Week 11: Passages 541-582

Our readings for today cover passages 541-582.

We continue with the mysteries of Jesus’ public life:

The Kingdom of God is at hand
After John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee and preached the Gospel. He gathered men into the family of God, the Church, the seed of the kingdom. By his death and Resurrection he would accomplish the coming of the kingdom and draw all men to himself.

The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God
Everyone is called to enter the kingdom by accepting Jesus’ word. The kingdom belongs to the poor and the lowly. To them the Father reveals what is hidden from the wise. Sinners are invited to conversion. The invitation comes in the form of parables.

“Through his parables he invites people to the feast of the kingdom, but he also
asks for a radical choice: to gain the kingdom, one must give everything.
Words are not enough; deeds are required. The parables are like mirrors for man:
will he be hard soil or good earth for the word? What use has he made of the
talents he has received? Jesus and the presence of the kingdom in this world are
secretly at the heart of the parables. One must enter the kingdom, that is,
become a disciple of Christ, in order to ‘know the secrets of the kingdom of
heaven.’ For those who stay ‘outside,’ everything remains enigmatic.” (CCC
546)

The signs of the Kingdom of God
Jesus performed miracles to show that he is the Son of God. Some accused him of acting by the power of demons. Jesus freed some individuals from the earthly evils of hunger, injustice, illness, and death, but he came not eliminate these evils but rather the greatest evil: sin. The coming of God’s kingdom means the defeat of Satan’s.

The keys of the kingdom
Jesus chose twelve men to be with him and assist him in his mission. Peter holds a special place, because of his faith he became the rock on which Jesus built his church. Jesus gave the authority of the church to the apostles and in particular Peter, to whom he gave “the keys of the kingdom.”

“’I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on
earth shall be bound in heaven.’ The power of the keys designates authority to
govern the house of God, which is the Church. Jesus, the Good Shepherd,
confirmed this mandate after his Resurrection: ‘Feed my sheep.’ The power to
‘bind and loose’ connotes the authority to absolve sins, to pronounce doctrinal
judgments, and to make disciplinary decisions in the Church.” (CCC 553)

A foretaste of the Kingdom: the Transfiguration
Jesus reveals his divine glory on the mountain, and also that in obedience to the Father he must suffer and die to enter into his glory. At Jesus’ baptism he revealed the mystery of our first regeneration (baptism) and at the Transfiguration he reveals our second regeneration: our own Resurrection when our bodies will be like his glorious body. It is also a reminder that we enter the kingdom of God through persecution.

Jesus’ ascent to Jerusalem
Jesus attempts to gather the people of Jerusalem around him, but he weeps when they reject him.

Jesus’ messianic entrance into Jerusalem
Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem manifested the coming of the kingdom and the Messiah. Jesus comes with humility, riding on a donkey, and is welcomed by the poor and by children. Their acclamation of “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” is repeated in the Sanctus of the Eucharistic Liturgy.

Article 4 “Jesus Christ Suffered Under Pontius Pilot, Was Crucified, Died, And Was Buried”
The Paschal mystery is the center of the Good News.

“Faith can therefore try to examine the circumstances of Jesus’ death,
faithfully handed on by the Gospels and illuminated by other historical sources,
the better to understand the meaning of the Redemption.” (CCC 573)

Paragraph 1. Jesus and Israel
In many ways Jesus’ words and deed were a “sign of contradiction” for the Jews, particularly the Pharisees. Jesus seems to be acting against the following essential institutions:

• submission to the whole of the Law in its written commandments and, for the Pharisees, in the interpretation of Oral tradition;



• the centrality of the Temple at Jerusalem as the holy place where God’s presence dwells in a special way;



• faith in the one God whose glory no man can share.

I. Jesus and the Law
Jesus came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. Only he could keep the whole Law perfectly, he came to redeem all those who could not. In Jesus, the Law is no longer written in stone but “upon the heart”.
Jesus taught with divine authority, he clarified and perfected certain aspects of the Law, which did not make him popular with Jewish leaders. I found this detail interesting:

“Going even further, Jesus perfects the dietary law, so important in Jewish
daily life, by revealing its pedagogical meaning through a divine
interpretation: ’Whatever goes into a man from the outside cannot defile
him…(Thus he declared all foods clean.). What comes out of a man is what defiles
a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts…’”
(CCC 582)

Questions for Reflection:

• What jumped out at you from these readings? Is anyone still with me?



• CCC 559 describes Jesus’ messianic entrance into Jerusalem and states that the “subjects of God’s kingdom on that day are children and God’s poor”. In our own faith how can we be more like children and God’s poor?



• St. James says, “Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” (CCC 578) Yikes, what a kick in the pants, eh? That’s a wake-up call for me, as I know I have the tendency to get complacent about my sinfulness since I don’t commit any of the biggies: adultery, murder, etc.