Meeting 3. - I Hand Over the Kingdom to You¶

Tags: Kingdom of God, Church, Decisions, Community, Hope, Text work, Group work, Formative

Goals¶

The goal of this meeting is to convey to participants that the Church (so also every member of it) goes towards the Kingdom of God, which we create bit by bit throughout our lives, ending with the fullness of glory in eternity. We also want to show participants that this path (after all, the Church is pilgrim) is equal to the decisions and choices of each of us. As a result, the Kingdom of God is the work of each of us. It is the sum of all our aspirations towards greater glory of God.

Notes for the animator¶

The Kingdom of Heaven is a quite distant issue for the average mortal. Most people know little about it. The level of abstractness of these concepts may be so high for participants that they may simply not assimilate this news (“not get” the topic). Therefore, the animator should as much as possible bring closer (preferably as workshop-like as possible) the topic of this meeting. Activating, movement exercises, etc. will work. The more creatively, the better. The outline is only a sketch of the meeting. The animator creates it. Therefore, one does not have to use all the author’s proposals (including questions).

Prayer¶

Let the prayer already introduce into the theme of building the New Jerusalem. You can ask the Holy Spirit for the gift of unity and drawing from each other (from the experience of the whole Church), to be able to build on already established foundations. You can also use the “Our Father” prayer (note: “(…) hallowed be Thy name, Thy Kingdom come ”). This will be an appropriate introduction to the meeting: you can later ask participants how they understand these words and whether they are aware of what they ask God for.

Introduction to the meeting¶

We already know that each of us lives in time and this forces changes, and making decisions. This “compulsion” of the temporal world has its goal. At this meeting we want to get to what this goal is.

How do we wait?¶

Making decisions by us is unavoidable. However, what happens next? The period of waiting for effects begins. Time of doubts, about which we spoke recently. It is worth noting that this is exactly what connects us. The animator can now ask participants questions:

What do you do among other people when you wait?
How can you expect the effects of your / your (plural) decisions together with others?
How important is it to You that you can share with others your doubts, feelings related to waiting?

Let’s look for similarities in our waiting in the group.

This point can be realized by a scheme on a common sheet of paper; create sets with our answers and check if we form some whole; if no one is separate. You can do the same using other methods, e.g.: Who answered the same as another person from the group takes a candy of the same color. At the end we check which persons have candies. This exercise will show us our similarities.

How does the Church wait?¶

It is worth noting that the Church waits similarly to “ordinary people” (lay people). Every common prayer, sacraments, reading the Word of God, Advent, Eucharist and many others serve this purpose. At the previous meeting it was mentioned that the Church waits for various things.

How, according to me, does the Church wait for the Parousia?
How do I participate in this waiting?
Do I see a similarity in “pious” and “secular” waiting?

So what are we waiting for?¶

Present in time, we wait for the end of this time. This answer should already slowly come to mind for the group. Do we know, however, what it means? What is the Kingdom of God?

To illustrate this, let’s first find differences between persons in the group. So let the animator ask questions, e.g.: Are you a humanist or a science person? Are you for Real Madrid or FC Barcelona? Do you prefer PS or Xbox? Dress or trousers? Coffee or tea? etc.

When we are already divided and a small antagonism wakes up between participants, we read a fragment of Scripture:

The wolf shall live with the lamb,

the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

the calf and the lion and the fatling together,

and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze,

their young shall lie down together;

and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,

and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.

—Isa 11:6-8

Let’s notice that what divides us now will not take place in the New Jerusalem. There, ideal peace will prevail. You can ask participants how they perceive such a vision.

How to build? - application¶

Of course, we will not wait passively until the Parousia “comes” by itself.

Note

This is what the Thessalonians wanted to do. They abandoned all duties and only prayed waiting for the Parousia to come. Saint Paul admonishes them in the fragment (2 Thess 3:10-11): “For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work.”

We want to wait actively. How can this be done? A great example is Jesuit spirituality: this typically “scientific” order has a custom of including the abbreviation A.M.D.G. (Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam - For the greater glory of God) in its scientific publications. This shows that we create the Kingdom of Heaven already today; in our everyday life. Close to this is the approach of Jews. They believe in „perfecting the world through the Kingdom of the Almighty” („L’takken olam b’malkut Shaddai”). So let’s consider now:

How can I build the Kingdom of God?
Am I already doing something in this direction?

The application from this meeting can be e.g. creating and implementing a SMART plan regarding building the New Jerusalem, i.e. changing the world around oneself. This action can take place right away at the meeting, immediately after the retreat. The sooner we start acting, the more we will do.

Note

SMART is an acronym expanding in the following way:

Specific – containing a concrete message;
Measurable – so that it can be measured, i.e. numerically express its realization;
Attractive – so that it is not boring and arouses curiosity and willingness to act;
Realistic – so that it is possible to achieve;
Time-bound – so that it is defined in time (set time of achieving the goal mobilizes)

For behold, the kingdom of God is among you¶

Summarizing the meeting, it must be noted that since we are already building this New Kingdom now, we are changing the world around us. We are fully aware of the evil of this world (conflicts, wars, etc.), but we still go into this world and want to make it better and better. Let this thought be present in the prayer at the end of the meeting. You can also use the Franciscan prayer here, in which the motif of changing the world is very strong.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Through Jesus Christ. Our Lord.