WORD 2day: Thursday, 32nd week in Ordinary time
November 16, 2023 - Wisdom 7:22 - 8:1; Luke 17: 20-25
The Reign of God is within you! (Lk 17:21) - this was a statement, they say, that provoked, sustained and gave meaning to Liberation theology in the 70s. Not only that. This was also the teaching that took Jesus to the cross.
What is so provocative about it? To answer that question from the Gospel, we need to listen to the first reading and the psalm. They speak of the Wisdom of the Lord, the Word of God, that abides with us and within us, the Lord who has come to live amidst us, the greatest grace of incarnation. Look at those attributes given to that indwelling Lord: in the form of Wisdom, the Word, the Spirit who is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, active, incisive, unsullied, lucid, invulnerable, benevolent, sharp, irresistible, beneficent, loving, steadfast, dependable, unperturbed, almighty, all-knowing, penetrating, all-intelligent, pure and most subtle! The Indwelling Spirit, the Lord who dwells within me, making me the core of God's Reign.
Jesus' proclamation of the arrival of the Reign, or "the year of the Lord" or the fulfillment of the Word (Lk 4:19,21) was looked at as an offence, a scandal, because Jesus underlined the proximity, the closeness of God to human beings. Jesus declared every common person the beholder of the Reign; you and me as the core of the Reign!
Even today, if I choose to, I can see God as some one far, distant, removed and isolated. But if I am sincerely observant, I can feel the presence of the Word, the Wisdom, the Incarnate Son walking beside me and I can feel God close and intimate to me because, "God loves nothing so much as the person who lives with wisdom" (Wis 7:28). We need to look at the Reign of God residing within us, at the core of our being. We are indeed the core of the Reign, we need to evolve into it, by our daily choices and lofty ideals.