The first part of today’s gospel reading talks about the attempt of someone to use Jesus to settle a dispute about inheritance.
“Master, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” But Jesus refused, telling him: “Man, who has appointed me a judge or arbitrator over you?” (Luke 12:13-15).
The gospel shows the deliberate will of Jesus not to get entangled in certain earthly affairs that could dilute His message of salvation and occasion misunderstanding about the nature of the “Kingdom of Heaven” that He had come to establish.
There is a tendency nowadays to reduce the Kingdom of Heaven to merely material or political terms. Yet, when Jesus Christ was confronted by Pontius Pilate about the nature of His Kingdom, He clearly stated: “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).
And on another occasion, Jesus Christ stated very directly: “Behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).
Some may be disappointed at this assertion about the kingdom, as if that were a further belittling of our already limited vision of things. Yet that is not so.
To say that the Kingdom of Heaven is “not of this world” and is aside of us does not mean that a Christian has to withdraw into his shell like a frightened turtle.
The Christian has to be “salt and light” (See Matthew 5:13-14) for the world…but he cannot lose his taste or his own light.
The Kingdom of Heaven has a bearing in the affairs of the world, but it cannot lose its own transcendental dimension.
In other words, the interior life of personal union and dealing with God is precisely what the Christian needs in order to be an effective “seasoning” for the world.
All material prosperity, and the modification of merely external structures would be meaningless, especially in the light of the transitoriness of earthly realities, without that inner relationship of each person with God and reference to man’s eternal destiny.
The Kingdom of Heaven is the life of God in us, which begins here on Earth with the sanctifying grace of God, and has its culmination in the glory of heaven.
Throughout the long history of the Church, the great saints (model of every Christian) have behaved according to the clear teaching, distinguishing between temporal affairs and the true kingdom of heaven. They were ready to leave everything behind, to stake their very lives, in order to be faithful to the grace of God within them.
Our very own Lorenzo Ruiz is fine example of this. He could have saved his life by simply renegating against his faith. Yet, with the help of God, he realized that what was at stake was something of much greater value than his own life and comfort. He had nothing to gain in this world, yet everything to gain in the next life, by his sacrifice.
But the path of martyrdom is not for everyone. In fact, although a Christian has to be ready to give up his own life for God, the majority of us are called to give it up to God in a discreet and silent offering.
To “go and sell” everything that we have, in order to posses the Kingdom of Heaven, will mean to give priority to the things of God, to devote some time to daily prayer in spite of a hectic schedule, to be faithful to our Christian moral principles, even at the risk of losing some material advantage.