It is so good to be back among you again. I have had a truly fruitful and restorative sabbatical (even though it seems to have gone so quickly), and I look forward to living, once more, alongside each and every one of you, as together we seek to tell the story of Jesus to a needy world. I am, it goes without saying, immensely grateful to Fr David Osborne for his incredible ministry in the parish over the last year and I join all of you in wishing him well as he begins his time as parish priest of Bognor Regis. I also recognise, with deep gratitude, the energy, hard work, and commitment of our deacons, along with a great number of you, in the preceding twelve months. I pray that it has helped us all to recall that no parish priest is indispensable, and that life goes on perfectly well, regardless of the surprises with which we can find ourselves unexpectedly presented. At this stage, I do have one small request: please allow me the time to get back into the swing of things! No doubt, there will be various matters, across many areas of parish life, with which I can help, but it will inevitably take time for us all to adjust to being around one another again. Additionally, with my upcoming appointment as moderator of the larger parish unit (i.e., the current deanery), I will have to be prudent about what, realistically, I can and can’t do. Most importantly, however, I sincerely thank you for welcoming me home and, as always, I will seek, in my own fragile way, to serve you as best as I am able
Reflection
The Kingdom of God
FR DAVID WRITES…Dear Sisters and Brothers, now and not yet! I remember, vividly, listening to a fabulous theologian talking about the Kingdom of God – or as I put it the other week in a homily – the ‘reign’ of God – where he talked about the “famous” now and not yet of the Kingdom. What did he mean? Well, Jesus spoke about the Kingdom constantly in his teaching; from stories that began, “The kingdom of God can be compared to…” or “The Kingdom of God is like….”, and occasionally, he would say to some earnest questioner “The Kingdom of God is very close to you” or to those who opposed him: “The Kingdom of God will overtake you…”. But he also told us that
attempting to predict the dates and times when the Kingdom will “come” is futile. So, is our Christian discipleship merely one akin to having a clean driving licence when we are asked to produce it for inspection? Should we respond to Christ’s message by keeping our nose clean and our reputation intact? Head down waiting for the great “Day”? Or is there a little more to it than that? – Of course, there is! A lot more!
We can see today from the Gospel, and from, say, the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5 (part of the sermon on the mount) that the Kingdom is something we live. It’s an attitude of heart and mind. So, when we live “in” Beatitude, with virtuous lives of generosity and compassion and faith, then we are living the Kingdom now. It is among us. And we, as St Paul says “make up what is lacking in Jesus’ sacrifice”. The Gospel today says nothing at all about the life of prayer and worship and sacrifice but so very much about our lived attitudes to our fellow human beings – and by extension, to the whole of creation. When we care about others, or our planet, then we are acknowledging that they are God’s creation and he cares for them. We participate in that care, through faith and in love. But we also point beyond our actions and prayers and worship to the fulfilment of all those things when
the Kingdom will come in its fulness and completeness and in its universality – everything and everyone will be redeemed, and the Day we live in hope for will actually arrive when He is “all in all.”
Until then, we must continue the work of faith, love and hope, knowing that the Kingdom is here among us in our lives and in the lives of those around us and pointing forward to when the “Not yet” has become the “Now” for all eternity and forever.
With my love and prayers. Fr David Benedict