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Christ commanded his Apostles to go and proclaim: The Kingdom of heaven is AT HAND.
He commanded them also to work the SIGNS of the Kingdom: Cure the sick, raise the dead ... drive out demons.
The Kingdom of heaven is AT HAND and is to hold winning, healing, saving
sway over the world of both flesh and spirit.
And yet Christ also told his Apostles NOT to expect to win.
He told them today:
Whoever will NOT receive you or listen to your
words—
GO OUTSIDE that house or town and shake the dust
from your feet.
By the measure of mere men, Christ died a
lawbreaking LOSER on a cross,
despite his proclaiming that the Kingdom of heaven
is AT HAND, despite
his curing the sick, raising the dead and driving out demons.
And then when he rose from the dead, he did NOT go and show off in his killers’
faces that he was The Real Winner.
Furthermore, he would not let his Apostles think
that they would see the Kingdom of heaven win at last on earth even though they
saw him raised from the dead.
When the hour came for him to ascend into heaven
in their sight, they asked him if it was THEIR
turn to be winners now: Lord, are you
at THIS time going to restore
the kingdom to ISRAEL? [Acts 1:6]
No, for he answered: It is NOT for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has
established by his own authority. [Acts 1:7]
Then he said his last words before going into
heaven in their sight: you will be
my witnesses ... to the ends of the earth. [Acts 1:8]
They would be witnesses OF and LIKE Christ, all
but one of them DYING as LOSERS in the eyes of the men of the
kingdoms of EARTH.
And so, as for the Kingdom
of HEAVEN, we will not see our own full and everlasting WIN over all sickness, death and demons
until Christ the King returns on the day of
judgment.
Here in his Eucharistic Body and Blood, we are to
eat and drink a share of oneness not only with his Resurrection, Ascension and
Return, but also a share of oneness with his SUFFERING AND DEATH.
So we pray our Father in heaven: thy Kingdom come ... lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from evil.
We pray also as the Roman Missal has the priest pray quietly moments before he consumes
the Eucharist:
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God,
who by the will of the Father
and the work of the Holy Spirit,
through your Death gave life to the world,
free me by this, your most holy Body and Blood,
from all my sins and from every evil;
keep me always faithful to your commandments,
and never let me be parted from you.
Turn. Love. Repeat.
