Sixth of Year B - Salvation-The Kingdom of God
February 2009
It bothers me no end that some of you are still trying to merit or earn the Kingdom of God.
You continue to question and doubt the sheer goodness, generosity and mercy of God.
God our Father does not ask us to earn or achieve or merit his Kingdom.
God our Father invites us to participate in ‘his Kingdom.’
(Example of the difference between paying at the door to enter and being invited in to participate).
‘Salvation’ is here. The ‘Kingdom of God’ is among us.
This is what the miracle cures, the casting out of demons by Jesus, was meant to show.
We are invited to participate in this Kingdom.
What is salvation? What is the Kingdom Of God?
Salvation; the Kingdom of God; is the total wellbeing of each one of us physically and spiritually.
This is only brought about by the existence among us of the forgiveness, acceptance and love of God, which comes to us through human beings like you and I.
Where this exists, where people are striving to live in this way; there salvation exists; there the Kingdom of God has come.
Such people are saved; such people belong to the reign of God; such people live in the Kingdom of God.
How does this happen?
We human beings have separated ourselves from the love and mercy of God by our sins; that is by our egotism, our self-seeking, our self-will, our self-advantage, our self-importance, our striving for autonomy from God.
These sins are the power of evil. In place of unity and sharing comes aggression, loneliness and isolation. Everything falls apart in meaninglessness.
But when the ultimate source of all reality; God’s love, forgiveness and generosity, re-establishes itself and comes to power in any group of people, then this is the Kingdom of God. For such people the world is restored to order and salvation.
How do I achieve this?
This is my first big mistake. I cannot achieve it.
In the ‘sermon on the mount’ I read “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
This is my answer.
Those who can participate in the ‘Kingdom of God,’ are ‘the poor in spirit.’
Who are ‘the poor in spirit.’?
As I understand it ‘the poor in spirit’ are those who realise that anything in this world cannot satisfy their true needs. They are suffering from this poverty of spirit which they are helpless to do anything about. They have come to realise that their own efforts to achieve salvation are an exercise in vanity. They have come up against the limits of the world and its possibilities. They have come to realise that they can expect nothing from the world or from themselves. Now they look towards God and cast themselves upon God. They are beggars before God. Only from him can they expect help. This realization of my inability to achieve salvation by my own efforts, coupled with total trust in the love and goodness of God, is the door to ‘salvation‘; the door to the ‘kingdom of God’.