The Kingdom Of Heaven Is At Hand

Today, Jesus shows us the Way we are to spread the Kingdom. The death of John the Baptist was a springboard for Jesus to get into the heart of His own mission on earth. It seems that moving to a new setting was significant for many reasons including the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, but also there is something in stepping out and away from the familiar that activates a person’s call in a special way. There are so many stories of great missionaries, preachers, Saints, and world changers that were called out of their familiar into foreign countries, or the slums, or leper colonies, or across the world, or into conditions and territories that were unfamiliar, unfriendly, or simply “not home”. When God moves us somewhere, He gives us strength for the journey and an extra portion of our unique gifts to be able to impact our new environment. Jesus moved to “Galilee of the Gentiles” and the prophecy was that “the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen.” 

Jesus gives us our first marching orders by quoting His beloved John, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Repent simply means change your way of thinking and wrap it around the reality that heaven is here in the Person of Jesus. Then He shows us what Kingdom thinking and living looks like, “He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.” Teaching in the synagogues is Jesus leading with the Word of God, and speaking it into the atmosphere. From there, He proclaims the Gospel of the Kingdom, which is to love God and others as yourself. The Word leads to Love, and this Love, steeped in the Word, leads to curing EVERY disease and illness among the people!!!! 1. Change your thoughts and focus them on Jesus, 2. Speak The Word into your environments, 3. Proclaim the Gospel of Love, and 4. Cure EVERY disease and illness…this is our commissioning as well and as sons and daughters of God we have the power to do all of the above because the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us. It all begins in our mindset. 

Just like the death of John the Baptist launched Jesus into His ministry, so does the death and resurrection of Christ launch us.  We have all that we need through the Holy Spirit to do as Jesus did, to love as Jesus loves, to heal as Jesus heals, and to teach as Jesus teaches. “His fame spreads” in and through us when we change our minds to be like His. We are called to be “the great light” to the “people who sit in darkness.” Jesus came to show us how to live. Today’s gospel renews my own call and encourages me to mind my mind because the miraculous begins there. “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It is well with my soul.

Reading 1 1 JN 3:22–4:6

Beloved:
We receive from him whatever we ask,
because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
And his commandment is this:
we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another just as he commanded us.
Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them,
and the way we know that he remains in us
is from the Spirit whom he gave us.

Beloved, do not trust every spirit
but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God,
because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
This is how you can know the Spirit of God:
every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh
belongs to God,
and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus
does not belong to God.
This is the spirit of the antichrist
who, as you heard, is to come,
but in fact is already in the world.
You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them,
for the one who is in you
is greater than the one who is in the world.
They belong to the world;
accordingly, their teaching belongs to the world,
and the world listens to them.
We belong to God, and anyone who knows God listens to us,
while anyone who does not belong to God refuses to hear us.
This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit.

Responsorial Psalm PS 2:7BC-8, 10-12A 

R. (8ab)  I will give you all the nations for an inheritance.
The LORD said to me, “you are my Son;
this day I have begotten you.
Ask of me and I will give you
the nations for an inheritance
and the ends of the earth for your possession.”
R. I will give you all the nations for an inheritance.
And now, O kings, give heed;
take warning, you rulers of the earth.
Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice before him;
with trembling rejoice.
R. I will give you all the nations for an inheritance.

Alleluia MT 4:23 

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Jesus proclaimed the Gospel of the Kingdom
and cured every disease among the people.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MT 4:12-17, 23-25

When Jesus heard that John had been arrested,
he withdrew to Galilee. 
He left Nazareth and went to live in Capernaum by the sea,
in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali,
that what had been said through Isaiah the prophet 
might be fulfilled:
 

Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
the way to the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles,
the people who sit in darkness
have seen a great light,
on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death
light has arisen.
From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say,
“Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
 

He went around all of Galilee,
teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness among the people. 
His fame spread to all of Syria,
and they brought to him all who were sick with various diseases
and racked with pain,
those who were possessed, lunatics, and paralytics,
and he cured them. 
And great crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, and Judea,
and from beyond the Jordan followed him.