#transvaluation

These days, we're used to the word "blessed" being used to refer to those who are already laughing, not to those who are hungry and weeping [… but w]hen Jesus declared God's blessing on people, he asserted that those without power, privilege, wealth, and property are blessed. He announced that God is on their side. The criterion Jesus used to determine on whom to bestow God's blessings was the direct opposite of the criterion developed through the Protestant work ethic. While it is easy to perceive those with power and privilege as blessed, Jesus would look to the poor and powerless, and declare them blessed. Then he would turn to those with power and privilege and say, as he does in the rest of that passage from Luke [6:20-26], "But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep."

Today the Magi come from the East, seeking the risen Sun of Justice, Him of whom we read: Behold a man, the Orient is His name [Vulgate of Zachariah 6:12]. Today the Magi adored the newborn Child of the Virgin, following the guidance of the newly risen star. And have we not here a great cause for consolation? God spoke. They answered, not by their words, but by the works. What are you doing, O Magi? Do you adore a little Babe, in a wretched hovel, wrapped in miserable rags? Can this Child truly be God? God is in His holy Temple. God's seat is in the highest heaven, and do you seek Him in a poor stable, in the lap of his maiden-mother? What are you doing? Do you offer Him gold? Is He, then, a King? If so, where is His palace? Where His throne? Where the retainers of His regal court? Is a stable His palace? A manger His throne? Are Mary and Joseph the sole occupants of His audience chamber? Are you become foolish, O Wise Men, that you can adore a Child, despicable alike for His age and for the poverty of His surroundings? Yes, these Wise Men have become fools that they may be wise. They are foretaught by the Holy Spirit, who afterwards breathed on the Apostle, when he said: If any man among you seem wise, . . . let him become a fool that he may be wise [1 Corinthians 3:18]. Because, since the world could not through wisdom know God in His wisdom, it pleases God through the foolishness of preaching, as Saint Paul calls it, to save those who believe. Was it not to be feared that these men, beholding such signs of poverty, would be scandalized and believed themselves deluded? They expect to find the King in the royal city, but they are directed to little Bethlehem, the least among the thousands of Judah [Micah 5:2]. They enter the stable, they find the Babe in swaddling clothes. The repulsiveness of the place deters them not, the swathing-bands offend them not, the Child at His mother's breast shocks not their faith; they fall down and worship Him as their King, they adore Him as their God. And immediately, we may believe it, He who led them thither Himself instructs them. He who had spoken outwardly by the star now teaches them secretly in their hearts. This day is therefore made doubly glorious and sacred by the new manifestation of Our Lord and by the devout adoration of the Magi.

Jesus taught about the kingdom of God more than anything, and those verses were more about a unique way of life than a unique message. The English translation of the Greek basileia tou Theo into "the kingdom of God" is too ambiguous [...] The word basileia is better translated as "reign," or "rule," or "power." A king has basileia over a physical location, but his basileia isn't the location itself. You can't see basileia. You can only experience it. So the basileia of God, or reign of God, is referring to what the world would look like with God in charge. Jesus and his fellow Jews believed that the reign of Rome was coming to an end, and a new reign was emerging. This new reign, however, did not just look like the old reign with a new person on the throne. The reign of God describes an alternative use of power. When Jesus described this reign, he described liberation. Jesus said the reign of God belonged to the poor and the persecuted. He said many will come from east and west to be a part of the reign of God. He went city to city teaching people to repent, or rather, to transform their lives because the kingdom of God is at hand. Preparing for the reign of God looks like choosing to live differently in the world. It looks like living as if the reign of God is already here. [...] For Jesus, the reign of God is an emerging reality right here and right now. Jesus says the reign of God is within you. He also compares the reign of God to a tiny mustard seed that grows into a large tree. And he compares it to yeast that grows into leavened bread. The reign of God is something that starts out small within us and then grows through us and out into the world.