Day 36: The Kingdom and the Gospel

Hi, I'm Fr. Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and this is the Rosary in a Year podcast, where through prayer and meditation, the rosary brings us deeper into relationship with Jesus and Mary and becomes a source of grace for the whole world.
The Rosary in the Year is brought to you by Ascension. This is day 36.
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You'll find all the daily readings from scripture, saint reflections, and beautiful full-page images of the sacred art we'll be reflecting on. The third illuminous mystery is the proclamation of the kingdom and the call to conversion.
Mark chapter 1 verses 14 through 15. Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent and believe in the gospel. All right, friends, welcome back.

Third Luminous Mystery Rosary in the Year podcast,

also known as Pope Benedict XVI,

Jesus of Nazareth in a year.

I don't know if you saw Bible in the Year

had some merchandise created

with one of Father Mike's catchphrases,

like, man, oh man, what a gift. I think mine could be Pope Benedict said, or as Pope Benedict wrote.
So we're going to be pulling a lot from Jesus of Nazareth, from Pope Benedict to look at this third luminous mystery. And he's just so good at what he does.
So more Pope Benedict. Here's where we're going to begin.
Okay. The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent and believe in the gospel. So essentially today's episode is going to be a bit of a word study on two words.
The first is gospel. The second is the kingdom of God, more specifically the kingdom.
So the gospel, gospel, the word, it's an English translation of a Greek word, which is Evangelion. I don't know if that's a good Greek accent, but that's what I got.
And right, we translate it often in English as the good news, but it's so much richer and deeper than that. This word gospel or Evangelion in Greek, it's a word that would be used by Roman emperors.
Roman emperors, right, at this time understood themselves to be more than just

kings, more than just leaders, more than just normal men. They kind of saw themselves as lords, as saviors, as redeemers of mankind in a sense.
And the word for when they would communicate some information was that they're like evangelion. So, they'd be giving this evangelion.
And their understanding of this word

was that it wasn't just passing on of information. In their hubris, they kind of understood this to be, again, more than just words expressed, information passed along, but a saving message.
There was this idea that it didn't just communicate something, it actually did something, and it was saving. And what the evangelists are doing by taking this term are correcting the use of this term and actually putting it in its proper place.
As Pope Benedict kind of alludes to it, what they're saying by using this word is what you think you are doing, Jesus is actually doing. You think that you are Lord, you think that you are Savior.
You think that you are Redeemer.

You think that you communicate a saving message,

which doesn't just pass along information,

but makes something happen.

Actually, in fact, you're wrong,

but this is all true of Jesus.

And Jesus' Evangelion, Jesus' gospel,

it's a saving message that is both informative,

but also performative. It doesn't just say something, it makes something happen.
And Jesus' saving message, his gospel, his evangelion, and Jesus' words and his deeds make something happen. We see this with Jesus' words, like be healed, and they are healed.
Little girl arise, and she arises. Lazar Lazarus come out and he comes out of the grave.
This is my body. And it becomes his body, blood, soul, and divinity, no longer just bread.
Father, forgive them for they know not what they do and they are forgiven. Behold your mother.
Jesus' words make something happen. And so Jesus' proclamation, the gospel, the evangelion, the good news is Jesus' saving message, the true Lord, the true Redeemer, the true Savior, which is proclaimed by word and deed and makes something happen.
The second part of our study is looking at this word kingdom. It's part of the phrase, the kingdom of God, which is going to be very central to the Christian message in the proclamation.
We see it a ton of times. It's like over a hundred times in the New Testament.
Kingdom is the English translation of a Greek word. I believe it's pronounced Basileia.
And Basileia, Pope Benedict points out, it's a regal function. It's an active lordship of the king.
So we kind of have to wrap our heads around this because I think when we read kingdom, we think of maybe like a place, an established form of government, like a society. But it's kind of this declaration, this description of some sort of established society with a hierarchy, et cetera.
But what Pope Benedict draws out is that kingdom,

it's more of a verb than a noun.

And he says that it's God's actual sovereignty over the world,

which in Jesus Christ is becoming an event in history in a new way.

And here we'll have an extended quote.

When Jesus speaks of the kingdom of God, he is quite simply proclaiming God and proclaiming him to be the living God who is able to act concretely in the world and in history and is even now so acting. He continues, this is again from Jesus of Nazareth.
He is telling us God exists and God is really God, which means that he holds in his hands the threads of the world. Jesus's proclamation of the kingdom of God.
It's Jesus's proclaiming and actually making happen like the lordship of God, the sovereignty of God. And so when Jesus says, you know, the kingdom of God is at hand, when he's proclaiming the kingdom by word and deed, what's happening is the Lord is lording.
I don't want this to be flippant, but like God is godding. The shepherd is shepherding.
The teacher is teaching. The savior is saving.
The king is reigning. So my brothers and sisters, we see the kingdom of God at hand in Jesus as he gives sight to the blind, as he gives us the beatitudes during the Sermon on the Mount, eating and drinking with sinners in his life, death, and resurrection in its totality.
It is God's saving intervention in our life. the proclamation of the Evangelion, the good news that God is God.
He is at work. We don't have to save ourselves.
We don't have to fix it all by ourselves. The Lord is here and the Lord is already at work.
He's already reigning.

And so, my brothers and sisters, let us just today sit with and pray with the gospel.

God is God.

We know him and have access to him.

In Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.

May this be a source of confidence and of peace for all of us.

Let us pray in the name of the Father,

and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Our Father who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was

in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
In the name of the Father, and

of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
All right. Thanks, everybody, for joining me and

praying with me again today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow.