Pastor's Corner: How do I find the Kingdom of God

The readings for this coming Sunday, July 30, are as follows: First reading 1 Kings 3:5, 7-12. Second reading Romans 8:28-30 and the Gospel is Matthew 13:44-52.

In the reading from 1 Kings, God says to Solomon (in a dream), "Ask something of me and I will give it to you." Solomon, with genuine humility asks for an "understanding heart" so he might better serve God's chosen people. This pleases God greatly and he grants Solomon the gift of Wisdom. God chose to work through Solomon, but history shows that Solomon was not always worthy of this great gift.

In the Reading from Romans, the Apostle Paul proclaims that "all things work for good for those who love God." I believe it is important to recognize that Paul does not say only the good things, Paul says that "All things work for good for those who love God." The good, the bad, the hard and difficult things even pain and suffering - "all things work for good for those who love God." Well ...

In the reading from the Gospel of Matthew Jesus is telling us what the Kingdom of Heaven is like and what we should do to obtain or enter fully into it. It is like a treasure buried in a field that we find, and we sell all we have in order to buy the field and own the treasure. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a pearl of great price, and we sell all we have to purchase it. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a net thrown into the sea and it collects all kinds of fish and from that catch the good fish are kept and bad are thrown away.

I am not sure about you, but these readings pose a great challenge to me. A number of years ago things started changing in my life and I started to desire to come to know God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As this desire grew in me, I was offered the opportunity to work for the people of God in the context of the Catholic Church. This felt right and good - indeed a treasure of great price. It also pulled me way out of my comfort zone and required that I put more and more trust in God. This isn't a bad thing but it surely was a hard thing for me to do.

In the midst of my learning how to trust more and more in God I was confronted with a number of distractions - a child with a serious addiction to alcohol, another child with cancer, a loss of income as a result of going to work for the church as well as my wife going to college to become a nurse, both my wife and I had our parents die during this time. The point I am trying to make with this list is that it became hard to find any value in the Kingdom of God while it felt like my kingdom was falling apart. This happens to many of us.

This is where I must move from reflecting on the Gospel to reflecting on the reading from Romans. As I mentioned above Paul says, "all things work for good for those who love God." Paul also says that those who are called by God are justified - put in right relationship with God. I began to find out that even though God had put me in right relationship with him, I would often respond to problems in my life in ways that would jeopardize that right relationship with God. When this happened it was time for me to realize and accept with humility that I had to ask God to never let go of me. At that time, I came to the realization that God never let's go of us, we let go of him.

As my wife and I began to work together on our relationship and our relationship with God, we both began to find that what Paul said about all things working together for the good is indeed true. Not only did our faith continue to grow so did our love for one another. We began to really recognize the Kingdom of God all around us, especially in the people around us.

You see the Kingdom of God is large and so great that all of creation cannot contain it. It can only be held in hearts that are open to the Faith, Hope, Love and Mercy of God. I can't speak for anyone else, but for me this is not a once and done thing - to have a heart that is open to the Kingdom of God. There have been many times on this journey that I have lost that treasure called the Kingdom of God. When that happens, I must ask forgiveness and seek the healing of the Holy Spirit and open my heart to the Kingdom of God. The good news is that God will always enter bring His Kingdom with Him.

May the Kingdom of God dwell in you and may you always be willing to share it.

Blessings

Deacon Tim Maroney

St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church