Luke 17:20-21
Asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he said in reply, "The coming of the kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, 'Look, here it is,' or, 'There it is.' For behold, the kingdom of God is among you.
As a child and student, I used to hate mathematics. I didn't have the patience or the aptitude to comprehend some of the concepts, especially the upper levels. As I grew in knowledge and studied history, I learned that nearly everything in the universe can or has some kind of mathematical or chemistry make up which involves math as measurements. It's all way out of my league. But one thing that has pondered scientists, mathematicians, and theologians is the existence of God. We try to describe God in the human terms that we know, but these simple adjectives do not do justice to the Almighty. In today's first reading Luke's 17th chapter, the Pharisees asked Jesus about the coming of the kingdom of God. Jesus said the kingdom is already among you. Then he went on to say that it's like lightning lighting up the sky; it's everywhere, yet you cannot catch it. You know the phrase, "trying to catch lighting in a bottle?" You can't do it. . We humans want to see things, we need proof of things unseen. Like the disciple Thomas who doubted because he didn't see, we need to see to believe. That's where faith comes in. We must learn to love God more and more despite our human frailties and weaknesses in our blindness. Lord, be with us today to help us grow more in faith and love and help us in our unbelief.
