Word of the Week

Second Week of Advent: Kingdom

Kingdom: Basileia (Gk.): meaning “the regal function, the active Lordship of a King” 

The Kingdom of Heaven is the reign of God, which draws close to us in the Incarnation of the Word, announced to us in the Gospel by the forerunner of Christ, John the Baptist. This prophet dressed in camel hair, proclaimed that the messianic Kingdom is present in Jesus. Christ handed on the proclamation of the kingdom through the gift of the Holy Spirit in his priestly Kingdom--the Church. The Kingdom comes to us in mystery through the sacraments of the Catholic Church, especially the Eucharist. We also pray the words “thy Kingdom Come” in the second petition of the Lord's Prayer. In this invocation, we ask the Lord to make present in our heart the righteousness that belongs to God (CCC 541-554, 709, 763, 2816, 2819).

The word Kingdom is replete in Sacred Scripture. Over 450 verses speak of Kingdom, but for this short study, I will consider the meaning of Kingdom of Heaven (God) as noted in the CCC. The phrase Kingdom of Heaven (God) can be found 122 times in the New Testament. The Kingdom of God in the NT is most prevalent in the Gospel of Matthew and is the dominant motif for the one time tax collector. This phrase is caught up in God's covenant oath to establish David's Kingdom as the royal dynasty (2 Sam.7:12-17; Ps.89:3-4). Matthew wants his reader to see that by opening up with Christ as the “son of David” (Mt.1:1) he is setting forth Christ as the royal heir to the covenant oath that he will come to perfect in all its ‘regal function' . At the time of Jesus, Many were expecting a messianic king that would bring about political and military rule here on earth, but what they received was a Messiah who would rule a kingdom here on earth identified as a family of God rooted in justice and peace. In addition, we read in Matthew that what accompanied the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God was the “healing of every disease and infirmity” (Mt.4:23).

Pope Benedict directs us to three modes of the kingdom of Heaven in his work Jesus of Nazareth . First, the ecclesial mode, where God actively dispenses his sacramental grace upon his people so that we are incorporated into the Church, the family of God. Second, the Christological mode, this offers us an understanding that Christ is the Kingdom incarnate. Third, the mystical, where we contemplate Christ in the interior life (Benedict, 49-50). Therefore, there is a kind of tri-unity to the Kingdom of Heaven . The Christian journey begins with an entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven via Baptism where Christ, our sovereign priest-king, reigns. In this incorporation into the family of God, we constantly cry “Abba father” (Rom.8.15) seeking always to immediately serve him to draw into a deeper mystical union with our Lord. Essentially, the Church is the incarnation of the Kingdom of Heaven in the person of Christ coming through the sacramental life. It is here where we journey in prayer to the inner recesses of the heart.

“The only Kingdom established on the basis of a covenant in Scripture is the Kingdom of David .”

--Dr. Scott Hahn 

Primary Texts Consulted

• Catholic Bible. Suggested trans. Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition.
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2 nd Edition, 1997.
• Pope Benedict XVI. Jesus of Nazareth . New York : Doubleday, 2007.

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