Watching for The Light – Week 1  The All-Ready, Not-Yet Kingdom

THE LAST JUDGEMENT PAINTING BY WASSILY KANDINSKI

• Notice bright primary colors, opaque black shapes, heavy black lines
• Contrasts catch our attention
• Blue angel facing upper right corner blowing trumpet heralding the last judgement
• Possibly Luke’s last judgement frightening, redemptive, tumultuous, glorious
• Notice two forms-red and white floating upward towards beckoning white light
• Move back to the right, dark images plummeting downward

PRELUDE FOR SAYING THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS ALREADY AND NOT YET

• Kingdom of God, much more than a place – a way of living together in love
• Seeing the divine spark in every person
• Yet, we sense that the word could be better
• In our little corner we commit ourselves to doing our part
• We never give in to the darkness
• We will not wait for the Final Judgement when the final darkness will be conquered
• We are conquering the darkness now by loving unselfishly

SHIFTING GEARS, A LITTLE – STORY OF THE KINGDOM BREAKING IN GRADUALLY

• An interview on Stephen Colbert with Andrew Garfield (a.k.a. Spiderman, Hacksaw Ridge, etc.)
• Garfield was remembering his mother who was a teacher and died in 2019′
• He said: I love talking about it, by the way, so if I cry it’s only a beautiful thing – this is all unexpressed love, right? The grief that will remain with us, you know, until we pass because we never get enough time with each other, right? No matter if someone lives” ‘til 60, 15, or 90, so I hope this grief stays with me because it’s all unexpressed love I didn’t get to tell her – and I told her every day, we all told her every day – she was the best of us.
• Garfield referenced film he is starring in-Tick, Tick…Boom about Johnathon Larson (wrote music for Rent) who died suddenly at the age of 35.
• Garfield said: This film has to do with that…It’s to do with the ticking clock that we all have. We all know somewhere deep down that life is sacred, life is short, and we better just be here as much as possible with each other, holding on to each other.
• Garfield finally said: In this place [in my acting career], …I can honor my mom, the most beautiful person that I’ve ever experienced in my life through my art, and use it as a way to heal, use it as a way to sew up the wounds.

THE KEY TO ADVANCING THE NOT-YET KINGDOM OF GOD

• Together we express words and actions that transform unexpressed love into expressed love
• Together we embrace words and actions as a way to heal and sew up wounds

IN THIS WAY THE NOT-YET KINGDOM OF LOVING-LIKE-GOD WILL BECOME THE ALL-READY KINGDOM OF LOVING-LIKE GOD

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

• What impacted you from the readings/homily?
• What have been some of the glimmers of light of unselfish love where you have been lifted recently?
• When have you been weighed down by darkness recently?
• How do you understand the Kingdom of God?
• What did you think of the value of grief as being unexpressed love?
• How do you understand life as short, sacred and the need to hold onto each other?

LIVE CONNECTED Consider three ways you can conquer the darkness in your world this week. Practice letting the divine light shine through you this week.