Tuesday of the First Week of Lent
The other day I was wondering, what is the “good news” that Jesus is always telling his disciples to go and proclaim? When I think of the good news (the gospel), I think of the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the forgiveness and healing that flow from it. But when Jesus was telling his followers to proclaim the good news, he hadn’t died and rose yet. So, what was he talking about? What was the good word?
I was praying the Luminous Mysteries and found it hiding in plain sight. Jesus gives his disciples a brief message to proclaim: “Tell the people, ‘The Kingdom of God is at hand! Repent and believe the good news!’”(Mark 1:15)
Did you miss it like I did? It’s the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is the good news. It’s here, and it’s coming. And it’s that simple. I can’t help but notice, today’s reading from Isaiah doesn’t say, “My essay,” or “My book,” or anything complicated like that. “My Word will achieve the end for which I sent it.” The Kingdom of God is expressed in just a few words. No wonder Jesus is so forcefully telling his followers not to babble on and on, like the pagans! All those words just get in the way! They tie people’s minds up in knots and distract from the simplicity of the Kingdom.
So we pray, “Thy Kingdom Come.” The Kingdom of God; where God’s love and justice is the only law; where we only need to be who we know the Spirit is moving us to be. “When the just cry out, the Lord hears them” (Psalm 34). Today, let’s resist the urge to rationalize our behavior or get distracted with the beautiful idea of the Kingdom. Instead, let us hear the Word, and act upon it. Simple. Amen.
- Chris Nieport