Christ’s kingdom begins in this world, but its transcendent nature must not be overlooked, says the Pope at this week’s General Audience

At the General Audience of 4 September, the Holy Father resumed his catechesis on the Church. Today he discusses the kingdom of God.

1. We read in Vatican II's Constitution Lumen gentium that "[God] determined to call together in a holy Church those who should believe in Christ.... [This Church] was prepared in the history of the people of Israel and in the old covenant ... and made manifest in the outpouring of the [Holy] Spirit" (Lumen gentium, n. 2). We dedicated the preceding catechesis to this preparation of the Church in the old covenant and we saw that in Israel's progressive awareness of God's plan through the revelations of the prophets and the very facts of her history, the concept of a future kingdom of God gradually became clearer: a concept loftier and more universal than anything foreseen regarding the fate of the Davidic dynasty. Today we will consider another historical fact, one which is rich in its theological significance: Jesus Christ begins his messianic mission with the proclamation: "This is the time of fulfilment. The kingdom of God is at hand" (Mk 1:15). Those words indicate the start of "the fullness of time", as St Paul will say (cf. Gal 4:4), and prepare the way for the new covenant, which is based on the mystery of the Son's redemptive incarnation and destined to be an eternal covenant. In Jesus Christ's life and mission the kingdom of God is not only "at hand" (Lk 10:9), but is already present in the world, already at work in human history. Jesus himself says: "The kingdom of God is among you" (Lk 17:21).

2. The difference in standard and quality between the time of preparation and that of fulfilment—between the old and new covenant—is made known by Jesus himself when he spoke about his precursor, John the Baptist, saying: "Amen, I say to you, among those born of woman there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he" (Mt 11:11). John, from the banks of the Jordan (and from prison), certainly made a greater contribution than anyone else, even more than the ancient prophets (cf. Lk 7:26-27), to preparing immediately the way for the Messiah. Nevertheless, in a certain sense he still remains on the threshold of the new kingdom which entered the world with Christ's coming and became manifest through his messianic ministry. Only through Christ do individuals become true "children of the kingdom": i.e., children of the new kingdom which is superior to the one to which Jews at the time considered themselves the natural heirs(cf. Mt 8:12).

3. The new kingdom has an eminently spiritual character. To enter it, it is necessary to repent and believe in the Gospel, to be freed from the power of the spirit of darkness, to submit to the power of God's Spirit, which Christ brings to human beings. As Jesus says: "But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Mt 12:28; cf. Lk 11:20).

The spiritual and transcendent nature of this kingdom is also expressed in the equivalent term we find in the Gospel texts: "kingdom of heaven". It is a wonderful image which allows us to glimpse the origin and purpose of the kingdom— "heaven"—and the same divine-human dignity of him in whom the kingdom of God is made historically concrete through the incarnation: Christ.

4. The transcendence of God's kingdom results from the fact that it takes its origin not only from human initiative, but from the plan, the design and the will of God himself. Jesus Christ, who makes it present and realizes it in the world, is not merely one of the prophets sent by God, but the consubstantial Son of the Father, who became man in the incarnation. The kingdom of God is thus the kingdom of the Father and his Son. The kingdom of God is the kingdom of Christ; it is the kingdom of heaven which has begun on earth to allow men to enter this new world of spirituality and eternity. Jesus states: "All things have been handed over to me by my Father.... No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him" (Mt 11:27). "For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to his Son the possession of life in himself. And he gave him power to exercise judgement, because he is the Son of Man" (Jn 5:26-27). 

Along with the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit is also at work, realizing the kingdom in this world. Jesus himself reveals this: the Son of Man "drives out demons by the Spirit of God", and for this reason "the kingdom of God has come upon you" (Mt 12:28).

5. But although the kingdom of God is realized and develops in this world, it has its purpose in "heaven". It is transcendent in its origin and also in its goal, which is reached in eternity, on condition that one is faithful to Christ in this life and throughout the course of time. Jesus informs us of this when he says that, in conformity with his power of "judging" (Jn 5:27), at the end of the world the Son of Man will give the command to collect "out of his kingdom all who cause others to sin", namely, all the iniquities committed even in the confines of Christ's kingdom. Jesus adds: "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Mt 13:41, 43). Then the full and definitive realization of the "kingdom of the Father" will occur, to whom the Son will hand over the elect who have been saved by him in virtue of the redemption and by the work of the Holy Spirit. The messianic kingdom will then reveal its identity with the kingdom of God (cf. Mt 25:34; 1 Cor 15:24).

There is, then, a historical cycle to the kingdom of Christ, the incarnate Word, but the alpha and omega of this kingdom, and one would even say, the basis on which it begins, lives, develops and reaches its fulfilment, is the mysterium Trinitatis. We have already said, and we will see again later, that the mysterium Ecclesiae takes root in this mystery.

6. The point of transition and connection from one mystery to the other is Christ, who was already predicted in the old covenant and awaited as a King-Messiah with whom the kingdom of God is identified. In the new covenant Christ identifies the kingdom of God with his own person and his own mission. He not only proclaims the fact that with him the kingdom of God is in the world, but he teaches that one should give up everything which is humanly most valuable "for the kingdom of God" (cf. Lk 18:29-30), and at another point, to leave all this "for the sake of my name" (cf. Mt 19:29), or "for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel" (Mk 10:29).

The kingdom of God is thus identified with the kingdom of Christ. It is present in him; it is realized in him. And it passes from him, on his own initiative, to the apostles, and through them to all those who will believe in him: "I confer a kingdom on you, just as my Father has conferred one on me" (Lk 22:29). It is a kingdom which consists in the spread of Christ himself through the world, through human history, as a new life which comes from him and is communicated to believers in virtue of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, whom he sends (cf. Jn 1:16; 7:38-39; 15:26; 16:7).

7. The messianic kingdom realized by Christ in the world is revealed and shows its precise and definitive meaning in the context of his passion and death on the cross. During Christ's entrance into Jerusalem an event occurs, which he had planned and which Matthew presents as a fulfilment of a prophetic prediction made by Zechariah about the "king who comes to you riding on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden" (Zec 9:9; Mt 21:5). In the prophet's mind, in Jesus' intention and in the evangelist's interpretation, the ass means meekness and humility. Jesus was the meek and humble king who entered the city of David, where he fulfilled the prophecies about the true messianic kingship by his own sacrifice.

This kingship is clarified during the questioning Jesus undergoes before the judgement seat of Pilate. The accusations made against Jesus were that "he misleads the people; he opposes the payment of taxes to Caesar and maintains that he is the Messiah, a king" (Lk 23:2). Therefore, Pilate asks the accused if he is a king. And this is Jesus' reply: "My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants [would] be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here". The evangelist states: "So Pilate said to him, 'Then you are a king?' Jesus answered, 'You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice'" (Jn 18:36-37).

8. It is a declaration that concludes all the ancient prophecies which flow through Israel's history and which become a fact and a revelation in Christ. The words of Jesus enable us to catch the flashes of light which streak through the darkness of the mystery condensed in the three terms: kingdom of God, messianic kingdom, People of God called together in the Church. Along this path of prophetic and messianic light, we can better understand and repeat, with clearer comprehension of the words, the prayer taught us by Jesus (Mt 6:10): "Thy kingdom come". It is the kingdom of the Father, which entered the world with Christ; it is the messianic kingdom which develops through the work of the Holy Spirit in man and in the world, in order to return to the heart of the Father in the glory of heaven.