01/05/2023

"My Kingdom is not of this world". Instead of totally accepting these words at face value, the Church of Christ founded on Peter very soon became "worldly". Buildings dedicated to Jesus had to be maintained and protected especially during the time Europe became the target of emigrating hordes from Asia and the weakened Empires social structures had to be replaced.

Individuals who had dedicated their whole lives to prayer and avoidance of the World became communities of believers. These communities became great landowners. The Church became a "power"in the collapsing Empire and was soon dominated in the west by the rich and the powerful "Roman Aristocrats". 

The Church of the Apostles really did not want to be "of this world". They had seen the Resurrection. They lived through persecutions lead at first  by their own people and then by the Pagan Empire. They had been seen to welcome death as Martyrs in the arena. They knew that Jesus was the Son by whom they had been taught to wash away the stain of sins both inherited and their own, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Today's Feast is a totally worldly event. Joseph's obedience in accepting Mary's virginial conception of and his own subsequent paternal care for Jesus is his spiritual legacy to us all. There had never been within the Church a need to honour any social class until Marx theorized about Capital and workers became the "power" in the State.

Jesus' sharp reply to Judas at Bethany"The poor will always be with you"is not at all a cynical retort. It is not at all prescriptive but a descriptive statement of worldly fact. Jesus never praises any "class". He does reprimand the "clerics" of his day but as for the "workers" we are all individual souls who will not find "rest" until we "take on the yoke and burden" which tells us that there is no lasting comfort in this life for "My Kingdom is not of this world."

Dear Lord, your foster father on earth accepted the message you sent via a dream. As a child you would have called him "Dad" but then you revealed that the Father of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in heaven loves us as we do our own children. You are "Dad", our Good Shepherd. May the prayers of Mary and all the Saints continue to be heard and let your grace support all who work in the vineyard that is your Church on Earth and those Holy Souls penitent and seeking pardon in Purgatory.