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Showing posts from February, 2012

Mystical Reflections on 3 Epiphany - The Kingdom of God.

Because of several pastoral emergencies and other duties I have fallen behind in my posts.  I didn't want to skip  3 Epiphany since it has played a pivotal role in how I understand Jesus Christ as someone who was quite steeped in the mystical tradition.  The reading describes Jesus as he begins his public ministry -"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news (Mark 1:15 NRSV)."  Something worth noting is that neither the phrase "Kingdom of God" or "Kingdom of Heaven" appears anywhere in the Old Testament.  If you refer back to my post on Levels of Interpretation , you'll see that the Kingdom of God can neither be understood from the simple or the allusion level.  To understand it we need to look deeper into the Midrash or Kabbalah.  According to the Midrash, Kingdom could refer to the Messianic Age, when the world would be set right and the righteous would have the opportunity to study Torah all