Dear friends,

“Do not be afraid any longer, little flock,

for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. 

(Luke 12:32)

            Our Lord teaches us today to have faith in Him. He is our Father and is pleased to give us the kingdom. He invites us to place our trust in Him who wishes to provide for so much more than just our physical needs.

            To live only for physical needs and to seek security only in accumulated material wealth is to live in fear. Our lives become very self-serving and we become weary of one another. We are in constant fear of losing our wealth because, in and of themselves, our possessions are not able to provide the prosperity our hearts crave for.

            Truly prosperous is the heart that loves and is loved. The Father’s love for us expressed in the gift and sacrifice of His very own Son for us is the kingdom our hearts will truly prosper in.

            The kingdom then is not something we enter into at the time of our death but rather already is among us now, in our love for God and for each other now. Death is but the culmination of our loving, the culmination of our lives already being laid down now, daily, for our friends.

            Our Father and His Son are with us now. He already girds Himself and has us reclining at the table of His Eucharist, where He waits on us with the very gift of Himself to us.