Commentary

19th Sunday - C
Luke 12:32-48

Your Father Is Pleased to Give You the Kingdom

Those words of Jesus should be more than enough for us to reflect on, not just today, but for a while.

A couple weeks ago, we heard Jesus teaches us to pray for the coming of God's Kingdom (11:2). And today, he gives us the assurance, "Your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom." It is God's joy, God's pleasure, to give us the gift of the Kingdom. [1] Because God loves us, God wants to draw us into union with God. That is the guarantee Jesus gives us so that we do not have to be afraid or worry.

Then later, during the Last Supper, Jesus gives the disciples His Body and Blood in the Eucharist as the foretaste of that Kingdom. He says to them, "I confer a kingdom on you just as my Father has conferred one on me, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom."

It is at the table of the Eucharist that we experience the impossible: the master girds himself, has his servants recline at table, and proceeds to wait on them. In the Eucharist, we experience God's joy to give God's only Son to us. Through the Son, we receive the gift of God's Kingdom.

There, in the Eucharist, the impossible made possible. The Master serves us, his servants, the gift of the Kingdom. With the gift of himself, Jesus tells us "Do not be afraid any longer."

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[1] Luke Timothy Johnson, The Gospel of Luke. Sacra Pagina Series. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1991; p.200.