Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Luke (17: 20-25) in which Jesus, when asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, said, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst’.

In today’s Gospel we hear a discussion between Jesus and the Pharisee’s on the coming of the Kingdom and this gospel today and in the days ahead will be dealing with the coming of the end of time.

The Pharisee’s believed that the Kingdom of God would only come when the people had perfectly observed the law of God. The coming of the kingdom then would be a reward from God for their good behaviour and therefore the Messiah would come as a King to be received by his people.

But for Jesus the Kingdom of God has already come. It is already hear among us. However, when the glory of the Messiah comes it must be through the cross.