The kingdom of heaven is at hand
Gn 41,55-57; 42,5-7a.17-24a; Ps 32; Mt 10,1-7
10 JULY
Let us read some ancient prophecies. Time flows, but they are slow to complete. It is as if the days were always distant from the good promises and oaths of God.
Then the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you shall be banned from all the animals and from all the wild creatures; On your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel” (Gen 3,14-15). The Lord said to Abram: “Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you” (Gen 12,1-3).
Again the Lord’s messenger called to Abraham from heaven and said: “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you acted as you did in not withholding from me your beloved son, I will bless you abundantly and make your descendants as countless as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore; your descendants shall take possession of the gates of their enemies, and in your descendants all the nations of the earth shall find blessing – all this because you obeyed my command” (Gen 22,15-18). “You, Judah, shall your brothers praise – your hand on the neck of your enemies; the sons of your father shall bow down to you. Judah, like a lion’s whelp, you have grown up on prey, my son. He crouches like a lion recumbent, the king of beasts – who would dare rouse him? The sceptre shall never depart from Judah, or the mace from between his legs, While tribute is brought to him, and he receives the people’s homage. He tethers his donkey to the vine, his purebred ass to the choicest stem. In wine he washes his garments his robe in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk (Gen 49,8-12).
The Letter to the Hebrews, after having recalled all the historical stages in which the Lord’s promise has come to our times and has found full realization, tells us a truth that deserves we place in our hearts. Others were waiting. We possess.
Others endured mockery, scourging, even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, sawed in two, put to death at sword’s point; they went about in skins of sheep or goats, needy, afflicted, tormented. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered about in deserts and on mountains, in caves and in crevices in the earth. Yet all these, though approved because of their faith, did not receive what had been promised. God had foreseen something better for us, so that without us they should not be made perfect (Heb 11,36-40).
Announcing that the kingdom of heaven is near has only one meaning: all the words of God are by now nearing their fulfilment. Only the enthronement of the king is missing, but this will happen on Golgotha in a few days. On the cross the inscription declares it solemnly: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews”. If there is the enthroned King, there is also the Kingdom. With the death of Christ it is not only near, it is in the world. In it one enters with conversion and faith in the Gospel. The Kingdom is announced and people are invited to enter it.
Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus; Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him. Jesus sent out these twelve after instructing them thus, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
Still today, Christ Jesus is on the cross, on his throne, with the inscription that declares him not only the King of the Jews, but the King of heaven and earth, of time and of eternity. But Christians are ashamed to announce Him, Jesus, the King of every man. The shame is so great as to make them declare that both the King and the Gospel and the Kingdom are no longer needed for salvation. Never in history has it come to such shame toward Jesus.
Mother of God, Angels and Saints ensure that Christians preach the kingdom of God with fortitude.