Episode Transcript
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Welcome to the Blessed Sacrament Homilies podcast where our mission is to help everyone recognize and experience the presence of God. We hope you are nourished and encouraged by the Word. Thank you for joining us.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: The Lord be with you and with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John. Glory to you, O Lord.
Pilate said to Jesus, are you the King of the Jews?
Jesus answered, do you say this on your own or have others been telling you about me?
Pilate answered, I am not a Jew. Am I your own nation? And the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?
Jesus answered, my kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.
So Pilate said to him, then you are a king.
Jesus answered, you say, I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Early on in my priesthood, a friend of mine came to a morning mass and afterwards we were having breakfast and he was talking to me and he said, you look when you're up there like you never feel awkward or uncomfortable. And I said, yeah, that's probably true. And he said, you should.
Okay, well, that's good to hear.
But I think we all have times and moments in our life sometimes, frequently, where we feel awkward, a little out of place, or a bit unsettled and we can't quite figure out why that is. Why do I have this bit of discomfort?
Well, this gospel gives us a pretty good answer for where that comes from. It comes from the fact that we are not of this world.
We are in the world. We participate in the things of this world, but we are of something greater.
And that something greater is the kingdom of God.
And the kingdom of God is not in a far off heaven. It's not somewhere we hope to go to.
But the kingdom of God is here. But it's a process. And we're not in the fullness of the kingdom of God. We are far from it.
But when the fullness of God's kingdom comes into fruition, that's the time we're going to feel comfortable because it's where our citizenship lies with Christ as king.
Now, the thing about the Kingdom of God that we always have to remember is that each one of us have been given a role to play in the kingdom of God. And not only a role to play, but a task to perform to bring the kingdom just a little bit closer by our work and by our presence.
And you can ask, well, how in the world can I do that? How can I put my brick on this structure that's the kingdom of God?
Well, you can do it. We can do it.
Every time we act as if we are of another world, meaning that when the world teaches us to be selfish and hoard more for ourselves, we do the opposite. We are generous and giving when the world tells us to ignore the suffering of others, and instead we are merciful and compassionate, we're doing our part when we love without counting the cost.
We're doing our part, in other words, when we are doing absolutely everything that Christ does for us on a daily basis. When we do those things back for the world, the kingdom gets a little bit closer. Now, it may take millions of years for that fullness to come into effect, but to know and recognize that it is a continuum, a journey that we're a part of is a pretty special gift. So it's okay for each one of us to feel a little awkward and a little out of place because we're working to make everybody feel exactly where they belong.
