Pope John-Paul II added five “Luminous Mysteries” to the Holy Rosary. The five Luminous Mysteries concern five things that Jesus did in His lifetime after the Finding in the Temple and before the Agony in the Garden.
The Third Luminous Mystery is The Proclamation of The Kingdom. In that Proclamation, He Who fulfilled the prophecies tells us that all mankind is divided into two. There are those within the Kingdom and those outside. Some move into the Kingdom. Others are so overloaded with the things of Creation they can’t get through the narrow gate.
The difficulty of moving into The Kingdom shows that God did a wonderful job programming us, and Creation. He did it so brilliantly that not everyone could see beyond the complexity of countless programmed entities of The Creation Program to The Loving Programmer beyond.
Then, He made it even more of a test by making us in such a way that we want some of the things in Creation very much. They are merely a test to see if we can get beyond them. Just knowing that there is a “Kingdom of God” is a great help in moving toward it.
The battle is daily. Hourly. We all want “just a little bit more”. We are all convinced that we need “just a little bit more”. With very little prompting, we can make a good case that we do, in actual fact, need “just a little bit more”.
The most important thing that all of us really need is enough time at the end to say “I’m sorry for having been so greedy and self-centered.”
Even though we know that, it’s still hard for us to look at things, and not want them. “I need one of those.” is a common thought. We think “I need one of those.” so frequently that such thoughts aren’t much more noticeable than breathing.
Better to get in the habit of saying, “God, do I need one of those?”
The way we respond to His making us aware that we have neighbors who need things more than we need another geegaw is a big part of determining whether or not we’re in The Kingdom.
The Kingdom has been proclaimed. Be there!
