David

At the year’s end, God comes – Christ is coming – as a baby at Christmas, coming into the dailiness of our lives, and at the end of time. It may seem odd at the beginning of Advent to hear Jesus speak of the second coming, but when Jesus says we’re to watch and stay awake, he doesn’t say it to play on our fears. Instead, he calls us to be alert to the signs of God’s presence in our lives, encouraging us to have faith in God who is present in the person with whom we are talking, and in the smallest act, though we may only come to understand this sometime later.

What is the Kingdom of God? Gerald Darring, a retired high school and college teacher of theology, explains it this way: “The Kingdom of God is a space. It exists in every home where parents and children love each other. It exists in every region and country that cares for its weak and vulnerable. It exists in every parish that reaches out to the needy.