God's plan will not be thwarted. His kingdom will come. His will will be done. Not only will God's kingdom only be constituted by those who do God's will, it will be inhabited by those who will what God wills. And so, act in the mighty power of God.
According to Paul, "the kingdom of God is not matter of talk." But neither is it, according to him, merely a matter walk, as it were, "but of power" (1 Cor 4:20). The word "matter" does not appear in the original Greek. Hence, "The kingdom of God not in word but in power" is a more straightforward and, I would say, accurate translation.
What is God's power? Well, God is power. God is power because God is love. This is so because God's very nature is love- agape. Agape is self-giving, self-sacrificing love. God's kingdom is brought about by the power of love, it is love, the kind of love given by the Father in the giving of His Only Begotten Son. To love as Christ loves is the power of the kingdom.
To experience the love of God in Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit. As the apostle insists elsewhere: "the kingdom of God is not a matter of food and drink, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirit" (see Romans 14:17). It is a matter of the heart.
The "Israel of God" to which Paul refers in our reading from Galatians is coextensive with the Jerusalem we heard about in our reading from Isaiah. Both are references to God's kingdom; Paul's in the here and now and Isaiah's, even though in context it is about Israel returning from exile- in the eschatological future.
In our Gospel, Jesus commissions and sends out seventy-two disciples. It is a test of their discipleship, of their apprenticeship with the Master. Seventy-two is the product of 12x6. Seven being the number of completion means six leaves us one short of completion. One way to understand and appropriate this is that God's kingdom will not be complete until the Lord returns. In the meantime, as His disciples, we seek make God's kingdom a present reality.
Let's be clear, the Church, even now, is not coextensive with God's kingdom. This is true even we extend the Church to include all the baptized, many of whom are not Catholic. Indeed, we should extend the Church in that way. We cannot determine the extent of God's kingdom present in the world. As we sing in the beautiful hymn Ubi Caritas- Ubi caritas et amor, ubi caritas, Deus ibi est- "Where charity and love are found, God is there."
Note that the hymn does not give a list activities, In harmony with Sacred Scripture, it is a matter of the heart being conformed to Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Caritas, the root of our English word "charity," is the Latin word used to translate agape. As I am writing this, the lyrics to the Rush song "Closer to the Heart" pop into my head. That's how we sail "into destiny."
One's name is not "written in heaven" because one performs mighty deeds in the name of the Lord. You can perform marvelous deeds because your name is written in heaven. Note that Jesus, in our Gospel, "sent" out the seventy-two. He sent them out ahead of Him. Their mission was to prepare His way. Our mission now is no different than the one the Lord sent the seventy-two: to prepare the way of the Lord as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of Savior, Jesus Christ.
At long last, the Church's long season of Ordinary Time, lasting until Advent, has begun. As these readings show, there is nothing ordinary about his (or any) time. So, while it is perfectly alright to spend time relaxing, recuperating, and resting, time is too precious to be killed. Liturgically, "Ordinary" refers to ordering. During this time, time is ordered Sunday by Sunday, Lord's Day by Lord's Day, each one bringing us closer to Jesus' Most Sacred Heart (or leading us farther away?).
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