“So Pilate said to Jesus, ‘Then you are a king?’ ” John 18: 33b-37
Many years ago, there was a village synagogue served by a rabbi beloved by his congregation. But the villagers became concerned because the old rabbi began to disappear from the synagogue after the opening of the Sabbath. Some were afraid that he was neglecting his responsibilities. Some even worried that he was actually breaking the Sabbath. Some insisted that their holy rabbi must be being spirited up to heaven by Elijah himself, to discuss the holy books in the presence of the Holy One.
One Sabbath night the villagers dispatched one of their members to follow the rabbi. No sooner had the Sabbath candles been lit when the rabbi slipped out of the synagogue, walked down the path through the woods and up a tall mountain. The villager followed at a distance, careful not to be seen. The rabbi finally arrived at a small cabin. The spy watched as the rabbi entered the cabin, illuminated by a dying fire.
From a small window on the side of the cabin, the spy saw an old Gentile woman lying on a cot, her breathing slow and her face shallow. The villager was stunned by what he saw next. After greeting the sick woman, the rabbi swept the floor. Then he chopped new wood and fed the fire. Next the rabbi drew fresh water from the well and gently helped her drink. Finally, the rabbi made a pot of fresh soup and set it by the small table near the woman’s cot.
As the rabbi was preparing to leave, the villager immediately raced down the mountain and through the woods back to the synagogue where the congregation waited. “Well,” they asked, some with disdain, some with hope, “did our rabbi go up to heaven?”
Their spy stopped for a moment before answering. Then he said, with respectful awe, “No, our rabbi did not go up to heaven. Our rabbi brought a little heaven down to earth.”
This weekend we are celebrating Christ, our King. Christ’s Kingdom is not a future event but has already begun in every village, in every home, in every heart. Heaven becomes a reality here and now when we embrace God’s vision of humankind as a family that recognizes in one another a sister and a brother. May we be about the work of realizing heaven as the old rabbi understood: to serve God by service to one another, to honor and care for one another as fellow citizens and heirs of the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of Heaven is made real here on earth when the compassion and generosity that God envisions for all God’s people is lived. Bring a little heaven down to your part of the earth this week!
Fr. Don
