Your Kingdom Come

Summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily from November 26, 2006

"You say I am a king..." John 18:36

Recently, Bono gave a concert in Ireland. He began by clapping his hands repetitively. Finally, he went to the microphone, "Every time I clap my hands, a child dies of AIDS in Africa." To which a Dubliner in the first row responded, "So, for God's sake, stop clapping your hands!" Would that it were so easy to stop AIDS.

This coming Friday is World AIDS Day. On Saturday and Sunday, St. Charles will host presentations on the issue. We have been incubating the St. Charles Africa Aids Outreach over the past months. We have a parishioner working in Kenya with the Medical Missionaries of Mary on our behalf. Assistance is offered to orphans with AIDS, and to their caregivers. The program includes a micro-enterprise effort to combat poverty, a major contributor to the spread of the disease. To this end, however, we need to strengthen our organization and hope to find volunteers with a skill to offer in this field.

One may ask, "How does this outreach relate to the church's mission?"

I will respond with a story. I recall a day when I was traveling along the road at Sabana Cruz in the Dominican Republic. I greeted a campesino, "Como estas?" (How are you?) He answered with a typical phrase, "Luchando." (Struggling.) I pursued, "Luchando para que?" (Struggling for what?) He replied, "Para el Reino." (For the Kingdom.) I asked, "Y que es este reino?" (What is this kingdom?) He clarified, "Un mundo mejor para mi comunidad y mi familia." (A better world for my community and my family.)

This man probably cannot read or write, but his attitude captures the insight of a modern theology of the Kingdom. Richard McBrien from Notre Dame writes that the church is not in business for itself or only for its own growth, its primary purpose is to serve the Kingdom. The Kingdom as described in the central teachings of Jesus, is a community of truth and life, of holiness and grace, of justice love and peace; a better world here, and in Kingdom come. Wherever these values are found, we find signs of the Kingdom. It may not be in our common conscious, as much as it is for our Latin American companions, yet we pray for this coming Kingdom every time we say the Lord's Prayer. It is posted on the mission statement of our parish at the entrance: 'We call on all to build the Reign of God's love.' May our Africa Outreach witness His Dominion.

Although we call Elvis king, and Ali is the greatest, yet there is something alien to the American spirit in the notion of Kingship. America was born in revolt against King George. In recent years, before the outbreak of the Iraq war, some of our sociologists and political scientists developed a very un-American project based on the idea of hegemony. In a unipolar world following the fall of communism, it was argued that USA should exercise its power to advance its interests. Democracy and capitalism would be spread through regime change and the exercise of physical force as needed.

I had doubts about this ideology remembering how long the British Empire had unsuccessfully tried to 'civilize' my own nation.

The Empire referred to in the Gospels is an alternative Kingdom. Jesus' throne is the cross; his crown has thorns, not jewels. His power is the witness of non-violent love. In our promotion of the values of God's Reign, let us not use force or power or greed. Let us use the methods of the Suffering Servant, the Lamb who would be King.