Grounding the Kingdom of God

A few years ago, I read through the parables of the Kingdom of God in Matthew 13. Jesus described the Kingdom with several familiar images—the mustard seed, the pearl of great price, a fishing net, and more. In that reading, the depth of Jesus’ parables floored me as I reflected on them. Our Lord’s descriptions of the Kingdom were many things at once: deep and accessible, challenging and inviting, exciting, and scary.

When considering the mystery of the Kingdom, we have more paradoxes to consider. We have a king in Jesus, but He reigns from heaven. In this world, the normal trappings of a kingdom are missing—borders, lands, and a flag. Yet the Kingdom of God dwells collectively on the earth in the Church and individually in the hearts of every believer. All the baptized have become dwelling places of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Those in the Kingdom have the great command to love our neighbor as well as to fight against evil in the army of the Church Militant. However, this army does not fight with conventional weapons of war. She engages the enemy with prayer, sacrifice, and “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6).

There is no more important task right now than to join Christ and His Kingdom on earth. Unfortunately, in my experience, the Kingdom of God has often been reduced to vague “love one another” sentiment. Whatever the intentions behind it, it usually amounts to doing whatever one pleases. The Kingdom has nothing to offer the world if that is her message. With some grounding in the Kingdom of God, however, we can see that Jesus offers us earthly and eternal rewards.

The Kingdom in Parables

The parables in Matthew 13 portray the attributes and actions of the Kingdom. Jesus invites all, as seen in the parable of the fishing net which “gathered fish of every kind” (v. 47-48). The root of the Kingdom is the Word of God, as in the parable of the sower. It is capable of exponential growth, as in the parable of the sower (v. 3-9, 18-23) and the parable of the mustard seed (v. 31-32). In the pearl of great price and the treasure hidden in the field, the Kingdom shows to be priceless beyond measure, to the point of giving up everything to gain it (v. 44-46).

The offer is universal, superabundant, and of eternal value. One of the main ways that Jesus delivers this offer to humanity is through the Church.

The Kingdom in the Church

One of the first actions of Jesus’ public ministry was to choose apostles and send them on a mission. That is, the Church was not an after-the-fact invention of men; Jesus instituted it from the early days of His ministry (Catechism of the Catholic Church #551). The disciples were sent out to preach the Kingdom, heal the sick, and drive out demons (Luke 9:1-6). At the Ascension, Jesus sent them again, this time urging the apostles to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).

As the parables in Matthew 13 illustrate, the Church does not exist for its own sake. It is a sacrament to the world, meant to incarnate Christ among humanity. Msgr. Ronald Knox viewed the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven as the incarnational and sacramental activity of the Church in the world. “The tree takes something from its surroundings; takes nourishment from the earth and the moisture and the sunlight, and so grows bigger: and the Church… takes the souls of men from the world and incorporates them into herself. The leaven gives something to its surroundings, infects them with its own life; so the Christian gospel… communicates to mankind its own spirit of discipline and its own philosophy of life” (In Soft Garments, pg. 167).

The Kingdom and the End Times

One of the prominent themes of a few of Jesus’ parables on the Kingdom is their eschatological character. This is why Jesus instituted His Church. The Kingdom is not only meant to aid us in life but also usher us through the End Times all the way into heaven. The parable of the wheat and weeds (Matthew 13:24-30) has a harvest, separating, and rewarding. That corresponds to the end of the era, the judgment of the righteous and wicked, and assigning each their eternal destinations (Matthew 13:36-43). Later in Matthew’s gospel, three successive parables deal with the judgment of souls (chapter 25). Rather than being doom and gloom, this is a key part of the good news. Whether we see the End Times ourselves or die before they come, our time on earth will end. Our lives matter and what we do matters. Even more than that, they have eternal significance.

The Offer of the Anti-Kingdom: the World, the Flesh, and the Devil

Standing in the way of the Kingdom of God is Satan, who has despised humanity from its creation. Satan aims to turn us away from God to the point that, at our judgment, we refuse God’s mercy and the thought of asking for it. In the theological tradition of the Church, these have been grouped into the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Satan has succeeded in gaining a huge foothold in our culture in the form of moral relativism, which encompasses all three temptations. It claims that the only truth is that there is no truth. That inherent logical contradiction does not matter, since truth does not matter. The Evil One proceeds to build his case off that foundation: eternity does not matter and the three most important people are me, myself, and I. In order to live that way, we need to amass possessions, maintain a life of pleasure, and gain enough power to insulate ourselves from pain and suffering. God gets shoved out of the picture, or worse, is relegated to yet another “servant” of the ego.

If we live our lives in this manner, it will be extremely difficult to choose God over Satan at our judgment. That being the case, God will give us exactly what we want: only ourselves.

The Offer of the Kingdom of God: the Church, the Tabernacle, and Our Lord

In his first Jesus of Nazareth book, Pope Benedict XVI cited the patristic theologian Origen’s outline of the Kingdom of God (pg. 49-50). Origen spoke of the Kingdom as being present in three things: the Church, in each individual believer, and the person of Jesus. These counter Satan’s offer of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Instead of the world, Jesus offers the Church. Unfortunately, the Church today faces immense internal problems and formidable external foes. The task for Catholics today is to get past reasons to leave and look at reasons to stay. We need to look no further than the sacraments. They are unique, powerful channels of grace that enable us to live as part of the Kingdom. Only with the sacraments can we truly be salt and light to the world (Matthew 5:13-14).

St. Paul warns us of the dangers of casting our lot with the flesh. He has multiple lists of sins that will exclude us from the Kingdom. Msgr. Charles Pope compiles them here. “Do you not know,” St. Paul exhorts the Corinthians, “that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?” (1 Corinthians 6:9). He calls out sexually immoral acts of all kinds, heterosexual and homosexual, as well as other capital sins. Staying away from sin is not a question of legalism but of human nature: men and women were made for grace, not for sin. Instead of focusing on pleasure, Jesus asks us to be a tabernacle. Grace gives us the capacity to be the dwelling place of God on earth and temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19).

Instead of power, or worshipping the devil, Jesus offers us communion in His Mystical Body. Rather than a descent into ourselves, Jesus gives us the chance to ascend to the eternal communion of love in the Holy Trinity. At our judgment, if we choose the mercy of Christ and the Holy Trinity’s offer of eternal beatitude, God will give us everything: Himself.

The Conquering Kingdom

St. John Henry Newman has a beautiful prayer that asks Jesus,

Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus!

Having Jesus shine in us can only be accomplished through a life of prayer. We speak to a friend who knows us intimately. Union in prayer is the capstone and foundation of leading a holy life. And, quite honestly, remaining in the Kingdom against the world, the flesh, and the devil is impossible without prayer.

As the world sprints away from God and it becomes harder to lead a holy life, we need the reminder that St. Paul gave to the Ephesians.

We are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (6:12).

On our own, we are impossibly outmatched. When we offer our lives to the Kingdom of God, however, “we are more than conquerors” for nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:37-39).