Any TEACHERS present today??? Let’s give a nice round of applause for them!

I read this story about a FIFTH GRADE teacher. She was recalling one of her first teaching experiences.

Teresa Kiefer writes:

“I was having the time of my life teaching the incredible fifth-grade class I had that year. One day, a student raised her hand and asked if I realized I was wearing two different shoes. I looked down, and she was right.

Laughter filled the room, and I blushed with embarrassment.

Fortunately, the class was kind.

In an act of creativity and compassion
That I’ll never forget,
My students proceeded to trade shoes with one another to match my crazy [footwear].”

[Teresa Kiefer, writing in Reader’s Digest, November 2017.]

So I say: from that story you and I can see that: The Kingdom of God is at Hand in that Fifth Grade classroom, where kids lovingly take on the “crazy footwear” of their embarrassed teacher.

In the course of the year ahead at Mass the church will hear JESUS speak often of the “kingdom of God”.

What does that mean to you… this KINGDOM OF GOD that we are supposed to create while on this earth, that Jesus came to build and that we are supposed to live?

So, The KINGDOM OF GOD is not some far-in-the-future state, but, a reality HERE AND NOW!!!

The Kingdom of God is realized in your homes and schools, when:

-compassion trumps ambition
-when welcoming back the lost or picking up the stumbling becomes more important than embarrassing them or beating them down.

You see the students did the most charitable THING! They didn’t “ridicule” their teacher, they “softly” became ONE WITH HER and it came right from their hearts!!!

We had five kids at home growing up… was there the KINGDOM OF GOD IN OUR HOME all the time…
Absolutely NOT!! But there were times, when we made decisions to work on our “competitive natures” and our laziness.

A BIG LINE WAS: “I did it last time… it’s’ Johnny’s turn!” Or “Just let me finish TV!”

My older sister was the ring leader so to speak… she would call the family meeting of kids and say:

“Hey we gotta get along better for MOM AND DAD!” It worked for a while! Ha Ha

Moms and Dads here today…or any adult.. You and I live the KINGDOM OF GOD as Jesus wanted when we can keep a social justice posture in our daily living.

What does JESUS mean by that…. ???

He means, at the minimum, in our hearts, moms and dads, we need to ask ourselves: Are we recognizing the poor and people who are different than ourselves AND NOT CRITICIZING, COMMENTING NEGATIVELY, NOR JUDGING.

A social justice posture is the effort we make to be a united community, not a divided one, to be a helpful individual to others more than just our family.

We already teach that in our school…. TO BE A SUPERHERO:
“You can save someone’s day by performing a small act of service”

CONCLUSION:

Think about how you cause the KINGDOM OF GOD to be realized in your homes and in our community. I bet you are doing it… some of the time!

As you take holy communion today hear JESUS tell you to keep on building up the KINDOM OF GOD each day by some small act of service.