LIFE IN THE LIGHT OF THE KINGDOM

"Christian, recognize your dignity and,
 now that you share in God's own nature,
do not return to your former base condition by sinning.

 Remember who is your head and of whose body you are a member.
Never forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness
and brought into the light of the Kingdom of God."

[St. Leo the Great, Sermo 21 in nat. Dom.,3; PL 54, 192C] 1691

Christian Beatitude
The New Testament uses several expressions to characterize the beatitude to which God calls man:

• the coming of the Kingdom of God; [Mt 4:17]
• the vision of God: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" [Mt 5:8; 1 Jn 2; 1 Cor 13:12]
• entering into the joy of the Lord; [Mt 25: 21-23]
• entering into God's rest: [Heb 4:7-11]

There we shall rest and see,
we shall see and love,
we shall love and praise.

Behold what will be at the end without end.
For what other end do we have,
if not to reach the kingdom which has no end?

[St. Augustine, De civ. Dei 22, 30, 5: PL 41, 804] 1720

The Decalogue, the Sermon on the Mount, and the apostolic catechesis describe for us the paths that lead to the Kingdom of heaven. Sustained by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we tread them, step by step, by everyday acts. By the working of the Word of Christ, we slowly bear fruit in the Church to the glory of God. [the parable of the sower: Mt 13:3-23] 1724

The Beatitudes take up and fulfill God's promises from Abraham on by ordering them to the Kingdom of heaven. They respond to the desire for happiness that God has placed in the human heart. 1725

The Beatitudes teach us the final end to which God calls us: the Kingdom, the vision of God, participation in the divine nature, eternal life, filiation, rest in God. 1726

Hope
Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful." [Heb 10:23] "The Holy Spirit . . . he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life." [Titus 3:6-7] 1817

The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men's activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he is preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity. 1818

The theological virtues
2658 "Hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." [Rom 5:5] Prayer, formed by the liturgical life, draws everything into the love by which we are loved in Christ and which enables us to respond to him by loving as he has loved us. Love is the source of prayer; whoever draws from it reaches the summit of prayer. In the words of the Cure of Ars:

I love you, O my God, and my only desire is to love you until the last breath of my life. I love you, O my infinitely lovable God, and I would rather die loving you, than live without loving you. I love you, Lord, and the only grace I ask is to love you eternally.... My God, if my tongue cannot say in every moment that I love you, I want my heart to repeat it to you as often as I draw breath. [St. John Vianny, Prayer]

Moral Life and Missionary Witness
By living with the mind of Christ, Christians hasten the coming of the Reign of God, "a kingdom of justice, love, and peace." [Roman Missal, Preface of Christ the King] They do not, for all that, abandon their earthly tasks; faithful to their master, they fulfill them with uprightness, patience, and love. 2046

The Christian Name
The name one receives is a name for eternity. In the kingdom, the mysterious and unique character of each person marked with God's name will shine forth in splendor. "To him who conquers . . . I will give a white stone, with a new name written on the stone which no one knows except him who receives it." [Rev 2:17] "Then I looked, and Lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads." [Rev 14:1] 2159

The Family and the Kingdom
Becoming a disciple of Jesus means accepting the invitation to belong to God's family, to live in conformity with His way of life: "For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother." [Mt 12:49]

Parents should welcome and respect with joy and thanksgiving the Lord's call to one of their children to follow him in virginity for the sake of the Kingdom in the consecrated life or in priestly ministry. 2233

To Bear Witness to the Truth
The Church has painstakingly collected the records of those who persevered to the end in witnessing to their faith. These are the acts of the Martyrs. They form the archives of truth written in letters of blood:

Neither the pleasures of the world nor the kingdoms of this age will be of any use to me. It is better for me to die [in order to unite myself] to Christ Jesus than to reign over the ends of the earth. I seek him who died for us; I desire him who rose for us. My birth is approaching. . [St. Ignatious of Antioch, Ad Rom. 4, 1: SCh 10, 110]
I bless you for having judged me worthy from this day and this hour to be counted among your martyrs.... You have kept your promise, God of faithfulness and truth. For this reason and for everything, I praise you, I bless you, I glorify you through the eternal and heavenly High Priest, Jesus Christ, your beloved Son. Through him, who is with you and the Holy Spirit, may glory be given to you, now and in the ages to come. Amen. [Martyrium Polycarpi 14, 2-3: Pg 5, 1040; SCh 10, 228] 2474

"Blessed are the poor in spirit." [Lk 6:20] The Beatitudes reveal an order of happiness and grace, of beauty and peace. Jesus celebrates the joy of the poor, to whom the Kingdom already belongs: [St Gregory of Nyssa, De beatitudinibus 1: Pg 44, 1200D; 2 Cor 8:9] 2546

The Word speaks of voluntary humility as "poverty in spirit"; the Apostle gives an example of God's poverty when he says: "For your sakes he became poor." [Lk 6:24]

“I Want to See God”
Detachment from riches is necessary for entering the Kingdom of heaven. "Blessed are the poor in spirit." 2556

