’s life. He does this by gathering people around his Son, Jesus Christ. This congregation is the Church, which is the seed and beginning of God’s kingdom on earth.
The program of God’s kingdom is all-embracing love. Let’s not just love half. Let’s love, let it hurt. Because to stop when love begins to happen, or rather not to start at all, because it costs something, would mean not to love at all. This love is a stone that the builders of the worldly kingdoms rejected, but which became the cornerstone of God’s Kingdom. The power of love is indomitable, “for he who falls on the cornerstone will be broken, but he whom he falls on will crush him” (Mathew 21:44). So if we are the bearers of this stone, we are not at all as defenseless as it seems at first glance. We are weak physically, but spiritually we are strong. We are strong if we strive to build the kingdom of God, but we are weak if we want to build the kingdom of this world instead. Finally, let us believe that if we seek to spread the kingdom of God and his righteousness, everything else will be added to us (cf. Luke 12:31).
The kingdom of God is a reality that already exists and works, even though it has not yet reached its fullness. Its full implementation will not be until the next age. From this, we can conclude that man’s vocation on earth is to know God, love him, glorify him, do good deeds, and thus build God’s kingdom already here on earth and expect his future fulfillment in eternal life. We are to fulfill this mission where we stand because the place God has given us is so sublime that it is not allowed to leave it. It is in this environment that we love and enable the kingdom of God to be known to others and spread it further.

Jesus speaks of many parables in the gospel of God. He likens it to a mustard seed that grows into a tree, to a leaven that a woman takes and mixes flour into three measures and lets, and treats hidden in the field, to a merchant who collects precious pearls, a fishing net that catches various species caught in the sea. Fish. What does this mean for us? We are to seek, grow, and be a good seed, that is, to surrender to the sower of Jesus, bear fruit, be leavened, serve, multiply values, and be the light of the world. From these values, I would choose one, the search phenomenon.
First and foremost, we are to seek the kingdom of God. Jesus is calling us to the Kingdom, and it is our duty to seek Him. Searching should be one of our primary activities. Many of those who consider themselves good believers commit one of the greatest sins of pride. It is the pride of the feeling that they own all the truth and live an almost perfect life together with the accepted faith. They are reminiscent of a “perfect” Pharisee who thanked God that he was not like other people, nor was that toll booth (see Luke 18:11). Jesus was opposed to such arrogance and superiority, for he condemned this Pharisaic “perfection,” which the Council reveals its merits, to the eightfold “Woe to you …!” (Mt 23: 13-33), which contrasts so sharply with the eight beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of heaven ”(Mathew 5: 3). Jesus says this blessing in the first place and not in vain. It is a basic rule for understanding the kingdom of God. Only he will truly believe God, who will give up everything. The poor in spirit have placed all their confidence and security, peace, hope, and joy on God and his word. The poor in spirit are not unwise. They are the ones who are always ready to receive; attentive people who know how to hear others who can receive lessons from both the greatest sinner and the fighting atheist. They are honest seekers of truth who do not condemn the enemy but strive to understand what leads them to their attitude.

I have found no better example of how to live the kingdom of God today on earth like Mother Teresa. Although the figure of a tiny woman, a heart full of love. We could characterize her as a manager of love, and which the whole world, no longer communist but consumerist, needs as salt. She with padded sandals on her bare feet, only with a small scarf and a thin sweater – directly radiated the fire of love from her. At the same time, she attributed everything in her life to God. He says: “Everything was the work of God. Nothing in my work. I am absolutely convinced that it is the work of God that I am alive. ” Jesus was the king of her heart; he acted through her. She was poor in spirit, so the kingdom of God lived here on earth. We ask how? She attached great importance to sacrifice, which serves the kingdom of God more than long work, learned speeches, or discussions.

In his letter to the Romans, the Holy Apostle Paul reminds us, “The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” we will find and understand with a pure heart. If we want to have a pure heart, we must make Jesus the center of our lives and make sure that this decision marks everything we do. , make Jesus the king of your heart. And then we will know the kingdom of God here on earth. We will understand and experience that it is not just a fairy tale, a fantasy of priests and the Church, but a reality that we will not be able to oppose.