“'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Mt. 25.
“All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: ‘The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.’” Mt. 4:8-10
Augustine, apropos of today’s readings concluded the Civitate Dei, “For in sinning we lost our hold on both godliness and happiness, but, when we lost happiness, we obviously did not lose the will to happiness. In heaven, the saint said, in the true City of God, “There we shall be still and see, see and love, love and praise. Behold what will be in the end without end! For what else is our end but to reach the kingdom that has no end?”[ii] Christian, remember, the City of God exists in this world in you, but is not of this world. Adjust your expectations accordingly.Remove justice, then, and what are kingdoms but large gangs of robbers? And what are gangs of robbers but small kingdoms? The gang, too, is a group of men ruled by a leader’s command. It is bound together by a pact of association, and its loot is divided according to an agreed law. If, by constantly adding desperate men, this scourge grows to such an extent that it acquires territory, establishes a home base, occupies cities, and subjugates peoples, it more openly assumes the name of kingdom, a name now publicly conferred on it due not to any reduction in greed but rather to the addition of impunity. For it was a witty and true response that a certain captured pirate made to the famous Alexander the Great. When the king asked the man what he meant by infesting the sea, he defiantly replied, “Just what you mean when you infest the whole world! But because I do it with one tiny ship, I am called a robber; and because you do it with a great fleet, you are called an emperor.” [i]Augustine, Saint. The City of God: Books 1-10 (I/6) (The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century) . New City Press. Kindle Edition.