“Today”
We learn to pray at certain moments by hearing the Word of the Lord and sharing in his Paschal mystery, but his Spirit is offered us at all times, in the events of each day, to make prayer spring up from us. Jesus' teaching about praying to our Father is in the same vein as his teaching about providence: [Mt 6:11, 34] time is in the Father's hands; it is in the present that we encounter him, not yesterday nor tomorrow, but today: "O that today you would hearken to his voice! Harden not your hearts." [Ps 95:7-8] 2659

Prayer in the events of each day and each moment is one of the secrets of the kingdom revealed to "little children," to the servants of Christ, to the poor of the Beatitudes. It is right and good to pray so that the coming of the kingdom of justice and peace may influence the march of history, but it is just as important to bring the help of prayer into humble, everyday situations; all forms of prayer can be the leaven to which the Lord compares the kingdom. [Lk 13:20-21] 2660

The Word of God, the liturgy of the Church, and the virtues of faith, hope, and charity are sources of prayer. 2662

Perservering in Love
"Pray constantly . . . always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father." [1 Thess 5:17; Eph 5:20] St. Paul adds, "Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the saints." [Eph 6:18] For "we have not been commanded to work, to keep watch and to fast constantly, but it has been laid down that we are to pray without ceasing." [Evagrius Ponticus, Pract 49:Pg 40, 1245C] This tireless fervor can come only from love. Against our dullness and laziness, the battle of prayer is that of humble, trusting, and persevering love. This love opens our hearts to three enlightening and life-giving facts of faith about prayer. 2742

The meaning of Christian Death
The Church encourages us to prepare ourselves for the hour of our death. In the ancient litany of the saints, for instance, she has us pray: "From a sudden and unforeseen death, deliver us, O Lord"; [Roman Missal, Litany of the Saints] to ask the Mother of God to intercede for us "at the hour of our death" in the Hail Mary; and to entrust ourselves to St. Joseph, the patron of a happy death.

Every action of yours, every thought,
should be those of one who expects to die
before the day is out.

Death would have no great terrors for you if
you had a quiet conscience ...

Then why not keep clear of sin
instead of running away from death?
If you aren't fit to face death today,
it's very unlikely you will be
 tomorrow ... [The Imitation of Christ, 1, 23, 1]

Praised are you, my Lord, for our sister bodily Death,
from whom no living man can escape.
Woe on those who will die in mortal sin!
Blessed are they who will be found
in your most holy will,
for the second death will not harm them.
[St Francis of Assisi, Canticle of the Creatures] 1014

Give Us Our Daily Bread
"Our bread": The Father who gives us life cannot not but give us the nourishment life requires - all appropriate goods and blessings, both material and spiritual. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus insists on the filial trust that cooperates with our Father's providence. [Mt 6:25-34] He is not inviting us to idleness, [2 Thess 3:6-13] but wants to relieve us from nagging worry and preoccupation. Such is the filial surrender of the children of God:

To those who seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, he has promised to give all else besides. Since everything indeed belongs to God, he who possesses God wants for nothing, if he himself is not found wanting before God. [St. Cyprian, De Dom orat 21: PL 4, 534A] 2830

Let nothing trouble you
Let nothing frighten you Everything passes
God never changes Patience
Obtains all Who[m]ever has God
Wants for nothing God alone is enough.

[St Teresa of Jesus, Poesias 30, in The Collected Works of St Teresa of Avila, vol III, tr by K Kavanaugh, OCD, and O Rodriquez, OCD (Washington DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1985), 386 no 9, tr by John Wall] 227

The Final Doxology
The final doxology, "For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever," takes up again, by inclusion, the first three petitions to our Father: the glorification of his name, the coming of his reign, and the power of his saving will. But these prayers are now proclaimed as adoration and thanksgiving, as in the liturgy of heaven. [Rev 1:6; 4:11; 5:13] The ruler of this world has mendaciously attributed to himself the three titles of kingship, power, and glory. [Lk 4:5-6] Christ, the Lord, restores them to his Father and our Father, until he hands over the kingdom to him when the mystery of salvation will be brought to its completion and God will be all in all. [1 Cor 15:24-28] 2855

“I Believe In Life Everlasting”
The Christian who unites his own death to that of Jesus views it as a step towards him and an entrance into everlasting life. When the Church for the last time speaks Christ's words of pardon and absolution over the dying Christian, seals him for the last time with a strengthening anointing, and gives him Christ in viaticum as nourishment for the journey, she speaks with gentle assurance:

Go forth, Christian soul, from this world
in the name of God the almighty Father,
who created you,
in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God,
who suffered for you,
in the name of the Holy Spirit,
who was poured out upon you.
Go forth, faithful Christian!

May you live in peace this day,
may your home be with God in Zion,
with Mary, the virgin Mother of God,
with Joseph, and all the angels and saints....

May you return to [your Creator]
who formed you from the dust of the earth.

May holy Mary, the angels, and all the saints
come to meet you as you go forth from this life…
May you see your Redeemer face to face.

[Order of Christian Funerals, Prayer of Commendation] 1020