In several Gospel readings this week, Jesus tries to convey a sense of the Kingdom of heaven by analogy. The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field…the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls…the Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown in the sea…the Kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household…and so on.
Jesus uses a lot of real world analogies. That he does serves as an important reminder to us. While there is an other-worldly aspect to Kingdom – true and actual union with God, “heaven” – it is also the case, as Jesus says from time to time, that the Kingdom of God is right here, right now.
In the words of Beatrice Bruteau in The Holy Thursday Revolution, “The kingdom of God is not something in the far future that is going suddenly to come down from heaven and settle on you and magically turn everything right. You yourselves are It. It’s in you and among you; you have to do It or It will never come.”
That realization is one that ought to inspire us to action right here and right now.
Creo en Dios! 